Damian Lillard buzzer-beater lifts Milwaukee Bucks over Sacramento Kings, Denver Nuggets cool off Indiana Pacers

LOS ANGELES – Damian Lillard drilled a buzzer-beating three-pointer, his “best shot of the game”, to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a stunning 143-142 National Basketball Association (NBA) overtime victory over the Sacramento Kings on Jan 14.

The Kings led by as many as six in the extra session, but Brook Lopez’s three-pointer with 11.5 seconds left pulled Milwaukee within one, and after Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox missed one of two free throws, Lillard unleashed the game winner from the top of the arc.

“I shot my best shot on the last shot of the game,” said Lillard, who connected on just nine of his 23 attempts from the floor on the way to 29 points.

Giannis Antetokounmpo added a triple-double of 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the Bucks (28-12) at Fiserv Forum.

Domantas Sabonis notched a triple-double of 21 points, 13 rebounds and 15 assists, and Fox scored a game-high 32 points for Sacramento (23-16), whose coach Mike Brown was ejected early in the fourth quarter after confronting an official over a non-call when he thought Fox had been fouled.

Brown was still yelling as Kings guard Malik Monk wrapped his arms around him and shepherded him from the court with Sacramento trailing 105-95.

After the game, Brown took out his laptop to highlight calls he found frustrating. He said: “The referees are human, and they’re going to make mistakes, but you just hope that there’s some sort of consistency and there’s some sort of communication between the refs… The consistency wasn’t here tonight.”

Sacramento responded and Fox tied it up at 128-128 with a driving lay-up with one second left in regulation. The Kings were up by four with 33.9 seconds left in overtime.

“The team kept fighting,” Lillard said.

“I thought the biggest shot of the night was Brook’s three in the corner just to open up that opportunity. Once I saw that open space, I was like, this is the space that I live in.”

In Denver, Nikola Jokic was just one of three Nuggets players to score 25 points as the reigning NBA champions beat the Indiana Pacers 117-109.

Jokic added 12 rebounds and nine assists, Michael Porter Jr and Jamal Murray both scored 25 points, and Aaron Gordon added 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets (28-13).