(Basketball news) The Milwaukee Bucks beat a Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown less Celtics side as they defeated them 131-125. For the Bucks, Holiday matched a career high with 40 points and made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 25.2 seconds left in overtime as Antetokounmpo added 36 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. For the Celtics, Malcolm Brogdon scored 26 points as they were playing without both its All-Stars, Jayson Tatum (non-COVID illness) and Jaylen Brown (facial fracture) as well as Marcus Smart (sprained right ankle) and Al Horford (swelling in right knee). With that result the Bucks improved their record to 40-17 and moved within a half-game of the Celtics (41-17) in the Eastern Conference standings.

”I don’t really, I guess, care for how I’m playing as long as we’re winning,” said Holiday, who also had seven assists. ”For me, as long as we get the win, I’m OK. The only stat I look at is turnovers. That’s kind of how I determine if I had a good or bad game. Tonight, what did I have, five turnovers? To me, that hurts my soul.”

”I’ve said since the season started that he’s an All-Star,” Antetokounmpo said

”We expected to win that game,” said Malcolm Brogdon, who scored 26 points. ”We went into that game like we were going to win, like we were supposed to win. We believe we are the best team on the floor every single night.”

”On both ends of the court, he was phenomenal,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. ”I think his ability to create some turnovers and create pressure helped flip it. We went down and he made a few big-time plays that just are very Jrue-like. Special performance by him.”

The Golden State Warriors lost to the Clippers 134-124 as they moved below .500 for the first time this season. For the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points tying his career high with seven 3-pointers while Norman Powell added 24 points and Paul George had 20 points and eight assists. The Clippers debuted newly acquired Eric Gordon, Bones Hyland and Mason Plumlee as they helped outscore the Warriors’ bench 49-42. For the Warriors, Jordan Poole led the scoring with 28 points while Klay Thompson had 18 points playing the second game of a back-to-back for the first time this season as Kevon Looney had 11 points and 14 rebounds. With this result the Clippers improved their record to 32-28 as they moved up to to 5th in the Western Conference.

”The Clippers just outplayed us,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. ”They were great in the second half and they deserved it.”

”It’s going to be different for us,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. ”We got to put this together as fast as we can.”

”They did a good job of just being themselves and being aggressive,” Leonard said.

”We have reinforcements coming and we have a lot to look forward to,” Kerr said. ”We have lost so many games that we should have won. We know we’re right there.”

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