Kidd-Gilchrist, Hornets blow past Bucks
MILWAUKEE -- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 23 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds in his return to action Wednesday night, leading the Charlotte Hornets to a season-opening 107-96 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center.
Kidd-Gilchrist appeared in just seven games last season and hadn't played since Feb. 10 because of surgery on his right shoulder. However, he showed no signs of rust, hitting 10 of 18 shots in 35 minutes.
Charlotte coach Steve Clifford before the game that Kidd-Gilchrist should improve as the season goes on.
Hornets power forward Cody Zeller, sidelined all preseason with a bone bruise in his right knee, returned to score 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting in 13 minutes.
Kemba Walker scored 17 points, Roy Hibbert finished with 15, and Marvin Williams added 13 points and 10 boards for the Hornets, who shot 44.9 percent from the field. Charlotte made 7 of 23 3-pointers and never trailed in the contest.
Milwaukee got a game-high 31 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo, 14 from Greg Monroe, 13 from Jabari Parker and 11 from Matthew Dellavedova. Antetokounmpo also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.
The Bucks shot 42.4 percent from the floor and made only 3 of 16 tries from beyond the 3-point arc.
Dellavedova hit his first 3-point attempt at the 7:41 mark of the first quarter, but the Bucks missed their next nine attempts from distance before Antetokounmpo connected with 4:18 left in the third.
By that point, though, the Bucks were already buried deep. Their inability to stop the Hornets defensively, coupled with ice-cold shooting, doomed Milwaukee to a 24-point deficit in the third quarter.
The Bucks manage to claw back into the game early in the fourth, getting the margin down to 11 with nine minutes remaining. Malcom Brogdon got Milwaukee within nine at the 8:20 mark, but a three-point play from Kidd-Gilchrist returned the double-digit advantage for Charlotte.
Milwaukee cut the deficit to nine one more time, but a Williams' 3-pointer made it a 101-89 game with just under three minutes left.
NOTES: Milwaukee SG Tony Snell was unavailable for the season opener because of a sprained left ankle. He has not been able to practice with the Bucks since he was acquired from Chicago in exchange for PG Michael Carter-Williams on Oct. 17. ... The Hornets won the season series 3-1 a year ago and are 51-50 against the Bucks since Charlotte returned to the NBA in 2004.