Giannis Antekounmpo scored 29 points as the Milwaukee Bucks won their 18th straight game by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 125 – 108 on the road.
It took Giannis 24 minutes to notch the 29 points. The “Greek Freak” shot 12/20 from the field while also grabbing four rebounds and dishing out four assists.
“You can try to game plan for Giannis and you can try to game plan for a team like that, but they’re very long, they can shoot the ball and they can play inside out,” Cavaliers forward Kevin Love said, per AP. “They are on a major winning streak right now and they’re playing some of the best, if not the best, basketball in the NBA.”
Ersan Ilyasova contributed 11 points for Milwaukee against fellow Turkish player Cedi Osman. The latter had eight points (3/11 shots) and four rebounds in 23 minutes. Croatian center Ante Zizic played six minutes and dropped six points on 3/3 shots.
In Denver, Nikola Jokic returned to form by registering a triple-double of 28 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists as the Nuggets defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 110 – 102. It was the Serbian center’s 32nd career triple-double.
German guard Dennis Schroeder scored a game-high 22 points, grabbed five rebounds and sent four assists to his teammates for the Thunder. Overall, Oklahoma had a couple of shooting issues that included Danilo Gallinari’s 1/13 from the field. The Italian forward finished with seven points.
Spanish forward Juancho Hernangomez added eight points in 12 minutes for the Nuggets.
Ricky Rubio had his best game of the 2019-2020 season in the Devin Booker-less Phoenix Suns‘ 121-119 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Mexico City. The Spanish guard finished the match with season-highs 25 points and 13 assists but his performance wasn’t enough for Phoenix.
Croatian forward Dario Saric tried to help Phoenix with a double-double of 19 points and 17 rebounds. French guard Elie Okobo had seven points.
For San Antonio, Austrian center Jakob Poetl grabbed 11 rebounds to go with his five points in 16 minutes off the bench.
It was a season-high night for another Spanish player. Marc Gasol had season-best 17 points and 15 rebounds to push the Toronto Raptors towards bouncing back to wins by defeating the Brooklyn Nets 110 – 102.
Gasol’s Spanish national team teammate Serge Ibaka finished with a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds in 21 minutes as a reserve. From the Nets, French wing Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot had seven points.
The rest of Saturday’s (14/12) NBA results and Euro scorers:
