Giannis Antetokounmpo on Sunday bagged a triple-double and Brook Lopez delivered a huge fourth quarter as the Milwaukee Bucks returned to winning ways with a 118-111 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
The Eastern Conference leaders, jolted by a lopsided loss to Indiana on Thursday last week, returned to form with a dogged come-from-behind win over the Raptors in Milwaukee.
Toronto led by eight near the end of the third quarter, but were overpowered down the stretch with Lopez scoring 17 of his 26 points in the final period to drag Milwaukee over the line.
Photo: AP
Antetokounmpo finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists as Milwaukee improved to 51-20 at the top of the Eastern Conference, 2.5 games clear of the in-form Philadelphia 76ers.
Fred VanVleet led Toronto’s scorers with 23 points.
In Los Angeles, Austin Reaves scored a career-high 35 points as the Lakers bounced back from Friday’s agonizing loss to Dallas to see off Orlando 111-105.
The Lakers, battling to remain in the hunt for a post-season berth in the Western Conference, were left shell-shocked after a buzzer-beating loss to the Mavs on Friday. It looked as if history might repeat itself on Sunday when the Magic closed to 101-101 with 2 minutes, 39 seconds remaining, but Reaves took over by rattling in his team’s final 10 points to secure a win which lifted the Lakers into the play-in positions.
“It’s a good win,” Reaves said. “Every win from now is crucial, and every game from now is crucial. It’s all about how we approach the game — if we’re locked in to what we need to do I feel like we’ve got the firepower to be one of the best teams in the league.”
In Portland, Oregon, the Trail Blazers’ playoff push suffered a blow with a 117-102 defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers never trailed throughout, with Paul George finishing with 29 points and Kawhi Leonard with 24. The loss leaves Portland in 13th place in the Western Conference with a 31-40 record, three spots outside the play-in places.
In Oklahoma, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 40 points as the Thunder staged a second-half rally to eclipse Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns.
Gilgeous-Alexander shot 12 of 24 from the field while draining 16 of 19 free throws as Oklahoma City overturned a 15-point first-half deficit to complete a 124-120 victory.
The Thunder trailed by 10 points early in the fourth quarter, but outscored Phoenix 34-24 in the final frame — with Gilgeous-Alexander contributing 10 points — to grab the victory.
The win boosts Oklahoma City’s playoff hopes, with the Thunder improving to 35-36 in the Western Conference for eighth place. Only a handful of games separate a swath of teams jostling for the post-season in the West, where Phoenix remain in fourth place with a 38-33 record.
Phoenix were sparked by 46 points from Booker, but saw only three other players break into double figures after a steely Thunder defensive display in the second half.
“It was a total team effort,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “There was some adversity throughout the game, but we just kept pushing and stuck to our game plan and came up with the ‘W.’”
In New York, Nikola Jokic’s 28th triple-double of the season helped the Denver Nuggets take a 108-102 win on the road against the Brooklyn Nets.
Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic finished with 22 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists as the Western Conference leaders improved to 48-24.
The Nuggets have already assured themselves of a post-season berth and are now aiming to lock down top seed in the final three weeks of the regular season.
Michael Porter Jr led the Denver scorers with 28 points, while Jamal Murray added 25.
Elsewhere, the Spurs rallied to stun the Hawks 126-118, the Heat silenced the Pistons 112-100 and the Pelicans downed the Rockets 117-107.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB