By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Giannis Antetkounmpo made one more step towards Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s legacy in Milwaukee while the Bucks got an easy 132-94 win over the Sixers. Playing without All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, the 76ers matched their lowest point total and suffered their most-lopsided defeat of the season, in what was their fourth straight loss and the second by the Bucks in three days.
Meanwhile, Giannis in the third quarter surpassed Glenn Robinson and become the Bucks’ second-leading career scorer. Robinson scored 12,010 points for the Bucks from 1994-2002, Giannis currently has 12,023 after scoring 24 in the game and the Bucks’ leading scorer is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had 14,211 points while playing for Milwaukee from 1969-75 and went on to finish his career with an NBA-record 38,387 points.
“It’s a great compliment,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’ve got to keep working hard. It’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint. So I’ve got to keep working hard, keep believing in myself, keep polishing my skills, keep having great teammates that I love to be playing (with), a great coaching staff. It’s good. It’s a lot of hard work that paid off, but I’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Antetokounmpo also had 14 rebounds and seven assists in just 24 minutes of action.
Philadelphia (39-21) dropped a full game behind the Brooklyn Nets (40-20) in the Eastern Conference standings. Milwaukee (37-22) is third in the East, 2 1/2 games behind Brooklyn and 1 1/2 back of Philadelphia.
Turkish sharp-shooter Furkan Korkmaz also missed the game for the Sixers, while Thanasis Antetokounmpo added four points, six rebounds and five assists for the winning side.