Giannis Antetokounmpo posts a solid double-double in Milwaukee’s fifth-straight win.

 

Banking on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s dominant performance, the Milwaukee Bucks continued their rampage by beating the Chicago Bulls, 113-97, on Friday night.

Antetokounmpo finished with 46 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Bucks to their fifth-straight win as they remained undefeated since the All-Star break. It was the seventh time this season that Giannis scored 40 or more.

A major turnaround
The Bucks improved to 40-21 in the season and 8-7 under Doc Rivers in what has been a major rise after they started 3-7 in their first ten games with the veteran coach at the helm.

Damian Lillard added 16 points for the Bucks, while Patrick Beverley had 14. Brook Lopez chipped 14 markers. Bobby Portis scored in double figures for the tenth-straight game as he tossed in 11.

With the wire-to-wire win, the Bucks won their four-game regular-season series with the Bulls, 3-1. Milwaukee led from start to finish, building leads of as many as 25 points in a game that Chicago never led.

Giannis powered Milwaukee’s strong start
Antetokounmpo unloaded 23 of his total output in the first two quarters of play, which helped the Bucks build a 58-44 lead at the half. Giannis even provided a highlight reel in the first half when he drove and flipped a no-look, over-the-shoulder pass to Brook Lopez near the top of the key for a three-pointer.

Chicago threatened within eight early in the fourth period, 76-84, but Milwaukee staged a back-breaking 17-0 run to rip the game apart, taking a 101-76 lead with 6:48 left.

Coby White led the Bulls with 22 points, while Nikola Vucevic had 17 markers before getting ejected after committing a hard foul on a driving A.J. Green.

DeMar DeRozan scored just 12 points on a paltry 5-of-13 shooting from the field. The meager output was enough to make DeRozan the 35th player in NBA history with 23,000 points.

The Bulls fell to 28-32 with their fourth loss in the last six games.