Giannis Scores Bucks Record 64 Points; Has Heated Exchange With Haliburton on Video
Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRT
Featured Columnist IVDecember 14, 2023
There have been some incredible performances in the NBA thus far in the 2023-24 season. On Wednesday night, Giannis Antetokounmpo arguably topped them all.
The Milwaukee Bucks' superstar set a franchise record with 64 points in the team's 140-126 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Things got weird after the game, as the Pacers reportedly stole the ball at the end of regulation and Giannis had to chase it down, per B/R and TNT's Chris Haynes:
Chris Haynes @ChrisBHaynesB/R Sources: Initial explanation from one member of Pacers to Bucks players as to why they took the game ball from Giannis Antetokounmpo: They wanted to give it to a rookie who scored his first career basket. Oscar Tshiebwe was the only rookie to register his first point. He made…
Giannis added 14 rebounds, four steals, three assists and a block in his unbelievable performance. His shooting stats were absurd: 20-of-28 from the field, 24-of-32 from the free-throw line and... 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.
Hey, nobody's perfect.
But Giannis was pretty darn close on Wednesday, and NBA fans and pundits alike showered him in praise:
Justin Ray @JustinRayGolf64+ points, 14+ rebounds in a single NBA game since 1970 per <a href="https://twitter.com/bball_ref?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bball_ref</a> <br><br>Michael Jordan, 69 points/18 reb in 1990<br>David Robinson, 71 points/14 reb in 1994<br>Giannis Antetokounpo, 64 points/14 reb tonight
At this point, there aren't many things Giannis hasn't done in his career. He's a two-time MVP, one-time champion, one-time NBA Finals MVP, seven-time All-Star, five-time first-team All-NBA selection and the 2019-20 Defensive Player of the Year.
Now he holds the team's single-game scoring record, and it's likely by the end of his career that the 29-year-old anomaly will hold just about every Bucks' record imaginable.
Surely he'd love to win more titles, however, and the man brought aboard to help him do so this offseason, Damian Lillard, chipped in with 21 points and six assists of his own on Wednesday. That's a solid evening most nights, though he scored just one-third of the points Giannis offered against the Pacers, in what is turning into an excellent and heated rivalry.
It was the Pacers who knocked the Bucks out of the In-Season Tournament in the semifinals. A little less than a week later, Giannis had his revenge.
