NBA: The Bucks overcome the Bulls while Warriors lose

(Basketball news) The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls quite comprehensively as Giannis and Jrue Holiday inspired a 126-98 victory. For the Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 25 points and 17 rebounds in his return to action Jrue Holiday had a game-high 27 points to go along with seven assists and no turnovers as the Bucks won for the 15th time in their last 16 meetings with the Bulls, including all three matchups this season. For the Bulls, Nikola Vucevic had 22 points as DeMar DeRozan and LaVine added 21 points each as the Bulls lost for the ninth time in 12 games. With this result the Bucks improved their record to 45-27 and moved second in the Eastern Conference standings.

'He took a fall in the Minnesota game, and it was pretty sore and stiff, so we've had it looked at,'' Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game. ''We feel like it's short term, but we'll see how he feels the next day or two.''

''Jrue was being Jrue,'' Antetokounmpo said. ''Jrue was being aggressive, making good decisions, getting downhill, getting everybody involved, guarding Zach (LaVine). Everybody was doing their job. Obviously we knew that Khris wasn't playing, and Khris is a big part of our team and what we do here, but at the end of the day, even with the team that we have, we're a great team.''

''Shots we would want them to take, they made,'' Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. ''It was a night where they really, really had it going. Credit to them. And it was a night we just didn't shoot the ball particularly well.''

''At some point, we've got to get tired of getting our butt kicked like this and flip that switch of understanding, all right, enough is enough,'' DeRozan said. ''Now it's time to turn it around and show that desperation.''

The Golden State Warriors suffered a shocking defeat to the Orlando Magic 94-90. For the Magic, Wendell Carter Jr. led them with 19 points and Wagner had 18 points and a big finish as did Cole Anthony, who had 14 points and five assists. For the Warriors, Jordan Poole scored 26 points, shot 40% for the game and had seven turnovers in the fourth quarter on the way to their third straight loss as Klay Thompson added 15 points and Otto Porter Jr. had 14 points and 15 rebounds. With this result they slipped down to third in the Western Conference standings behind the Memphis Grizzlies as the Magic improved their record to 20-53.

''Franz can play, man,'' said Magic guard Cole Anthony, who had 14 points and five assists. ''He can hoop. I saw it here first hand tonight.''

''I think we're playing soft, I think we're playing stupid,'' Warriors forward Draymond Green said. ''We're just not playing good basketball. We're getting punked, and we're losing a lot of fourth quarters. No disrespect to the Orlando Magic, but they're one of the worst teams in the league.''

“No, Steph's not going to bring a level of physicality to the game,'' he said. ''That's not his job.'

''We have to look at our lineup, we have to address everything,'' Kerr said. '' … It's like a domino effect. You saw me searching for lineups tonight. But I was really disappointed in the fourth quarter. We did not execute at all in the fourth quarter.''

''But we stayed engaged in the game,'' Anthony said. ''We realized there's four quarters to a game, and we're not going to lose in one moment like that.''

''Fouling 3-point shooters has killed us in the last two games,'' Kerr said. ''I love these guys, but we have to learn how to win. Right now, we don't know how to win.''

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