By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
All 22 teams participating in the NBA restart in Orlando are scheduled for three scrimmages before game action officially tips off on July 30 and tonight was the Milwaukee Bucks and San Antonio Spurs’ turn to show how the four-month hiatus impacted them.
The Bucks didn’t need much time to get back in the groove, continuing where they left off with a 113-92 win as Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way with 22 points (including 13 in the first 12 minutes), four assists, three steals and three rebounds in under 22 minutes he spent on the floor.
It’s no secret that Giannis has been working on improving his three-point shooting and although that didn’t work out in the first game back (1-5), he did show a glimpse of the results from his work on passing.
The rest of the team showed up too and while the first scrimagge is shortened to ten-minute quarters, they still logged 113 points on the scoreboard and put on a 38-26 third quarter which was the deciding period in the match.
Brook Lopez helped the effort with 17 points while Khris Middleton added 16 and Frank Mason 12 points. A total of 14 players stepped on the court for the Bucks.
The same goes for the other side as well. Lonnie Walker scored 14 points for the Spurs in addition to Dejounte Murray’s 13 as well as Derrick White and Keldon Johnson’s 11 points each.
Buck will play the next scrimmage on July 25 against the Sacramento Kings while the Spurs are scheduled to go against the Brooklyn Nets the same day. Those games will feature the standard 12-minute quarters.
Meanwhile, another scrimmage took place as the Indiana Pacers grabbed a narrow 91-88 win against the Portalnd Trail Blazers.
While it ended with a close margin, the Pacers had 12 points of lead (87-75) with four minutes left and despite the comeback effort, the Blazers couldn’t turn the game around. Jaylen Hoard took a three-pointer to try and force overtime but Indiana survived.
The outcome of the game was perhaps in a significant amount secondary for both squads – and not because it’s the first scrimmage back. Both sides had returnees from injuries step on the floor as they played their first gams in a while and them getting off on the right foot was very important.
And it went smooth. Victor Oladipo entered the starting lineup for the Pacers as did Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic for the Blazers. All three of them logged around 20 minutes of playing time and contributed for the squads, Nurkic the most with 14 points on 6-10 from the field.
He got help from Mario Hezonja who led Portland with 15 points while for the winning side, Justin Holiday banked 16 while Aaron Holiday followed with 13 points.
Indiana’s next scrimmage will be against Dallas on July 26 while Portland will go against Toronto slightly later.