Jrue Holiday's late steal against Devin Booker leads Bucks to 104-101 victory over Suns

The Milwaukee Bucks felt they might have been without Giannis Antetokounmpo to start the stretch run due to a sprained right wrist – but instead he missed his first game out of the all-star break with a right quad contusion.

But the Bucks kept rolling Sunday afternoon at Fiserv Forum, beating the Phoenix Suns, 104-101, for their 14th straight victory to improve to 43-17. It is tied for the fourth-longest streak in team history. The Suns dropped to 33-29.

Does a win streak matter?

“It’s tough – in the grand scheme of things – just the winning streak, no," Khris Middleton said. "But winning games, yes. I think that’s what it’s all about. Just winning, putting ourselves in the best position we can be come playoff time and trying to play our best basketball come playoff time. I don’t’ think we’re too excited how long we’re on this win streak but we’re excited about each win every night. That’s what it’s all about, I think.”

Jrue Holiday comes up big for Bucks with 33 points, late-game steal against Devin Booker

The Suns looked like a team that held a light practice Saturday afternoon after flying in from a late start (9 p.m. CT), and the Bucks looked like a team whose normal game-day routine was altered as the two teams slogged through a noon start Sunday.

A total of 42 personal fouls were called and neither team shot the ball well (43.7% for Milwaukee, 42.1% for Phoenix), so perhaps it was no surprise the contest game down to the final seconds.

There was no real flow throughout the game, particularly in the second quarter after a prolonged video review of an off-ball foul on Jevon Carter which resulted in a single free throw. There were also 17 combined missed shots, five personal fouls and a technical foul on Grayson Allen in the opening three minutes.

Then at the end of the third quarter, the Bucks were whistled for four fouls in less than a minute, three of which were called on Middleton. That stretch helped the Suns to a 14-2 run that saw them take a 83-77 lead in the early moments of the fourth quarter. The Bucks had gone about 3 ½ minutes without a score in that stretch, too.

BOX SCORE: Bucks 104, Suns 101

But after the Suns took a 94-87 lead, the Bucks flipped the momentum as Jae Crowder hit consecutive corner threes in front of the Bucks bench off feeds from Middleton.

“Gotta have the trust," Middleton said. "He’s here for a reason. It’s just the right basketball play. That’s what we all feel, that we have to play basketball, play basketball the right way. Make or miss no matter who takes that shot, if we’re playing the right way, we’ll live with the results. Thankfully he knocked them down.”

Then, Joe Ingles found Jrue Holiday for a lay-in to tie the game at 96 with 3:11 to go.

Milwaukee closed with a lineup of Holiday, Middleton, Crowder, Ingles and Brook Lopez, and Lopez came up with a key block, free throw and box out of Suns center Deandre Ayton, and Holiday drilled a clutch three-pointer to put the Bucks up, 100-98.

After Devin Booker bear-hugged Holiday to force a Bucks shot-clock violation with 39.9 seconds left, the Suns star hit a fading 12-footer on Holiday to tie the game with 33 seconds left. Grayson Allen checked in for Crowder for the next Bucks offensive possession, which resulted in a tough Lopez lay-in off a pick-and-roll feed from Middleton.

“Khris is just a huge threat offensively, and so they knew they had to play him like that and go contest that shot and he’s a great playmaker,” Lopez said of that key pass. “He sees everything, so he saw them step up and made the great play.”

For the final 24.8 seconds, Crowder was back in for Allen and once again the Suns set it up for Booker to go one-on-one with Holiday. But this time, Booker had to start high beyond the three-point line and tried to work his way in, and Holiday poked the ball away from him into the waiting arms of Lopez.

“Kind of shot the screen, stayed with ‘Book,’' Holiday said of the start of the play. "He went left once, thought I did a good job keeping him at bay, then he went left again and made a good move because I felt like I was beat but (he) just kind of exposed the ball and I went for a steal and ended up getting a hand on it and Brook ended up with it.”

His teammates broke down how they saw it develop, also:

Middleton: “Man, it’s just impressive. My view from it, I was on the weakside and I saw it step-by-step and all of a sudden I see the ball come loose. It’s just what he does. He’s one of the best on-ball defenders and he proves it every time. He loves that challenge, he takes that challenge personally and came up with a huge play at a crucial time in the game once again.”

Ingles: “Jrue is obviously going to be on the best player 99% of the time and they’re going to try get Jrue off the best player 99% of the time, so I think the communication, everyone was locked in. We had an idea of what they wanted to (do), have ‘Book’ with the ball and either iso or screen. I think we did a pretty good job of executing it defensively.”

Crowder: “We knew kind of what was coming a little bit, that’s just knowing personnel and I think knowing what Devin was trying to get to, trying to get a lesser defender with me on him. We just try to make it as touch as possible for him. I think Jrue did a great job of just warring over that screen and making it very tough and was able to keep the matchup. He made a tough defensive stop.”

Ingles then knocked down one free throw to make it 103-100, and Holiday added one more to effectively clinch it.

“We got in a little bit of a tough spot,” Budenholzer said of the closing group. “We were down eight and that group was able to flip it, they might have been part of us getting down eight, too. But they were able to flip it, they had a good rhythm, just kind of feel. I thought Jae’s defense tonight was big time. He stepped up, guarded a lot of different people. Same with Joe. Joe and Jae, at 6-8, 6-7, just our length and our ability to, I think, show a crowd and still contest and get to boards.”

Holiday led the Bucks with 33 points and five assists while Lopez had 22 points and 12 rebounds. Middleton had 11 points, 10 rebounds and six assists off the bench. Bobby Portis started in place of Giannis Antetokounmpo and had 10 points and six rebounds.

Booker finished with 24 points. Ayton had 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Giannis Antetokounmpo out for the Milwaukee Bucks

After making a tremendous recovery from a sprained right wrist, Antetokounmpo bruised his right quadriceps early in the game Friday against the Miami Heat and exited in obvious discomfort.

As of Saturday night, Antetokounmpo was considered doubtful to play vs. the Suns with a right quad contusion, and head coach Mike Budenholzer ruled him out before the game.

"I'm sure the medical has (looked at what happened) but we haven't really talked about it," Budenholzer said. "I mean, it's enough where he can't play today but I think we're also confident that this is just a fairly common occurrence in our league. You hit knees, you knock, sometimes it takes a day or two. It's really nothing more than that. So, the level of conversations have all been kind of along that line and I haven't heard or gone back and reviewed exactly when it happened."

It is the 12th game Antetokounmpo has missed this season and his first since Jan. 21.

5 numbers

0 Losses in the month of February so far for Milwaukee in nine games. The Bucks were 6-0 in October.

7-5 Bucks record when Antetokounmpo does not play. The Bucks also have a 2-0 mark when he has left games early due to injury.

5 Brook Lopez’s rank on the Bucks’ franchise all-time blocks list after swatting four shots Sunday afternoon.

17 Straight missed shots by the Bucks (0 for 7) and Suns (0 for 10) to open the second quarter, a stretch that lasted nearly three minutes before Grayson Allen made a three-pointer at the 9:06 mark.

19-4 Bucks record vs. Western Conference opponents.

Video of the game is Jevon Carter stealing the inbound pass from Chris Paul

Jevon Carter is known for his pressure defense -- particularly when he decides to pick up an opponent for all 94 feet. He not only made Suns point guard Chris Paul give the ball up, but had quick enough hands to steal the pass and put it right back up for two points early in the game.

Play of the game is Jrue Holiday stealing the ball from Devin Booker

When it mattered most, Holiday came up with a crunch time steal away from Booker.

“That’s just the defender he is, player he is,” Lopez said of Holiday. “He’s one of the top two-way players in the league, at least top three, just absolutely phenomenal. Just the best two-way player in the league and these are the players he makes just time and time again.”

Kevin Durant is out for the Phoenix Suns

The newly acquired superstar is targeting a March 1 date to debut with the Suns. Durant has not played since Jan. 8 when he was with the Brooklyn Nets as he’s been recovering from a sprained knee.

Bucks injury report

• Giannis Antetokounmpo (right quadriceps contusion), out

• Wesley Matthews (right calf strain), out

Who do the Bucks play next?

The Bucks head to Brooklyn on Tuesday to face the new-look Nets on the front end of a road-and-home back-to-back. The Nets are led by new additions Mikal Bridges, Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and Cam Johnson along with center Nic Claxton.

More:These are the longest winning streaks in Bucks history

Nickel:Portis and Crowder return to action with the same motivation but none of the animosity

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jrue Holiday's late steal against Devin Booker leads Bucks past Suns