NBA: Thanks to Kevin Durant: Warriors fight for victory in Milwaukee

The Golden State Warriors (34:9) have clinched a competitive away win at the Milwaukee Bucks (22-19). In the absence of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant took command at 108:94. The Bucks couldn’t reward themselves for a performance increase in the second half.

Stephen Curry suspended the second game in a row with new problems on his ankle, Patrick McCaw was allowed to start for him.

The Bucks started the evening with a great alley-oop of Giannis Antetokounmpo on Eric Bledsoe – so the arena was there immediately. Thanks to Kevin Durant (13 points in the first quarter) Golden State was also fast in rhythm and evened out an early gap in no time at all. They only managed a 10:1 run before Nick Young cemented the 36:27 Warriors lead from outside with a spectacular buzzer beater after 12 minutes.

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When KD took a longer break in the second quarter, the Warriors did not quite keep up their level. With their own 11:2 run with several open three players, the Bucks came back in. Then Durant came back to the field, and his team won again and scored numerous simple points, especially on the board. The favourite led to the break tea with 63:49.

After changing sides, the Bucks were better able to block their way into the zone. As a result, the Warriors had to take difficult finals and scored only 5 points in the first 5 minutes. On the other side Giannis got his fourth foul, but this was not a break for his team at first. Malcolm Brogdon and Tony Snell, among others, took over responsibility and put their team in the lead with 82:80. With this score we went to the last quarter.

There, both sides engaged in an intensive exchange of blows, in which the Warriors took the lead again. David West set important accents on the board. The Bucks made some Unforced Errors and open failures – so it was hardly possible to equalize the game again. Bitter: In spite of a good defence, KD hit extremely difficult throws. His threesome at 99:90 2:18 minutes before the end was the Dagger.

Durant finished the game as top scorer with 26 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, Draymond Green scored 21 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. Klay Thompson (12 points) was strongly defended by Brogdon. Bucks topscorer was correspondingly Antetokounmpo (23 points, 7 rebounds), Bledsoe scored 21 points.

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Kevin Durant. Though he had some phases in which to dive a bit, he ended up there, rounding off his efficient performance (12/20 FG) by deciding the game with a Dirk-Fadeaway and a subsequent threesome over a close defense. He also had a good sense of when he could pick up the pace. And: If he was doubled, he found the open-minded man (6 assists).

Khris Middleton. He was a bit overzealous in the first half when it came to preventing Warrior’s trio. This allows his opponents to use simple drives. In the offense it’s not necessarily his job to create things himself – but he didn’t profit from the fact that others did it for him. 2 out of 12 are not his claim.

Due to the deep squad, the Warriors have a solution for every style of play. When the Bucks were more defensive in the second half, Steve Kerr threw in the old hands of Andre Iguodala and David West for a longer time than usual. They brazenly opposed Milwaukee’s intensity and demoralized her with important defensive plays or hustle points on the board.