Bucks at Heat
With fellow All-Star Khris Middleton sidelined with a neck issue, Giannis Antetokounmpo has somehow raised his game to another level and the reigning MVP looks to help his Milwaukee Bucks stay hot when they visit the Miami Heat on Monday. Antetokounmpo recorded the first 40-20 game of his career with 41 points and 20 rebounds in Sunday's 93-85 win at Charlotte.
"His footwork and his shooting is just getting better and better," Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters of Antetokounmpo after the team's sixth straight victory. "His play out of the post is getting better and better. He's finding open people, open cutters, open shooters and he's scoring when he's playing one on one. He's Giannis." The Heat have put together back-to-back wins for the first time since Feb. 1-3 with Saturday's 116-113 win over Brooklyn in the third of a five-game homestand. Kendrick Nunn led seven players in double figures with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting as Miami improved to 25-4 at home. "I'm encouraged by the two games. They're not perfect games, but competition isn't," coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters. "It's not supposed to be, but the way we responded to the adversity was a good sign."
TIME: 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: NBA TV, FS Wisconsin, FS Sun, TSN2, RDS
ABOUT THE BUCKS (52-8): Antetokounmpo on Sunday became the first player with a 40-20 effort in a game in which his team scored fewer than 100 points since Chris Webber in 2001. He is averaging 36.5 points on 62.5 percent shooting in the last two games without Middleton while the rest of the team's starters have combined to shoot 31.4 percent. Point guard Eric Bledsoe, the team's third-ranked scorer at 15.4 points per game, is 4-of-14 from the floor with a total of 11 points in those two contests.
ABOUT THE HEAT (38-22): Goran Dragic (19 points, 10 assists) and Bam Adebayo (16 points, 12 rebounds) had double-doubles against the Nets as Miami did just enough to survive a close finish, something it didn't do all that often during a recent 2-7 swoon. "If we win, I have no problem going through these growing pains, it's as simple as that," Adebayo told the media. "Winning cures anything - it cures everything I'd say." All-Star Jimmy Butler chipped in 16 points and eight assists Saturday after scoring 26 in a win over Dallas the previous night.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Miami is averaging 122.5 points in six games since the All-Star break.
2. Middleton was initially listed as probable for Sunday's game before being a late scratch, and the team is hopeful he will return Monday.
3. Dragic had 25 points and eight assists off the bench in a 131-126 overtime win at Milwaukee on Oct. 26.