Bucks Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo Makes More NBA History vs Hawks

Two-time league MVP power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was on an absolute tear in helping his Milwaukee Bucks survive a scrappy Atlanta Hawks squad en route to reaching their first NBA Cup Finals. Milwaukee bested Atlanta with some late two-way play, posting a 110-102 final.

The Bucks will face off against the winner of the Western Conference bracket of the semifinals, between the 19-5 Oklahoma City Thunder — the West's No. 1 seed — and the 17-8 Houston Rockets — the No. 3 seed in the conference.

Antetokounmpo scored 32 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and 12-of-18 shooting from the foul line, grabbed 14 rebounds, dished out nine dimes, blocked four shots, and swiped one steal in 37:54 of action.

The 6-foot-11 big man, 30, also made some unique history of his own during the win.

Per Eric Nehm of The Athletic, the eight-time All-NBA honoree surpassed Hall of Famer Bob Lanier to enter the league's all-time top 60 scorers list.

Lanier, an eight-time All-Star center with the Detroit Pistons and Bucks, enjoyed a decorated 14-year pro career.

Across 14 seasons (nine-and-a-half with Detroit, four-and-a-half with Milwaukee), the 6-foot-11 St. Bonaventure product posted stellar averages of 20.1 points on 51.4 percent shooting from the floor and 76.7 percent shooting from the charity stripe, 10.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.1 steals across 959 regular season bouts. It's worth noting that blocks and steals were not recorded as stats until Lanier's fourth season in the league, 1973-74, so it's possible that the hyper-athletic big man, who finished in the top 14 in MVP voting twice during his first three seasons, could have improved those particular averages.

Lanier finished his career in 1983-84 with 19,248 regular season points, now the 61st-most scored in NBA history (but "just" the 65th-most scored in combined NBA and ABA regular season scoring history).

Antetokounmpo now has 19,254 total career points. Next up on his list of prolific scorers to lap: three-time Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford, who notched 19,419 total regular season points across a 20-year career.

The Greek Freak has been getting it done on both ends. He recorded his fourth block of the night in the game's closing minutes, a stupendous rejection of Hawks starting center Clint Capella:

UNREAL BLOCK BY GIANNIS! pic.twitter.com/Uw4StJjRqu
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) December 14, 2024

Assistant Bucks coach Darvin Ham and role player Milwaukee swingman Taurean Prince have yet to lose a single game through two years of NBA Cup play. Last season, with Ham serving as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and Prince working as a backup, they saw L.A. make an undefeated run en route to winning the inaugural NBA Cup, then clunkily called the NBA In-Season Tournament. Milwaukee is 6-0 in NBA Cup play.

The Bucks have now won 12 of their last 15 contests, and improve to a 14-11 record on the year. The NBA Cup championship game, which will not count toward the Bucks' regular season record, will tip off on Tuesday night.

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