Rapid Recap: Bucks 138, Warriors 99

The Milwaukee Bucks dropped a lump of coal in the Golden State Warriors stocking, winning 138-99. It was rough going for Giannis Antetokounmpo in the scoring department, but Khris Middleton picked up the slack (alongside solid contributions across the Bucks roster) and the team emerged with a sizable win on Christmas Day.

NBA.com box score

Following last year’s lackluster loss against the Philadelphia 76ers on Christmas day, the Bucks probably had some motivation to come out looking better on the national stage this year. They did that and then some, with a thoroughly dominating performance over a Warriors team that was without Draymond Green.

The Warriors actually kept it close for the first two periods, as they went into halftime down merely 10 points. Unfortunately, the Bucks unwrapped Golden State’s defense behind a bevy of deep balls from Khris Middleton, whose third period scoring barrage spearheaded the Bucks taking a 24-point advantage heading into the final period.

From there, our Christmas treat was a parade of bench players continuing to pour gasoline on the fireplace that was this game’s scoreboard. With 20 three-pointers on the game, Milwaukee was hot the entire night, and their cleanup crew didn’t allow the Warriors to eat back into the lead.

Stat that Stood Out

The bench’s output was bound to look better than its measly 12 points against Boston, particularly with so much garbage time in this one, but the return of D.J. Augustin still helped them far eclipse their scoring output from the first game. In fact, Augustin alone had 13. Overall, the bench finished with 59 points.

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