The Philadelphia 76ers were going to have a tough matchup on Saturday regardless of who was on the floor, but it made things much tougher when they had to battle the Milwaukee Bucks without both of their star duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. On top of that, the Sixers were missing a key bench piece in Furkan Korkmaz as well.
The Sixers put up a fight and they pulled to within 60-57 in the third, but the Bucks went on a 26-6 run to end the quarter to lead 86-63 after three. Giannis Antetokounmpo was just too much to handle as he scored 24 points with 14 rebounds and seven assists to lead Milwaukee past the hobbled Sixers 132-94 to win both games of the mini-series. The Bucks were just too much down the stretch in the second half for Philadelphia to keep up.
The Sixers were led by Tyrese Maxey and Shake Milton with 15 each off the bench, Seth Curry added 13 points, Tobias Harris added nine and nine rebounds, and Dwight Howard had 12 and 12 boards in the loss.
Here are the three observations from a tough day in Milwaukee: