(Basketball news) The Milwaukee Bucks dominated the Toronto Raptors as they beat them 130-122. For the Bucks, Jrue Holiday scored a season-high 37 points as they were playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo for the fourth consecutive game while Grayson Allen added 25 points, hitting four of five 3-pointers. For the Raptors, Fred Van Vleet led the scoring with 39 points which tied his season high as Gary Trent Jr. added 28 points and Pascal Siakam had 23. With this result the Bucks improved their record to 29-16 and are 2nd in the Eastern Conference standings.
”I can’t expect the refs to get it right,” Lopez said of his first career ejection. ”If they’re not going to get it right during the game, why are they going to get it right when they replay it, or any other calls. It’s what it is.”
”I know when Giannis and Khris are out, I have to be aggressive at some point, touch the paint as much as I can, try to get as many 3s as I can for other players and myself,” Holiday said.
”Obviously we’re a little bit down, a little bit undermanned and he’s just stepped up in a big way,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. ”It’s two games in a row, just vintage Jrue Holiday. He just seems like he’s got a bounce, he’s got a pop. The way he’s shooting the ball and when gets to the rim and to the paint and gives us that presence, too. He’s doing everything.”
The Denver Nuggets extended their record at the top of the Western Conference standings as they beat the Portland Trail Blazers 122-113. For the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic had 36 points as part of his 13th triple-double of the season as Michael Porter Jr. had 23 points and Jamal Murray added 17 points. For the Trail Blazers, Jerami Grant had 18 points, while C Jusuf Nurkic grabbed 10 rebounds as Lillard top scored in the match with 44 points. It was Jokic’s 89th career triple-double as he leads the MVP standings and with his current form he is on course to win his 2nd MVP trophy. With this result the Nuggets improved their record to 31-13.
”We’re going in the right direction,” Jokic said. ”We’re playing with a lot of confidence.”
”It was cold. No, it was cool,” cracked Adelman, who’s the son of longtime NBA coach Rick Adelman. ”The guys were excited.”
”It’s a lot of stuff that we could have done better, but down the stretch I just felt like the refs just decided the game,” said Lillard, who drew a technical foul late in the fourth quarter. ”Obviously it’s going to be bumps, it’s going to be a physical game, both teams working hard to win a game. We get down the stretch and it was just like everything we did was a foul. That’s just what it seemed like to me.”
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