76ers 116, Bucks 94: Milwaukee fades in fourth quarter

PHILADELPHIA - Through three quarters, the Milwaukee Bucks had outperformed expectations.

Down two starters in Giannis Antetokounmpo (right knee soreness) and Malcolm Brogdon (personal), the Bucks had erased a 16-point deficit and battled back to tie the game in the third quarter before taking a four-point deficit into the fourth. It wasn't perfect, but they were in position to challenge the Philadelphia 76ers on the road over the final 12 minutes.

However, any hope of Milwaukee scoring an unlikely road upset evaporated fairly quickly in the fourth as turnovers, missed shots and porous defense led to a 116-94 loss at Wells Fargo Center.

Over a two-minute stretch early in the period with a mostly bench unit on the court, the Bucks missed a pair of shots and committed three straight turnovers — including two straight goof-ups by Matthew Dellavedova. That stretch opened the door for a 10-0 76ers run that prompted a Bucks timeout and grew to 13-0 even after Milwaukee's starters returned.

But even that unit — led by Khris Middleton, who collected his first career triple-double with 23 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists — couldn't turn things around given the hole that had been dug, especially considering they'd been trying to escape the pit for much of the game already.

BOX SCORE:76ers 116, Bucks 94

NBA:Live scoreboard, standings, stats

RELATED:Antetokounmpo to miss two games

Middleton, who was a positive presence throughout, knew he had to take on a larger role with Antetokounmpo out. His 14 rebounds were more than double the total of his next highest teammate — two-way center Marshall Plumlee had six points and six rebounds in his Bucks debut — and Middleton's 10 assists accounted for half of Milwaukee's total.

“Just playing aggressive," Middleton said of his triple-double. "We knew that they were going to switch a lot, so I just tried to play out of that. ...

“With Giannis out guys have to step out, so I tried to do a little bit more creating tonight, playing a lot more aggressive with the ball in my hands. When Giannis comes back I’ve got to find a way to keep it going — keep the ball moving, keep getting stops, keep running up and down. He’s a great player, so adding him back with Jabari (Parker), with Malcolm we’re a dangerous team. We’ve just got to win ballgames now.”

Milwaukee cut the deficit to eight with about 7 minutes left, but three straight misses and a turnover paired with five buckets in a row from the 76ers spelled an 11-0 run that ended the competitive portion of the game. Philadelphia bookended the night with strong quarters, shooting 65.2% in the first and going 14 of 21 (66.7%) in the fourth.

Center Joel Embiid led the 76ers with 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting while five other players scored in double figures, including rookie Ben Simmons, who had 16 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. The 76ers, too, were playing short-handed with J.J. Redick (left leg) and Jerryd Bayless (sore left wrist) out of action.

Milwaukee got 15 points from Tony Snell and 14 each from Eric Bledsoe and Sterling Brown, with Brown hitting a trio of three-pointers in the first quarter before finishing 4 of 7 from long range and Bledsoe collecting five steals. As a team, the Bucks made nine of their first 18 three-point attempts before going 1 of 14 after that.

Prior to their fourth-quarter struggles, the Bucks had rallied from a 16-point deficit in the second quarter. They closed hard to within six at halftime, then after a slow start to the third locked down on defense. They coaxed 11 76ers turnovers in the third quarter alone, regularly getting deflections and steals.

“I thought the guys fought, everybody was into the game," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said. "I thought the guys played as hard as they could. We were short-handed but the guys went out there ... and they played hard.”

Those third-quarter 76ers turnovers and the extra opportunities they brought helped the Bucks chip away at the deficit, tying the game with just over four minutes left in the period. That was as close as the Bucks would get, though, as they missed a pair of shots that would have put them in the lead for the first time since the opening 90 seconds of the game.

“We’ve got to do better," Bledsoe said. "Good wasn’t good enough tonight.”

UP NEXT

Teams: Milwaukee Bucks (23-22) vs. Phoenix Suns (17-29).

When: 7 p.m. Monday.

Where: BMO Harris Bradley Center.

About the Suns: Phoenix snapped a three-game losing streak with a 108-100 win in Denver over the Nuggets on Friday night. Devin Booker, the Suns' scoring engine at 25.3 points per game, put up 30 points in that contest, one game removed from scoring 43 in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Former Bucks center Greg Monroe, who was traded to Phoenix early this season, has played sparingly of late, appearing in just three of the Suns' past 17 games. He's averaging 10.7 points and 7.9 rebounds in 22.7 minutes per game in 15 appearances with the Suns.