The Milwaukee Bucks are currently the best team in the league, and they showed their mettle again after a 133-124 victory over the Sacramento Kings, who had won eight of their last nine games heading into the matchup.
The Bucks were led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had a monstrous night with 46 points and 12 rebounds while shooting 19 of 28 from the floor. He showed why the MVP race isn’t quite done yet as he mercilessly mauled the Kings in the paint and even made both of his three-point attempts.
The Greek Freak was capably backed up by Khris Middleton, who had 31 points and 9 assists while shooting 9 of 15 overall and 5 of 8 from the three. Brook Lopez also had a good game with 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists, but he’ll probably be more remembered for getting ejected along with Trey Lyles in the closing moments of the game.
Even though they lost, the Kings and their fans will have a lot of positives to take away from the game. First was a great performance from Domantas Sabonis, who had a halftime statline of 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists on 8 of 12 shooting. He had his tenth triple double of the season by the third quarter, tying Luka Doncic for second in the league – and he finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 15 assists.
The Kings also got 35 points and 8 assists from De’Aaron Fox and saw Kevin Huerter shoot 8 of 11 from three on the way to 28 points in a huge second half performance.
It was still just a 120-116 game with 3:11 left on the clock in the fourth quarter, but the Bucks simply played better to close out the game, especially as they caught the Kings sleeping on defense a couple of times to force easy attempts that stopped a real comeback attempt from coming to fruition.
Sacramento have now dropped to third in the Western Conference after the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Dallas Mavericks, but their fans will be content with knowing that their team had at one point had a 15-point lead against the Bucks and gave them a run for their money.
The Bucks play Phoenix next, and a win would give the Kings even more cushion for the third seed.