LAS VEGAS — The Milwaukee Bucks advanced to the finals of the NBA Cup with a 110-102 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday — the first of two back-to-back Cup semifinal games being played in Las Vegas.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 32 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists, while Damian Lillard added 25 points. Milwaukee avenged its loss from last year’s semis when they were beaten by the Indiana Pacers a game before the final.
“Accept the challenge, that’s all I’ve been talking about,” coach Doc Rivers said about his team’s approach to the Cup. “I think we run from challenges a lot, and we talked about it; Let’s accept it. Let’s put our name out there. We’re going to try to win it, and if we don’t win it, we don’t win it. But there’s nothing wrong with saying you want to win something, and if you win it, great, and if you don’t, at least you went for it.”
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Saturday’s game was a back-and-forth affair between two of the hottest teams in the East. Milwaukee entered having won 10 of its last 13 games, while the Hawks had won seven of their last eight.
The Hawks have also been tough against the teams with the best records in the East. They are undefeated against the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks (4-0) and 1-1 against the defending champion Boston Celtics.
The teams traded leads in the first three quarters — Atlanta led by two after the first, the Bucks by six at halftime, and then the Hawks were up one before the fourth.
Milwaukee was the better team down the stretch, however. After a De’Andre Hunter free throw cut the Bucks’ lead to 98-96 with four minutes and 32 seconds to go, Milwaukee finished the game on a 12-6 run, especially clamping down defensively.
The play of the night was a block by Antetokounmpo on a lob pass that would have cut his team’s lead to three.
The three-point line also made a big difference for the Bucks. The two teams were even in turnovers and points in the paint, while Atlanta had an edge in free throws. But Milwaukee attempted 21 more threes than the Hawks, and made four more in what ended up only an eight-point win.
“Last time we were ready, but this time we came into it remembering our last experience,” Lillard said after the game. “We came correct. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy playing against a good team, but we prepared, and it just felt familiar. Didn’t feel like a random, new thing.”
The Cup championship berth is a nice turnaround for the Bucks, who started the season 4-9, including a six-game losing streak after winning their first game. Rivers said the recent improvement is what he expected from his veteran-laden group.
“Listen, outside Milwaukee, I think a lot of people was, ‘What’s going on?’” Rivers said. “I don’t think one person inside thought that at all. We just believed that it was going to click, it was going to happen — I would make a point of saying we assumed that — now it is, but we still got a long way to go.”
