Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 50 points as Milwaukee Bucks beat Utah Jazz 122-118

Milwaukee • In the halls of the brand-new Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, there exists a silhouette of Giannis Antetokounmpo along a main corridor. The sign nearby asks: Can you measure up to Giannis?

But really, can anybody?

The Jazz found out that they couldn’t on Monday night, as the reigning MVP scored 50 points, with some incredible plays down the stretch to seal the game for the Milwaukee Bucks, 122-118.

Is there anything that the Jazz could have done more, or better, to defend Antetokounmpo?

“I doubt it,” Mike Conley said. “We threw everything at him. We threw everybody at him. We used double teams. He made plays out of the post. He got to the free-throw line. When he started making the long-range shot, it really makes it tough. I was proud of the way we defended.”

That was the thing: Antetokounmpo displayed the full toolset. He scored from inside, shooting 14 of 23 from 2-point range. On five of his nine misses, he got his own rebound. He got to the free-throw line 19 times, and the Jazz weren’t upset with the whistle. And when they gave him the three, he proved capable of that too, making 3 of 8 from long range. When they double-teamed him, he has six assists and zero turnovers.

The Greek Freak was superhuman.

The one man who may have been able to help out was missing: Rudy Gobert missed Monday’s game due to a sprained left ankle, his second missed contest since Friday’s injury. Gobert gave warmups a go, including a spirited movement-based workout, but decided that his ankle wasn’t strong enough to risk playing in game 17 of an 82-game slate.

Tony Bradley once again started for Gobert, and once again played well enough in his absence, scoring eight points, gathering 11 rebounds, and swatting three Bucks shots.

And despite Gobert’s absence, the Jazz made it close. The key was the Jazz’s remarkable 3-point shooting, making 21 of their 45 long-range shots. More than half of the Jazz’s attempts were from 3-point range, but it was working: Bojan Bogdanovic made five, and five other Jazz players made three: Royce O’Neale, Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Jeff Green and Georges Niang.

As a result, the Jazz earned themselves one final chance to tie or win the game with 19 seconds left. Down two points and preferring to attack a Bucks defense in transition, the Jazz got Mitchell going toward the basket with six seconds left, but his layup attempt at the rim was blocked by Brook Lopez, helping from the corner.

“Donovan ended up at the rim, but I thought we lost too much time on the clock,” Utah coach Quin Snyder said. “I felt like we were in the open court and had a chance to attack, so I wanted to go.”

Mitchell ended with 20 points on the night, on 7-for-17 shooting from the floor. That wasn’t quite the Jazz’s lead scoring performance: Bogdanovic ended with 24 points after his excellent shooting game.

Mitchell finished with 20 points on 7-for-17 shooting from the floor.

Playing the Eastern Conference’s best team on the road, and ending up with a small loss isn’t a surprise; in fact, it may assert that the Jazz are at or near that level. After all, both this game and the matchup between the two teams at Vivint Smart Home Arena came down to a final play.

But the Jazz didn’t want to be happy with the loss.

“They were in the conference finals last year,” Mitchell said. “We could use that to explain why we didn’t beat them. But we’re not going to just settle for that, we want to win these games.”