LOS ANGELES, March 31, 2018 (AP) - With the game tied in the final seconds of regulation, Eric Bledsoe missed the same type of 3-pointer that he'd gotten the entire game. Once the next five minutes started, Bledsoe made up for that miss in a big way. Bledsoe scored 11 of his 39 points in overtime, and the Milwaukee Bucks overcame a huge comeback by the Los Angeles Lakers to win 124-122 Friday night. "I just tried to be aggressive," Bledsoe said. "We needed this game, and I had the hot hand. We always try to go to the hot hand and I just tried to play off that." Khris Middleton added 28 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 27 for the Bucks, who won their third straight game and second in two nights. They beat the Golden State Warriors Thursday. Bledsoe scored nine straight points to start the overtime period and give the Bucks a 121-112 lead with 2:35 remaining. He made three layups and a 3-pointer during that stretch. The Lakers responded with an 8-0 run. Antetokounmpo split a pair of free throws with 16.4 seconds remaining, and Kyle Kuzma missed a shot on the next possession. Bledsoe made two free throws with 2 seconds left to seal the win for Milwaukee. "I think Bled (did) what he does well: the Bled Show," Antetokounmpo said. "(He) took over the game and gave us a win." Kuzma had 27 points for the Lakers, who will finish with a losing record. Brook Lopez added 20 points, while Julius Randle had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Randle tied the game at 112 on a layup with 1:30 to go in regulation. Bledsoe and Middleton both had opportunities to give the Bucks the lead in the closing seconds, but they each missed. Los Angeles outscored Milwaukee 29-15 to send the game into overtime. Kuzma gave the Lakers a 107-106 lead with 4:57 remaining in the game. It was the first lead for Los Angeles since the first quarter, when it led 21-19 with 5:57 left in the period. Milwaukee built a 20-point lead late in the third quarter that culminated in Brandon Jennings assisting back-to-back baskets by Jabari Parker and Tyler Zeller. "Obviously the first pretty much three quarters, it was as bad as I've seen us play defensively," Lakers coach Luke Walton said. "They were shooting rhythm shots. Bledsoe might as well (have) been in a gym by himself shooting 3-pointers." Ivica Zubac scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and along with the second unit ignited a 29-9 run that bridged the third and fourth periods for the Lakers. Zubac finished with 16 points. "They were huge for us," Josh Hart said of the unit that closed the gap. "They were out there having fun, playing together, getting stops out in transition, and playing to our strengths. So you have to give them a lot of credit. They battled and got us back in it." Randle dunked the ball ferociously over Tyler Zeller to give the Lakers a 21-17 lead midway through the first quarter. Los Angeles trailed 39-34 despite shooting 78 percent from the field in that period. Blazers, 105 Clippers 96 Portland's Jusuf Nurkic and Damian Lillard found their connection against the Clippers. "We understand each other," Nurkic said. "Every possession, we already know where we're going to be and how we're going to play. When we look at each other we already know what we're going to do." Nurkic had 21 points and 12 rebounds, Lillard added 17 points and 11 assists, and the Trail Blazers held off the Clippers 105-96 Friday night. "I thought Damian was terrific with his passing. He found Nurk. They kept trapping him and he found Nurk almost every time," Portland coach Terry Stotts said. "Someone asked me before the game about getting Nurk more shots. I think Dame is responsible for getting Nurk some shots," Stotts added. Rookie Zach Collins came off the bench with a career-high 15 points for the Blazers, who were hurt in the third quarter when Ed Davis rolled his right ankle and left the game. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Clippers, who were just outside the playoff picture in the West with six games left. Lou Williams led Los Angeles with 23 points. After trailing by as many as 23 points in the third quarter, the Clippers got within 92-80 early in the fourth, prompting Lillard to return to the game. Los Angeles narrowed the gap again to 102-94 with just under a minute left but Pat Connaughton answered for the Blazers with a 3-pointer on the other end. Portland remains in third place in the West, coming off a 2-1 road trip that ended with a 108-103 loss at Memphis on Wednesday night. But the Blazers played that game without Lillard, who was awaiting the birth of his first child. Damian Lillard Jr. was born Thursday morning. "I don't think there's any way to describe it. It's a different level, different type of excitement. It was my son looking into my eyes. It was different," Lillard said Friday. But his joy was tempered because his half-brother was shot multiple times in the parking lot of a Portland-area shopping mall on Thursday night. Lillard said 20-year-old Jahrell Lillard was in stable condition. Police continue to look for the suspects. "I just tried to go out there and have fun, clear my mind. I didn't want to drag my personal things into the locker room or on to the court," Lillard said. "I had a son, that's a great thing. It was an unfortunate thing with my brother but he survived it so, a lot to be thankful for." The Clippers were short-handed. The team announced that Milos Teodosic has a torn plantar fascia in his left foot and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Already missing were Avery Bradley (abdominal surgery) and Patrick Beverley (knee). But the Clippers saw the return of Danilo Gallinari, who had missed 18 games with a fractured right hand. Gallinari finished with 11 points. "I just thought Portland was the better team. I thought they were better coached, I thought the players played better, I thought they played harder. And that's disappointing," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. The first half was a highlight reel of dunks for the Blazers, who led 64-49 at the break. Collins had three dunks in the second quarter to finish the first half with 13 points, topping his career high for a game. The Blazers had 17 assists in the first half. Al-Farouq Aminu's layup and free throw put Portland up 74-51 early in the second half. But Davis headed to the locker room later in the third quarter. The Blazers said after the game that X-rays on the ankle were negative. Portland was already playing without starter Maurice Harkless, who had a minor procedure on his left knee on Wednesday and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. ROCKETS 104, SUNS 103 Gerald Green made a 3-pointer at the buzzer and Houston rallied from a 21-point, second-half deficit to beat Phoenix. The win was Houston's 11th straight and extended Phoenix's skid to 14 games. Houston rested Chris Paul, Eric Gordon and Nene after clinching the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference on Thursday with Golden State's loss to Milwaukee. The Rockets that did play looked uninspired early against the team with the NBA's worst record, and Houston trailed by 17 at halftime. James Harden had 28 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. P.J. Tucker added 18 points and made a career-high five 3-pointers. Josh Jackson had 27 points for the Suns, who haven't won since Feb. 28, and Troy Daniels added 23. 76ERS 101, HAWKS 91 Ben Simmons had a triple-double in three quarters, Ersan Ilyasova scored 21 points and Philadelphia won its ninth straight game. With 13 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, Simmons has five triple-doubles in his last 10 games and 11 overall. The Rookie of the Year candidate did not play after leaving with 3:37 left in the third, giving Philadelphia the kind of performance it needed one game after All-Star center Joel Embiid suffered an orbital eye fracture and a concussion. Philadelphia jumped out to an 11-point lead twice in the second quarter. The Hawks pulled within three in the first minute of the third, but the Sixers soon put away the game with a 39-15 run that made it 86-59 entering the fourth. Damion Lee finished with a career-high 20 points and Taurean Prince and Isaiah Taylor each added 12 for Atlanta, the NBA's second-worst team. NUGGETS 126, THUNDER 125 Paul Millsap scored a season-high 36 points to help Denver beat Oklahoma City. Nikola Jokic had 23 points and 16 rebounds, and Will Barton added 18 points for the Nuggets, who had lost two straight and desperately needed the win for the Western conference playoff race. Denver entered the night two games out of the No. 8 spot. Russell Westbrook had 33 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds, but he missed what would have been a game-winning 3-pointer at the end of regulation. Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points and Jerami Grant added 16 for the Thunder, who have lost four of five. Those losses have been by a combined nine points, with none by more than four. TIMBERWOLVES 93, MAVERICKS 92 Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and 20 rebounds, Jamal Crawford scored 24 points and Minnesota held off Dallas to gain ground in the tight Western Conference playoff race. After shooting just 34 percent in the first half and trailing until midway through the third quarter, the Wolves turned to Crawford, who scored 15 points after halftime. He hit three consecutive shots, including a 3 over a 1:14 stretch of the fourth quarter to give Minnesota a 74-68 lead. Nemanja Bjelica, scoreless for the first three quarters, hit two 3s to extend it to 85-73. Harrison Barnes led Dallas with 19 points, and Dennis Smith Jr. had 17. JAZZ 107, GRIZZLIES 97 Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points and Dante Exum had a season-high 21 to lead Utah over Memphis. Exum played strong defense and was just one short of his career best as he shot 8 of 10 in the absence of Ricky Rubio. Joe Ingles, playing the point, had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Royce O'Neale added 13 points for the Jazz, who are jockeying for playoff position in the Western Conference. Marc Gasol missed just one shot - a long 3-pointer - in scoring 28 points, but didn't play in the fourth quarter when the Grizzlies may have needed him the most. BULLS 90, MAGIC 82 Rookie Lauri Markkanen and Sean Kilpatrick each scored 13 points, rookie Ryan Arcidiacono had all of his eight points in the fourth quarter, and Chicago snapped a seven-game losing streak. Arcidiacono's 3-pointer started a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter for the Bulls, who took an 80-71 lead and held on to complete a four-game season sweep of the Magic. Aaron Gordon scored 18 points for Orlando, which went scoreless for almost six minutes of the fourth quarter and shot 33 percent for the game. Nikola Vucevic had 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Magic (22-53).
