Bucks playoff team a season after 67 losses
NBA: The rebuilding plan is way ahead of schedule for the Milwaukee Bucks.
A year after a franchise-worst 67-loss season, the Bucks are headed to the playoffs.
Ersan Ilyasova scored 21 points and coach Jason Kidd’s team relied on defense in a 96-73 victory over visiting Brooklyn on Sunday that wrapped up the playoff spot and the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
“To be honest, I always believed we could do better. But I didn’t know if we could go from 15 wins to get 40,” said Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished with 13 points.
The athletic 20-year-old forward is one of the big reasons why the Bucks are the first team since the 2008-9 Miami Heat to make the playoffs a year after having the NBA’s worst record.
“Our goal was to go to the playoffs, from Day 1. Everybody believed in it. I started believing in it and we made it,” the 6-foot-11 Antetokounmpo said.
O.J. Mayo added 17 points for the Bucks, who held Brooklyn to 32 percent shooting. It was season-low for points for a Bucks opponent.
Brook Lopez had his 17th double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets. They fell to eighth in the East, a game behind Boston.
That race will be sorted out over the final few days of the season, with Indiana also bearing down on the Nets and Celtics. Brooklyn has two games left on the schedule, starting with Chicago at home tonight.
According to STATS, Kidd is the first coach in NBA history to lead two franchises to the playoffs in his first two years as a head coach.
• Celtics rout toothless Cavs: Isaiah Thomas scored 17 points and Boston moved closer to a playoff berth with a 117-78 rout at Cleveland, which rested starters LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith. The Celtics outscored the Cavaliers 34-9 in the second quarter to take a 55-31 lead and stayed ahead by between 18 and 41 points the rest of the way as their magic number for reaching the postseason dropped to one.
• Westbrook’s 54 not enough: Russell Westbrook scored a career-high 54 points but Oklahoma City lost 116-104 at Indiana. C.J. Miles matched his season high with 30 points to lead Indiana to its fifth straight win and into a tie with Brooklyn for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. The Nets own the tiebreaker.
• Wizards reach rare win total: John Wall had no trouble finding his rhythm after resting for two games, producing 24 points and nine assists to lead Washington to its highest win total in more than 30 years by beating a second-string group for visiting Atlanta 108-99. Washington improved to 46-34, its first time topping 45 victories since 1978-79. Atlanta rested starters Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Al Horford and DeMarre Carroll.
Crenshaw succeeds Landers at Georgia
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Joni Crenshaw, Andy Landers’ top assistant the last three years, was named to succeed him as only the second Georgia women’s basketball coach.
Landers retired on March 16 after 36 seasons. He was 862-299 at Georgia, including five Final Four appearances. He was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
Crenshaw joined Landers’ staff in 2011. She was associate head coach the last three seasons.
• Chattanooga hires Florida assistant: Chattanooga has hired Florida assistant Matt McCall as its men’s basketball coach. McCall replaces Will Wade, who went 40-25 in two seasons. Chattanooga went 22-10 in 2014-15. Wade left Chattanooga to take over at VCU, where he had previously worked as an assistant.
McCall has spent the last four seasons as an assistant on Billy Donovan’s Florida staff.
Degenkolb wins Paris-Roubaix
CYCLING: John Degenkolb achieved a rare double as he outsprinted his rivals in the Roubaix (France) Velodrome to win the Queen of Classics after triumphing in Milan-San Remo earlier this year.
The German became the first rider since Sean Kelly in 1986 to win both Paris-Roubaix and the Primavera in the same year.
Degenkolb, who finished runner-up last year, launched the final sprint from far out to win ahead of Czech rider Zdenek Stybar, with Belgium’s Greg Vam Aermet ending third.
“San Remo was already emotional but this is topping everything,” Degenkolb said after the tough 253.5-kilometer (157.5-mile) trek through the World War I battlefields of northern France featuring 27 cobbled sections. “This is the race I always dreamt of winning,”
Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, who competed in his final big road race before focusing on the track ahead of the 2016 Olympics, finished 18th.
Korir surprise winner of Paris marathon
MISCELLANY: Mark Korir of Kenya surprised many including himself as he won the Paris marathon to claim the biggest victory of his career.
A specialist over shorter distances, Korir completed the 26-mile race in 2 hours, 5 minutes and 49 seconds to improve his personal best by more than a minute. The 30-year-old Korir won ahead of fellow Kenyan Luka Kanda and Ethiopian Seboka Tola.
Ethiopia’s Meseret Mengistu won the women’s race in 2:23:24.
• Yedlin on U.S. roster: Fresh off his Tottenham debut weekend, former Seattle Sounders’ defender DeAndre Yedlin was among 22 players picked for the United States’ exhibition game against Mexico on Wednesday night in San Antonio.
Yedlin and Hamburg forward Julian Green were the only two Europe-based players selected for the match.
• Sock wins first tennis title: Jack Sock won the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston for his first ATP World Tour title, beating Sam Querrey 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2) in an all-American final.
Sock became the sixth American to win the country’s only men’s clay-court tennis tournament.
• Marquez gets another easy win: Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez made an early pass and pulled away for an easy win at the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas, grabbing his first victory of the season.