April 24 saw a match between two top teams in the Eastern Conference as No.3 Milwaukee Bucks faced No.2 Philadelphia 76ers.
Milwaukee Bucks won against the 76ers 132-94 on Saturday, beating for the second time in three days.
With Bucks winning the match, Philadelphia suffers their fourth straight loss as a result, they are now a full game behind the No. 1 Brooklyn Nets in the East.
Meanwhile, the Bucks are catching up to the 76ers with only one and a half-game behind.
In fact, Milwaukee swept the regular-season series with the 76ers while the 76ers are in a four-game losing streak now.
As they are short-handed with their top players suffering injuries and missing games.
In tonight’s game, too, the 76ers short-handed as their MVP front-runner starter Joel Embiid sitting out the entire game due to a sore right shoulder.
Also, another top starter Ben Simmons out in this game too. He missed his fourth straight games because of an unspecified illness.
“I’m not concerned about our overall health,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said. “I’m just concerned about the number of games we’re missing.”
Rivers added that “we’ve got to get a rhythm with all of our guys playing,”
Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Joel Embiid was ruled out shortly before their 132-94 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks due to a shoulder injury. https://t.co/Mke6jJzvMC
— One Sports (@OneSportsPHL) April 25, 2021
Without these top players playing and the team not in good health, the 76ers are losing with many points.
Today scored their lowest point total and suffered a huge marginal defeat in the hands of the Bucks.
Milwaukee Bucks blow-out win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Bucks had full control over the 76ers throughout the quarters. In the end, they finished strong, giving the 76ers their most-lopsided defeat of the season.
Milwaukee started strong taking the 1st quarter lead over the 76ers with a score of 26-17.
The 76ers took a brief lead to start the game by scoring five points off Bucks turnovers, but after a DiVincenzo three-pointer made it 7-5, Milwaukee at the 9:06 mark of the first quarter.
They took the lead within three minutes into the game and since then never looked back.
As they continued their lead over the 76ers throughout the game and ultimately won 132-94. On the other hand, 76ers couldn’t find the rhythm throughout the game.
As 76ers coach Doc Rivers kept on changing his players to get the score.
Even though the 76ers tried their hardest to overturn the score and take the lead, it never happened.
As the Bucks immediately found an answer to each of the 76ers’ runs.
Like when Philadelphia cut the lead down to 31-28 early in the second quarter, Milwaukee stretched it out again to 47-34.
The 76ers scored six straight points over 30 seconds to cut it to 47-40.
Giannis compile 24 PTS, 14 REB, 7 AST en 24 minutes ! Victoire des Milwaukee Bucks ! #NBASaturdays
Bobby Portis: 17 PTS, 8 REB
Jrue Holiday: 12 PTS, 5 AST, 4 STL pic.twitter.com/uR9SXHTZRU— NBA France (@NBAFRANCE) April 24, 2021
But Pat Connaughton hit a three-pointer with a second left to make it 50-40 Bucks into the break.
Similarly, when Philadelphia’s Seth scored seven points during a 10-0 run cutting the bucks lead to 55-54 in the third quarter.
The Bucks wasted no time to answer back with reigning MVP Antetokoumpo scoring eight points and two assists during a 15-0 run of their own.
This put Milwaukee ahead 75-57. After that, the bucks kept on pouring in.
Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton took the responsibility from the two stars, leading a 9-0 run after that that blew the game open and gave the Bucks a 25-point lead.
In all, Milwaukee closed the third quarter on a 31-9 stretch to go into the fourth quarter leading 86-63.
Ultimately the Bucks took the win again, giving the 76er their fourth straight loss.
The Bucks Antetokounmpo milestone.
The Bucks had their reigning MVP and one of the frontrunners in the MVP race Giannis Antetokounmpo playing with a record to break.
Antetokoumpo trailed Glenn Robinson for second all-time scorer on the Milwaukee Bucks’ franchise scoring list.
As he entered the game today, he soon broke the record of Robinson 12,010 points on his slam dunk with 10 minutes and 58 seconds left in the third quarter.
Giannis joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Glenn Robinson as the only players in Bucks history to reach 12,000 points!! pic.twitter.com/0sDwhA78fR
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 24, 2021
He earned an ovation from fans when he passed Robinson.
“Oh, that’s why they were cheering today?” Antetokounmpo said when told of the fans recognizing the milestone.
“I just realized that. It’s a great compliment”.
Antetokounmpo added,” It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so I got to keep working hard, keep believing in myself, keep polishing my skills, keep having great teammates, great coaching staff.
It’s a lot of hard work that paid off but got to keep moving forward.”
He now ranks second in points (12,023) and rebounds in Bucks history, trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who leads the franchise with 14,211 points.
Antetokounmpo finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists in his 24-minute game and rested out in the fourth quarter along with other starters.
Jrue Holiday and Donte DiVincenzo were the other Bucks starters in double figures with 12 and 11 points.
Milwaukee scored 76 points off the bench and 48 in the paint.
The 76 bench points today are the most by the Bucks since December 15, 1985!! pic.twitter.com/BxHQVu10Tr
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 24, 2021
As Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton leading the second unit with 17 and 11 points.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia was paced by Shake Milton, who scored 15 points off the bench.
And Dwight Howard 12 points with 12 rebounds off the bench too. Seth Curry led the 76ers starters with 13 points.
Next, the 76ers will host Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday while the Bucks visit Atlanta to face the Hawks on Sunday.
