Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Chicago’s Coby White scored 35 points as the Bulls spoiled Milwaukee’s first home game of the NBA season on Friday with a 133-122 victory over the Bucks. The Bulls withstood a 38-point, 11-rebound double-double from Milwaukee’s two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose big night included a monster dunk over Nikola Vucevic. Damian Lillard added 28 points and eight assists for the Bucks, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
In a back-and-forth battle featuring 14 lead changes, Chicago seized the lead for good with 8:52 left in the third quarter when White banked in a shot for a 74-72 lead. The Bulls were up by seven going into the fourth. Milwaukee cut the lead to just one point on a pair of three-pointers from A.J. Green in the first minute of the period. But Chicago forward Patrick Williams drained a three-pointer to ignite a 13-1 Bulls run, and Chicago closed it out comfortably.
Elsewhere, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges looked right at home at Madison Square Garden, scoring 21 points apiece to help the New York Knicks to a 123-98 victory over the Indiana Pacers. Towns, acquired in a three-team trade from Minnesota days before training camp, added 15 rebounds and two blocked shots. “It definitely hits different to be home,” Towns said of playing his first game at the Garden as a Knick. Bridges, who arrived in July in a cross-town trade with the Brooklyn Nets, made eight of 12 shot attempts as the Knicks shook off a blowout season-opening loss to the reigning champion Boston Celtics.
Jalen Brunson led the Knicks scoring with 26 points and Josh Hart added 20 as the Knicks gained a small measure of revenge against a Pacers team that ousted them in seven games in the second round of last season’s playoffs. Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 20 points off the bench, while star guard Tyrese Haliburton — the cornerstone of Indiana’s potent offense — missed all eight of his shot attempts to finish with zero points.
In Orlando, Franz Wagner scored 29 points with six rebounds and five assists as the Magic pulled away late for a 116-101 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Cam Thomas drilled a three-pointer to put the Nets up 63-61 with 5:47 left in the third quarter. But Wagner made a pair of free throws, and after Paolo Banchero hauled in the rebound of a Thomas miss, Wagner made a three-pointer that put the Magic up for good. Moritz Wagner added 18 points off the bench and Banchero scored 15 for the Magic, who pushed their lead to as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter. Four Nets starters scored in double figures, but the Magic outscored them 67-55 in the second half.
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