a 121-111 victory<\/a> over the New York Knicks. He followed that up by shooting 13-for-21 overall and 5-for-7 from 3-point range while also dishing out eight assists with only one turnover.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nGame Recap: Bucks 120, Warriors 110<\/p>\n
The Bucks needed that kind of effort without Antetokounmpo, who was ruled out due to a sore left knee. His breakthrough night helped Milwaukee improve to 4-1, a big reversal for a team that lost eight of its first 10 games last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a heck of a performance tonight,\u201d teammate Cole Anthony said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just on the offensive side, too. He turned us up defensively. He set the tone off the grim and guarded Steph (Curry) the whole game. That\u2019s a heck of a performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was particularly special for Rollins because he began his NBA career with the Warriors, who sent him to the Washington Wizards in the summer of 2023 as part of the trade that brought Chris Paul to Golden State.<\/p>\n
Rollins played just 12 games for Golden State as a rookie in 2022-23 but said Curry was a great mentor to him. The two-time MVP and four-time NBA champion signed a Warriors jersey for him after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHim being Steph Curry and him being just so down to earth and humble and just how he talked to me when I was just coming in, for who he was at that time and his stature, it was very humbling,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cThat\u2019s a great thing I witnessed my first year. It was great I got his jersey. I\u2019m going to hang it up on my wall somewhere, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curry said he\u2019s impressed with how far Rollins has come since that rookie year. Five games into the season, Rollins is averaging 18.6 points and 5.0 assists. He\u2019s coming off a 2024-25 season in which he averaged 6.2 points and 1.9 assists \u2013 both career highs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching him on film before tonight, you can see he\u2019s being very calculated on how to use his speed and create space and get downhill,\u201d Curry said. \u201cHe\u2019s shooting his shot when he\u2019s open. It seems like the game has slowed down enough where he\u2019s making proper reads. You obviously saw it tonight. He played fearless out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rollins also tangled with Curry midway through the fourth quarter, leading to an incident that could have caused the 23-year-old to lose his cool.<\/p>\n
Rollins gave Curry a big bump in the open floor but wasn\u2019t called for a foul as Golden State was bringing the ball upcourt with 5 \u00bd minutes left. Rollins then absorbed a couple of hard fouls from Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga the next time Milwaukee had the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect nothing different,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cI kind of liked it. It just turns me up a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than getting caught up in that, Rollins maintained his poise and made the biggest shot of the game. After Curry hit a 3-pointer to cut Milwaukee\u2019s lead to 106-104 with 4:03 remaining, Rollins sank a 3-point basket of his own 10 seconds later to start a game-clinching 11-2 spurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing of the night is literally everybody on the court wasn\u2019t afraid or hesitant about taking the shot,\u201d Rollins said.<\/p>\n
Rollins\u2019 teammates already were well aware of his boldness. They also knew about his diligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe puts the work in,\u201d Bucks forward Bobby Portis said. \u201cHe stays late after practice and after shootarounds. It\u2019s the same routine every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now he has the chance to show just what he can do. Rollins intends to continue making the most of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a tough kid, man,\u201d Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a team full of tough guys. Resilient maybe is a better word. They just keep coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP freelance writer Jack Albright contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bucks PG Ryan Rollins delivers career-best 32-point effort, leading Milwaukee to huge home win without Giannis Antetokounmpo. MILWAUKEE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,117552,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-251812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-ryan-rollins-bucks","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}