Greek Freak firing on all Pistons

MILWAUKEE • The Milwaukee Bucks have had the Detroit Pistons' number for the past two seasons but Monday represented a truer indication of why one team have been tipped as National Basketball Association (NBA) championship contenders and the other, also-rans.

Two-time reigning Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo poured in 43 points, powering the Bucks to a 125-115 victory over the visiting Pistons.

The "Greek Freak" connected on 17 of 24 shots from the field and was simply unstoppable in the paint, setting the tone early by scoring 30 of the Bucks' 67 first-half points.

Milwaukee (4-3), the top seeds for the last two seasons, have now won their last eight regular-season meetings with the Pistons (1-6), which represents the longest streak for either team in the history of the series. However, Detroit, currently the worst team in the league, made it easy for Antetokounmpo to score at will.

Even though they were without two of their top three scorers in All-Star Blake Griffin and Josh Jackson, Detroit's Derrick Rose, who came off the bench with a joint team-high 24 points alongside teammate Jerami Grant, was frustrated with their lack of defence.

"Next game, we've just got to make it harder for him," said the guard. "Nobody was taking any charges tonight against him. We didn't make him think."

Detroit managed to trim the deficit to 118-110 with 2 minutes and 38 seconds left to play, but Antetokounmpo stopped their momentum by blocking Sekou Doumbouya before grabbing an offensive rebound for a put-back basket that ended any comeback bid.

Both teams will play each other again in Milwaukee today and the Bucks, who outscored the Pistons 62-42 in the paint, including a 40-14 edge in the first half, are not expecting a different outcome other than continued dominance, even though Griffin and Jackson may return.

"They know that the previous game I'd been finding my teammates for a lot of threes, finding the shooters," Antetokounmpo said. "Coming to this game, they probably were like, 'Don't let them pick us apart with our passing.' That's why there was a lot of space."

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, Jayson Tatum scored 21 of his season-best 40 points in the second quarter as the Boston Celtics overcame a 13-point first-quarter deficit to defeat hosts Toronto Raptors 126-114 in Tampa, Florida. Fred VanVleet scored a season-best 35 points for the 2019 NBA champions, who have lost five of their first six games this season and only the Pistons have a worse record.

Separately, the NBA instituted a tougher mask policy that went into effect yesterday, making it mandatory for dressed and active players to wear masks on the bench until they enter a game.

The tightened protocols come amid a seven-day quarantine for Brooklyn Nets' All-Star Kevin Durant. The forward, the team's leading scorer at 28.2 points, missed yesterday's game with the Utah Jazz because of contact tracing and exposure to a positive Covid-19 case.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS