The Bucks victory stopped Golden State’s streak of 24 straight victories to start a season.
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To compound matters further, Golden State had just squeaked out a grueling double-overtime win over the Boston Celtics the night before at TD Garden.
Milwaukee will have Sunday and Monday off before beginning a four-games-in-six-days trip that includes a visit to California, where the Warriors will get a chance to avenge the loss next Friday at Oracle Arena.
Afterward, Green addressed the team in the locker room.
They’re not used to losing.
“The schedule and the road trip kind of caught up with us”.
A fourth foul sent Monroe to the bench late in the quarter and Golden State took advantage of John Henson, again making it a one-possession game.
Interestingly, it was the Bucks who also ended the Lakers 33-game winning streak during the 1971-72 season – the longest in the league’s history.
It was the way they lost that was a little surprising.
The Bucks improved to just 10-15 on the season as they sit in last in the Central Division.
“We stuck together tonight”, said center Greg Monroe, who led Milwaukee with 28 points and 11 rebounds.
“When you talk about the streak, what’s bigger than the streak is they’re the world champs”, coach Jason Kidd said. “We talked about playing the World Champs and no matter what, we have to play our best”.
In a unusual twist of flashback fate, the Bucks were also the team that ended the Lakers’ streak with a 120-104 victory on January 9, 1972.
It wasn’t enough to get past the Bucks, who led by 10 or more points for much of the night before the Warriors cut it to a point twice.
In each instance, there was a sense of inevitability that Golden State somehow would go on one of its breakneck-speed runs to put away another opponent.
But the Bucks had an answer each time.
But with that being said we need to get back to some of the things we were doing.
Michael Carter-Williams’ strong drive down the lane and dunk with 42 seconds left put an exclamation point on Milwaukee’s night. “We got some stops”, Curry said.
“I’m sure the long flight home tomorrow, we’ll have some guys unwinding a bit”, Walton said.
Giddy Bucks fans at the packed Bradley Center erupted with cheers after the final buzzer.
Giannis Antetokounmpo added 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for the Bucks’ first triple double since Larry Sanders on November 30, 2012. We didn’t have our shots falling, we were a little slow on our defensive rotations, and that happens.
Draymond Green had 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Warriors.
Hawks point guard Jeff Teague hasn’t looked quite right since returning from an ankle injury less than a month ago. Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and OKC are rolling now with eight wins in their last 10 games and trail only the Warriors in points per game.
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“If you told us going into the season we’d be 24-1 to start the year with some guys injured with the schedule we’ve had, we’d be pretty proud of that, which we are”. He’s even more important to Golden State on the other end of the court. The Warriors shot below 35 percent from 3 five times prior to Friday, and they shot better than 50 beyond the arc in their next game four times.
