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Carmelo Anthony said the Trail Blazers did a ‘pretty good job’ defending Giannis Antetokounmpo despite the league MVP posting a triple-double in Portland’s 137-129 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Milwaukee crowd greeted Anthony with a loud ovation when the 10-time All-Star was introduced before the game. They cheered even louder after the Bucks extended their winning streak to six games.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had his second triple-double of the season as Milwaukee beat Anthony and the short-handed Blazers on Thursday night.
“Giannis is Giannis,” Anthony said of the reigning MVP. “He’s a tough check. I thought tonight we actually did a pretty good job. Even though he had a triple-double, when you look at that, its like ‘oh, he had a hell of a game’.
2:04 “But I thought, for the most part, we were back on him. We loaded up on him. He got some And-1s. He got going a little bit. He found some guys, they made some threes and kind of opened the game up.”
Antetokounmpo had 24 points, 19 rebounds and a career-high 15 assists to lead the Bucks to their seventh win in the last nine games against Portland.
“I couldn’t get going offensively,” Antetokounmpo said. “Shots weren’t falling and they were showing [me] a lot of crowds. I tried to find my team-mates and they were in the right spots. They were able to knock down shots and to roll hard. I just did half of the work and my team-mates did the rest.”
Antetokounmpo, who also had a triple-double in the season opener, became the first player in franchise history to record a game with 20 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists. The 6ft 11in forward has 16 career triple-doubles. Milwaukee are 14-2 in those games.
0:16 After scoring 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting in 24 minutes in his season debut on Tuesday night against the Pelicans, Anthony had 10 points in the first half in Milwaukee. He finished with 18 points (6-of-15 shooting) and seven rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who were without Hassan Whiteside (hip), Damian Lillard (back), Zach Collins (shoulder) and Jusuf Nurkic (leg).
“He is getting his sea legs after having that year off,” Portland guard CJ McCollum said about Anthony. “Getting used to that movement, getting used to how the game is flowing.”
The Blazers used a 40-point third quarter to close the gap and pulled within 117-115 with just over 7:00 play but Brook Lopez and Wes Matthews hit back-to-back threes to seal victory for the Bucks.
“I thought we competed,” McCollum, who scored 37 points, said. “I thought we played hard. Obviously, we came up short. But I thought it was a step in the right direction.”
