Bucks In Rematch With Warriors Tonight

“Green publicly criticized Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams for staring down the Warriors” bench last Saturday in Golden State’s lone loss of the season.

The Suns’ final bus departed San Francisco at 5:15 p.m. and got stuck in the snarl of the Bay Area’s rush-hour traffic, arriving 1 hour, 10 minutes later just 70 minutes ahead of tipoff.

The Warriors outscored the Bucks 36-19 in the fourth quarter to pull it out, led in the game by Klay Thompson (27 points), Stephen Curry (26 points) and Green (21 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists).

Greg Monroe had an excellent game with 28 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Bucks to victory, while the Warriors were anchored by Draymond Green and his 24 points for the night.

It was the Warriors who were expected to be the team coming out of the gates fired up from suffering their first loss of the season six days earlier at Milwaukee. But after 27 games – one-third of the National Basketball Association season – they’re worse in every meaningful statistic.

Seven Bucks scored in double figures, including Monroe, who had a second consecutive double-double against the Warriors with 10 points and 13 rebounds to go with seven assists. Their current win streak is 2.

“Michael Carter-Williams getting a dunk at the end of the game and looking at our bench like, ‘Dude you lost your spot, ‘” Green said of Carter-Williams losing his job as a starter. That didn’t happen, as the Warriors had to fight back from a 15-point deficit to take home a 121-112 victory to move to 26-1 on the season. “We’re trying to compete for a championship”.

“Dwyane is uncanny. He can play absolutely terrible stretches and all of sudden get to the last two minutes and have incredible confidence”. I saw them on “SportsCenter” afterward, but I got a good laugh out of it. That’s part of what we do, playing in front of thousands of people and seeing home crowds making creative signs or T-shirts.

When the game itself came around, Milwaukee shot better than Golden State from the field, behind the arc and the free throw line. Pau Gasol added 10 points and 14 rebounds in his 21st game against younger brother Marc. The point guard totaled 17 points, seven assists and five steals against Golden State.

The Warriors are smelling blood and already had fiery messages for the Bucks who ended their winning streak.

“The fight was there and the intent was right”, coach Jason Kidd said. And on defense, they continuously pestered the Warriors with their length.

It was Brandon Rush who got the run started with five straight points after Ezeli started the second half in place of an injured Andrew Bogut and scored the first four points. On the road, fans and media filled arenas wondering if this was the night they would witness the end of the run.

“I think a lot of it is execution”, Chandler said. But mostly, we have great passing bigs.

Small forward Giannis Antetokounmpo backed Carter-Williams with 20 points for Milwaukee, which had lost to the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers to begin a four-game Western swing.