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    Nuggets take control early, send Bucks to third straight loss

    Nuggets sweep Bucks in their two-game season series
    Mar 10, 2020
    PHOTO: AP

    DENVER — Jamal Murray scored 21 points, Paul Millsap had 20 and Jerami Grant added 19 as the Denver Nuggets sent the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks to their third straight loss and fourth in five games, 109-95, on Monday night (Tuesday, Manila time).

    The NBA-leading Bucks (53-12) were without reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has a knee injury, as well as starters Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton and key backup George Hill.

    Altogether, the Bucks played without their top six scorers, and despite a valiant effort by their backups led by Kyle Korver (23 points), the team sorely missed that firepower during its fourth consecutive road loss and third in a row on this trip.

    The Bucks were swept by Denver in the two-game season series. The Nuggets won 127-115 in Milwaukee on Jan. 31 for their signature win this season.

    Nuggets leading scorer Nikola Jokic took just two first-half shots, made one, and continually passed up opportunities to get to the basket and instead distributed the ball. After a poor third quarter, Jokic came on strong down the stretch and finished with 10 points, half his average.

    Grant and Millsap picked up the slack with 15 first-half points each as the Nuggets raced out to a 16-point lead before Milwaukee cut it to 62-54 at the break.

    In the third quarter, Jokic missed five straight shots — a hook, a jumper and three 3-pointers — stretching his drought to 13 consecutive misses from beyond the arc before he sank one in the closing minutes.

    The third quarter ended with Mason Plumlee's fast-break layup for a 76-71 Denver lead after Monte Morris blocked Frank Mason III's pull-up 3 from behind.

    Seconds earlier, a slam by Murray was waved off with an offensive charge call even though D.J. Wilson left his feet trying to prevent the basket. Denver didn't challenge the call.

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    Antetokounmpo got hurt in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, and on Sunday afternoon the Bucks said he had a minor sprain of his left knee and would miss at least two games. Milwaukee's 141-130 loss at Phoenix on Sunday marked the first time the Bucks dropped back-to-back games this season.

    Now it's a three-game skid.

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    QUOTE OF THE NIGHT

    "I played Division III basketball so I can definitely imagine that," Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer on imagining Italian sports leagues playing games without fans because of the new coronavirus.

    TIP-INS

    Bucks: Milwaukee got back into the game with eight easy points off five Nuggets turnovers in the second quarter, when the Bucks trimmed a 52-36 deficit by closing the first half on an 18-10 run. ... The Bucks play seven of their next eight in Milwaukee.

    Nuggets: Jokic continued a recent trend of non-assertive play on the offensive end as he made just one basket in the first half. ... The Nuggets play seven of their next eight on the road — and their only home game during that stretch is against the Clippers, who beat them by 29 points this month.

    UP NEXT

    Bucks: Host Boston on Thursday night.

    Nuggets: At Dallas on Wednesday night.

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      PHOTO: AP
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