The NBA season has less than a month to go, and we will be here each weekday with the NBC Sports daily roundup Three Things to Know — everything you might have missed in the Association, every key moment from the night before in one place.
1) Kevin Porter Jr. drops 50 and Bucks come out hurting
It took less than a minute for things to turn ugly for Milwaukee, but we’ll focus on that in No. 2 on this list.
First, give credit where credit is due — Kevin Porter Jr. came out doing his best James Harden impression, hit nine 3-pointers on his way to 50 points, plus dished out 11 assists to spark the Rockets win.
The Rockets with Porter as the lead ball-handling guard — filling the shoes of John Wall, who is out for the season — were aggressive and attacking, but it was also one of those games where everything seemed to go in. Case in point, the Rockets were launching a lot of above-the-break threes (shots the Bucks will surrender) and hit 57.9% of them.
Behind that shooting, the Rockets came back from 17 down to get the win. After the game, Porter Jr. was promising Rockets fans the players were going to turn this thing around. It’s exactly what fans want to hear from their young stars, even if that player has no idea just how much is entailed in that turnaround.
2) Giannis Antetokounmpo rolls ankle, Bucks hurt in this one
This upset loss hit the Bucks hard on a couple of levels.
First, Giannis Antetokounmpo almost didn’t play because of right ankle tenderness, but the Bucks needed every win if they were going to catch the Nets and 76ers for the top seed in the East, so he taped up and suited up. Then, :45 seconds into the game, Antetokounmpo drove and stepped on the foot of Kelly Olynyk and rolled his right ankle.
Antetokounmpo went back to the locker room and was done for the night. He did come back out and watch the rest of the game from the bench.
Mike Budenholzer, when asked about Giannis Antetokounmpo's injury post-game:
— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) April 30, 2021
"I think we're hopeful that it's not serious. We'll see how he responds to treatment tonight, treatment tomorrow. Get an update at some point tomorrow."
We can add the Bucks to the watch list the Nets and Lakers are on: How healthy will their stars be when the playoffs start? Let’s state the obvious here: Milwaukee isn’t going far in the postseason without a healthy Antetokounmpo. Meaning, expect him to get some nights off coming up.
The Bucks still got off to a 17-point lead in this game before Kevin Porter Jr. took control of the game, hit ridiculous contested shots, and sparked the upset win. With that, the Bucks are now 4.5 games back of the Nets for the top seed — Milwaukee will be the three seed; what matters now is just getting healthy.
3) Kevin Durant scores 42 and looks effortless doing it
Kevin Durant is as great a scorer as this game has ever seen.
As evidence, watch the 42-point, 11-assist night he had against Indiana Thursday. The Pacers would try to make runs to get back into this, and Durant would get a bucket and shut the door.
Brooklyn now has a 1.5 game lead over Philly for that coveted No. 1 seed in the East (coveted because it forces the other two of the big three teams out East to the other side of the playoff bracket).
As a side note about the Nets, the Tweet of the day went to StatMuse after the Aaron Rodgers news surfaced.
We all know where Aaron Rodgers is gonna end up.
— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 29, 2021
This is getting ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/doC4KUClnd