Bucks 137, Trail Blazers 108: Bobby Portis lights up Portland from deep in big victory

PORTLAND, Oregon – The last time the Milwaukee Bucks were in the Pacific Northwest to take on the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center, Giannis Antetokounmpo winced his way through pregame warmups and then dominated the action with a 47-point, 12-rebound effort in an April 2, 2021, victory.

Saturday night, a healthy Antetokounmpo flirted with a triple-double but was playing in the glow of a red-hot Bobby Portis in a 137-108 victory that gave the Bucks their sixth win in their last eight games to improve to 33-21 overall. Portland (21-33) lost its fifth straight game.

“Obviously being in the position we’re in, we talk about it, we got the standings and stuff on the board so everybody’s locked in, we all on the same page,” Portis said. “It’s probably the first time we all have a sense of urgency about what’s going on.

"It’s real basketball that’s being played, man. So, we all locked in, on the same page, same chord, same string. And we just want to string some wins together. We locked in right now and going out there playing for each other having fun, getting back to our old ways, playing our brand of basketball.”

Portis made 11 of his first 12 shots and 6 of his first 7 three-point attempts en route to a season-high 30 points. Portis only played 24 minutes and subbed out for good in the third quarter. He added five assists, four rebounds and two blocks.

The Bucks’ big man had slumped from behind the three-point line his last six games, making just 21.4% (6-for-28) before breaking out in a big way against the Trail Blazers. Two of Portis’ made two-point field goals were inches away from threes, as he stepped forward onto the line. It prevented him from setting a career high with at least 7 threes.

“For real? Aw man," he said smiling. "I ain’t even know. I was just having fun, just taking the shots playing off Giannis and Khris (Middleton) and Jrue (Holiday ) and playing off of them, playing my role.

"I shot the same shots I’ve been shooting the last couple weeks, some of the shots didn’t go in the last couple games. But still just been shooting my shot, trusting my shot, trusting my work and going out there and being myself and having fun, man.

“I wish I got those two back. That would’ve been eight? That’s tough. Eight. That’s definitely something to shoot for one day.”

Since returning from the health and safety protocol on Christmas Day, Antetokounmpo has been on a tear (31.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists) so it may not have mattered who the Trail Blazers suited up. He set a season-high with 4 three-pointers on seven attempts and was 7-for-12 from the field overall to score 29 points. He also went 11-for-15 from the free-throw line. He added nine rebounds and six assists in 24 minutes.

Middleton had 14 points and five steals while Holiday had nine points and seven assists. Holiday (27) was the only starter to play more than 24 minutes.

The Bucks head to Los Angeles to play the Clippers on Sunday night.

“Certainly anytime on a back-to-back on that first night if you can maybe save a little in the tank in any way shape or form; we’ll still have our hands full (Sunday) night with the Clippers but this was a good way to start a back-to-back and to start the road trip," Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said.

On Saturday, Milwaukee faced a Portland team that was undergoing a facelift. On Friday, Portland shipped out shooting guard Norman Powell – often a foil for Milwaukee – and noted defender Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Two of the three players the Trail Blazers received in return – Keon Johnson and former Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe – were not ready to play. Justise Winslow did play for his new team, scoring six points.

Portland was already without star guard Damian Lillard (core surgery), along with Nassir Little (shoulder), Larry Nance Jr. (knee) and Cody Zeller (knee).

First-year coach Chauncey Billups’ short-handed team did have 7-footer Jusuf Nurkić and a pair of dynamic guards in CJ McCollum and Anfernee Simons. But, Simons offset a 19-point effort with five turnovers. McCollum had 17 points while Nurkić had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Ben McLemore scored 19 off the bench.

Portis and Antetokounmpo buried the Trail Blazers in the third quarter, stretching a 16-point halftime lead to 31 with 4 minutes, 31 seconds left in the quarter. In those opening seven and a half minutes, the Bucks outscored the Trail Blazers 27-12. Portis had 13 of them and Antetokounmpo had seven.

The 37-point quarter was a welcome change for the Bucks, who have struggled of late coming out of the break.

“I think there was a focus," Budenholzer said. "I think the leadership is I think going to make sure we can do everything to make the third quarter much, much better. Tonight’s a good start. Now we’ve got to go do it again. Really, for 48 minutes to be clear, but certainly the third quarters can be better.”

The bench cleaned up the fourth quarter for the Bucks. Donte DiVincenzo led the Milwaukee reserves with 10 points while Greg Monroe scored six points and had six rebounds in 15 minutes in his first game back with his old team.

Monroe signed a 10-day contract earlier in the day.

Milwaukee also set a season-high as a team with 36 assists on 49 field goals.

“Most teams are at their best when the ball moves and you’ve got some guys that can finish at the end of the shot clock if it gets to that, but I think we just worked a little more on trying to get the ball moving and get guys involved touching it, participating, and I think it helps you defensively," Budenholzer said. "The 36 assists, that’s a great number for us and something we can kind of aspire to in the future.”

The Bucks held two different 18-point leads in the first half before eventually taking a 70-54 lead into the break. Portis was especially hot, making seven of his eight shots (including 3-for-4 from behind the three-point line) to score 17 points.

He had 10 in the second quarter, including eight in an eight-minutes that helped the Bucks push a 40-35 lead to 68-52.

Antetokounmpo had 15 points and six rebounds and Middleton scored 11 in the half while Holiday and DiVincenzo added seven apiece. Simons had 14 points but five turnovers for the Trail Blazers. McCollum had 12.

Antetokounmpo made his first 3 three-pointers in the opening minutes of the game to put Milwaukee up 16-11, then Portis scored seven points in an 18-5 run that put Milwaukee up 34-16 with 1:47 to go in the first quarter. But, Portland closed on a 10-0 run of their own to make it 34-26 heading into the second. They continued to whittle it down early in the second, thanks to six straight points by McCollum before Portis took over.

The Bucks shot 12-for-24 from behind the three-point line in the first half and 55.3% from the field overall. The Trail Blazers made just 8 of their 23 threes, and the Bucks scored 14 points off nine turnovers.

Middleton had three steals in the half, which moved him into fourth place on the all-time franchise steals list surpassing Alvin Robertson.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks 137, Trail Blazers 108: Bobby Portis lights up Portland from deep in big win