If the Milwaukee Bucks were looking to the Philadelphia 76ers as a measuring stick of their place in the NBA’S Eastern Conference, they had to walk away from Saturday’s matinee blowout over their foes feeling rather good about themselves.
The again, it’s not like the Bucks saw the best of the Sixers in the time their min-series started on Thursday.
Playing without stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, the Sixers came out flat and Milwaukee pounced, cruising to a 132-94 laugher in front a national television audience that may have turned the game off completely when Milwaukee pulled its starters at the end of the third quarter, leading 86-63.
Before Giannis Antetokounmpo went to the bench for good with 3:13 left in the third quarter, he hit a pair of franchise milestones.
During the course of the two-time reigning BA MVP’s almost 24 minutes of playing time, he became just the third player in Bucks history to pass the 12,000 points mark; later in the contest he passed Glenn Robinson for second place on the franchise’s scoring list trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The Bucks improve to 37-22 on the season, trailing first place Brooklyn (40-20) by 2.5 games and now-second place Philadelphia (39-21) by 1.5 games in the East.