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NBA playoffs | Milwaukee and Golden State advance to next round

(Washington) Defending champion Milwaukee and Golden State, back in the final stages after two failed seasons, qualified for the next round of the NBA playoffs on Wednesday, both winning their first-round series by four wins to one. .

Posted at 9:37

The Milwaukee Bucks dominated Chicago (116-100) at home thanks to 33 points from their Greek giant Giannis Antetokounmpo to earn the right to face in the conference semifinals the Boston Celtics who swept the Brooklyn Nets (4 wins at 0).

The Golden State Warriors for their part beat Denver (102-98) on their ground thanks to 30 points from their leader Stephen Curry, thus winning their first series of playoffs since 2019, when they lost in the final against Toronto.

Absent from the final stages the last two seasons, the Californian team, NBA champion in 2015, 2017 and 2018, will challenge in the next round the winner of the series between Memphis and Minnesota, in which the Grizzlies currently lead three wins to two. .

The Warriors, who led the series 3-0 before losing Sunday in Colorado, had to fight against a Memphis team once again carried by its Serbian “joker” Nikola Jokic, who scored 30 points.

Golden State, however, had more aces up its sleeve. Draymond Green again led the defense perfectly, while Klay Thompson and Gary Payton II, both authors of 15 points, thus perfectly supported Curry, to take over the Nuggets in the last quarter won 32 to 20.

Giannis “raises the tone”

“You could see in the first three quarters that we forgot how to fold a game,” said the all-time leading three-point scorer in NBA history, fully recovered from the ankle injury that left him quit a month before the playoffs.

“The nerves, the energy, the pressure… It’s been a long time since we felt all that. We still know how to do it, but we had to fight. It feels good to pass,” added Curry, 34.

In Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo had decided to “raise the tone” and “play hard” against the Bulls who could only see the damage.

The Greek, twice voted best player in the league (MVP) in 2019 and 2020, made 11 of his 15 shots and also took 9 rebounds.

“Sometimes when you’re 15 or 20 points up, you start falling asleep and slacking off, but our team was able to stay calm, keep playing hard and taking shots,” he said.

Bulls star DeMar DeRozan was only able to score 11 points.

The upcoming duel against the Celtics makes Antetokounmpo salivate.

“It’s heavy, we have to rest, train, work on the video, take care of our bodies and be ready to challenge Boston,” he said.

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