LOS ANGELES—Mike Dunleavy is fitting in nicely with his new team, scoring a season-high 20 points as the Atlanta Hawks beat the Milwaukee Bucks 111-98 on Sunday.
Dunleavy, who was playing in just his second NBA game with the Hawks, initially baulked at a trade to Atlanta that sent Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It took a meeting with coach Mike Budenholzer to convince him it was a good career move.
“It’s new for me and it’s new for them,” Dunleavy said. “Of all the teams to come to, it’s been easy to fit in here.”
Dunleavy was four for five on three-pointers and posted his first 20-point game since April 2015, when he played for Chicago.
Atlanta has won for the eighth time of its last nine games.
Atlanta also got 24 points from guard Kent Bazemore and 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists from forward Paul Millsap.
Milwaukee was led by forward Giannis Antetokounmpo with 33 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Elsewhere, DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points as a physical Toronto Raptors outmuscled the New York Knicks 116-101.
DeRozan added five assists and five rebounds for Toronto but it was the no-nonsense defensive effort from his team that delighted Raptors coach Dwane Casey.
“I was really proud of the way the starters came out and set the tone, especially starting the third quarter,” Casey said.
“(We) came out, set the tone defensively and built a 30-plus (point) lead, so my hats off to those guys.”
Kyle Lowry, who finished with 16 points, nine assists and four rebounds, for Toronto, agreed.
“I just think we got more physical,” Lowry said of the defense. “I think we started to get more physical after the first part of the first quarter and we just kept going.
“The bigs did a good job of rebounding and we got out and were able to run.”
Third quarter burst
Toronto effectively sealed victory in the third quarter, outscoring the Knicks 27-8.
The Raptors third win in a row improved their record to 27-13 in the Eastern Conference standings. The Canadian franchise has now defeated the Knicks in five straight games.
“We weren’t getting the stops, were not scoring, had some looks, but when you’re not scoring, that’s when you have to focus defensively and say, ‘OK we may not be scoring, but we can stay in this game with defense,’” Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said.
“We weren’t good enough to play any defense and it just ballooned out from there.”
Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 18 points, with Justin Holiday adding 17 and Derrick Rose 16 with three assists.
It was a fourth loss in five games for New York, who have a losing 18-23 record at the midpoint of the season.
In Sacramento, Russell Westbrook scored 36 points to record his 20th triple-double of the season, and Evan Kanter came off the bench to score 29 as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat Sacramento 122-118.
Westbrook also tallied 11 rebounds and 10 assists for the 57th triple-double of his career. He is two behind Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird for fifth on the NBA’s all-time list.
