The Golden State Warriors defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 125-90 on Wednesday night at the Chase Centre, ending their six-game winning run. 

 The Bucks (41-22) trailed the Warriors (33-28) by 20 points at the half and rallied strongly in the third quarter, but the deficit was too great to overcome.
After sitting out the game on Monday due to left Achilles tendonitis, Giannis Antetokounmpo made a successful comeback, scoring 23 points on 8 of 15 shots. In addition, he grabbed seven rebounds and distributed six assists. 

 “I’m fine. I’m fine,” he insisted after the game. “Last game did not feel 100%. I try to play as many games as I can this year, that was the third game that I missed. But I want to be out there on the court, try to build chemistry with the guys, try to build chemistry with Dame. I think the more we play together I think it benefits us. But at the end of the day if I don’t feel like I can protect myself out there, I try not to put myself at risk because I feel like the moment you have things that linger then you put yourself in (harm’s way) – especially the way I play. This game, warmed up, felt good, was ready to go.”

Box score:Warriors 125, Bucks 90

Damian Lillard added 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting, including a 5-for-10 mark from behind the three-point line. He tied Reggie Miller for No. 4 all-time in made three-pointers with 2,560. Bobby Portis had 20 points off the bench, but 18 came in the first half.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 29 points on 10 of 18 shooting, including 6 of 10 from behind the three-point line. Jonathan Kuminga added 20 and Draymond Green had 12.

More:How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to get over himself to play the best basketball of his career

Trayce Jackson-Davis blocks Giannis, finishes off Bucks

With 5 minutes and 34 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Bucks narrowed their 20-point lead at the half to six points. 

However, the Warriors then called a timeout, and both teams substituted players. The Warriors brought in Trayce Jackson-Davis, who outran Antetokounmpo to the rim for a lay-in. After a pair of blocks by Jackson-Davis to keep Antetokounmpo from getting to the basket, the Warriors led 88-77 after Jackson-Davis sunk a slam off a lob from Curry. With 2:20 remaining in the fourth, he followed up another block on Antetokounmpo as the basket with a slam to give Golden State a 91-79 lead. 

 In the final six and a half minutes of the third quarter, the Bucks had used a lot of energy, going on a 19-5 run to cut their deficit to just 83-77. Antetokounmpo attacked aggressively to the basket and then found Brook Lopez on the baseline for his game’s only two buckets as Milwaukee leaned on its big lineup. 

Then, Malik Beasley and Jae Crowder forced errors on the defensive end, and Damian Lillard added two more three-pointers to provide some spacing.

“We had perfect ball movement for the first seven minutes of the third quarter,” stated Doc Rivers, head coach of the Bucks. “We were successful each and every time. You can therefore establish your defence once you score. We then performed well on defence.

 We went back to making forced shots, turnovers, and other similar things in the final three minutes of the quarter. The game was finished.

Unfortunately for Milwaukee, Davis-Jackson’s moves that shifted momentum aided to penetrate the defence in addition to keeping Antetokounmpo and the Bucks from scoring.

“I’ve never faced anyone like him before, having length like that, as fast as he is, and explosive,” remarked Jackson-Davis. Blake Gryphon has been his guard in the past, and he’s done a very good job at it. Simply take a seat back, let him approach you, and watch him perform his favourite spin manoeuvre. 

Naturally, it was only a matter of time at the rim, and I prevailed.”

Though Jackson-Davis was done, the Bucks were never able to get back in the game. After the Bucks scored just nine points in the fourth quarter, he sealed the victory with a tip-dunk off an offensive rebound and then blocked Antetokounmpo once more. In addition to his four blocks, Jackson-Davis finished with 15 points and three offensive rebounds.

Bucks have rough defensive first half too much to overcome

It was the second straight game that the Bucks started sluggish on defence as Golden State established a 40-32 lead at the end of the first quarter after shooting 68% overall and 60% (6 for 10) from behind the three-point line. On Monday, the Los Angeles Clippers scored 35 points in the first quarter.

But maybe every team deserved a quarter like this.

Milwaukee hadn’t let up 40 points in a quarter since Miami did so in their victory over the Bucks at Fiserv Forum on February 13. Additionally, the Warriors lost to Boston on Sunday despite just scoring 88 points. 

 The Warriors maintained their momentum throughout the second quarter, winning 78-58 after scoring 38 more points. This season, it was the most points an opponent had scored against the Bucks in the first half.

Golden State finished with 21 points off of 15 steals, and Antetokounmpo remarked, “I think they had like 20 points off our turnovers.” “Our defence cannot be dictated by our offence. Ultimately, we must strive to improve. They received 125 points. They had 78 in the first half.

Additionally, since Rivers became head coach on January 29, those were the two highest-scoring quarters in any game against a rival team of the Bucks. Dallas (44 points in the first quarter) and Utah (40 points in the fourth quarter) were the only teams besides Miami to score 40 points in a single quarter.

The Warriors were shooting a scorching 64% overall and 63% (12 of 19) from beyond the three-point line, so everything was clicking.

Regarding the deciding first half, Rivers remarked, “I know this is going to sound like a little shock to you, but I really didn’t think this was our defence — I thought it was our offence.” “We didn’t seem to play very good offence the entire evening. Their 21 points come from our mistakes. Fifteen of their shots were blocked. 

Because of our poor offence tonight, they were either in transition or on the offensive the entire time. For the first time in a long while, we simply didn’t play together or move the ball this evening. We coerced them into doing things. it’s why I assumed it was more of it. Undoubtedly, we committed numerous defensive blunders tonight, but many of them occurred during transition when we were outmatched because of our terrible floor balance. We had too many poor plays and too many awful possessions, so when we came back, we were never matched up, and they exploited it.

Despite their smaller stature, Golden State outscored the Bucks 34–22 in the paint before going on a 13–0 run for fast-break baskets in the opening frame.

“They were leaving quickly, so it was clearly challenging, but we need to improve our communication and transition skills—areas where we’ve excelled in the last few games. We have a lot to learn from this. We’ll definitely be back where we were for the next game.

Milwaukee, who was ranked No. 12 in the NBA for allowing just 13.8 fast-break points per game, entered the contest with an improved transition defence. During their winning run of six games, they had only allowed 9.2 per game at the break.

Since the all-star break, they had also allowed the fewest points in the paint (40.3), ranking first in the league.

Brandin Podziemski sparks Warriors early

On January 13 at Fiserv Forum, in his homecoming game, Brandin Podziemski scored 23 points (10 of 14 shots) and grabbed 10 rebounds. After missing the previous two games due to a knee ailment, the 21-year-old from Greenfield returned on Wednesday and made an immediate impression by first making a deep three-pointer and then dishing out a lob to Kuminga for a fast-break dunk.

Despite his low first-half point total of five, he contributed three assists to the Warriors’ success as they built a 20-point halftime lead. He scored eight points in total.

The Warriors’ return to the postseason in the Western Conference is largely due to Podziemski.

5 numbers

1 First-half rebounds by Giannis Antetokounmpo. He came into the game averaging 11.3 per contest.

2-for-20 Three-point shooting by Malik Beasley the last three games for the Bucks after his 0-for-6 showing Wednesday night against the Warriors. He went 1-for-7 in each of his previous two games.

12 Consecutive games Bobby Portis has scored in double figures off the bench for the Bucks.

17 Combined points by Bucks starters Brook Lopez (9), Jae Crowder (4) and Beasley (4).

2012-13 The last time the Bucks swept a season series with Golden State (excluding 2019-20 when the teams met only once).