NBA highlights on March 24: Basketball is a big man's sport

The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 118-93 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Sunday, securing their second straight win.

The Bucks made good use of every piece of their size advantage in Brook Lopez, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, tearing their opponents apart completely from the interior. They led 58-32 in points in the paint and 57-37 in total rebounds. Antetokounmpo alone grabbed eight offensive rebounds.

The "Greek Freak" shot 13-for-18 from the field to score court-high 30 points on Sunday night, but most of his attacks were launched off the ball. The Thunder invested a lot of effort into containing him and always sent another two defenders to triple-team him when Antetokounmpo intended to make a move in the low post.

That's why Antetokounmpo gave up launching offense off the dribble and left the orchestrating duty to Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton. Middleton had a triple-double of 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He enabled Antetokounmpo to make efficient offensive contributions as a finisher instead of playmaker.

Portis caused a lot of trouble for the Thunder in the paint as well. When he was sent to the court as the backup center, the opponents often had a defensive vacuum in the paint since Chet Holmgren was taking a breath on the bench. As a result, whoever Portis faced made a defensive mismatch and unable to stop him from making five of his six field goals (FGs) in the paint.

Compared with the Bucks, who combined both the interior and the perimeter firepower to launch triphibious attacks, the Thunder's offense was too flat to beat the Bucks' defense. Having been intimidated by Lopez's defensive presence under the rim, the Thunder's players fell into a vicious circle. Whoever had the ball would try to penetrate from the front, get stopped by closing out defender, pass to a teammate and then repeat the process.

When Lopez dared to dash out of the paint to deflect a player's shot, it couldn't be clearer how little threat the Thunder posed against the Bucks' rim on Sunday night. They only took 29 shots in the paint, the same as the Bucks made. Only one of the Thunder's 16 shots made there was by their starting center Holmgren's hands, who missed nine of his 10 FG attempts.

As the Thunder were shut out of the opponents' paint during most time of the game, they fired as many as 43 triples, but made only 10 of them. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) tried to save the day as he usually did for the team. He managed to make Lillard, who was often a defensive weak link, switch to guard him, but Lillard did a surprisingly good job of keeping SGA from finding his rhythm without fouling before his teammates came to help. In the end, SGA only shot 12 FGs and missed seven of them, getting no more than 12 points.

Other games on Sunday (away teams come first):

Golden State Warriors 110-114 Minnesota Timberwolves

The Warriors can stop thinking about rising higher than the 10th place in the Western Conference because, after losing to the Timberwolves at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, they are only one game above the Houston Rockets behind. With only four of their next 12 games at home, they can kiss the play-in tournament goodbye in anything goes south.

The Timberwolves outscored the Warriors 68-56 in the second half for the comeback win on Sunday. Mike Conley got all of his 14 points in these two quarters plus six assists and four steals. Rudy Gobert went 4-for-4 from the field in the fourth period to add 10 points for his side.

Stephen Curry scored game-high 31 points for the Warriors, but he played less than 30 minutes. Since he only committed one personal foul, only coach Steve Kerr knew why he kept Curry on the bench for as long as 10 minutes in the second half. During those 10 minutes, the Warriors saw their four-point lead (69-65) become an eight-point deficit (100-92).

Indiana Pacers 145-150 Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers and the Pacers combined to score nearly 300 points without even having to play overtime at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday. Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Spencer Dinwiddie and Austin Reaves all got 25 or more points for the purple and gold. Davis reached double-digit points in three of the four quarters. Reaves went to the free throw line 12 times and made 11 shots there.

The Pacers trailed by as many as 19 points (112-93) in the third period, but Paskal Siakam dropped 19 points in this quarter alone to keep the game alive. Then Tyrese Haliburton and Obi Toppin drained three straight 3-pointers in 16 seconds in the final minute of the fourth period, scaring the Lakers into a cold sweat.

New Orleans Pelicans 114-101 Detroit Pistons

Philadelphia 76ers 121-107 Los Angeles Clippers

Cleveland Cavaliers 84-121 Miami Heat