The Bucks rallied from 17 points down in the fourth quarter to make it 118-111 with 1 minute, 43 seconds left in the game, but could not complete the comeback.

“Sometimes it’s a game guys,” Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr. “I think we just gotta weather the storm, continue to weather the storm, and we’ll get through it. There’s a lot of games to be played still. Every opportunity we want it. We’ll win three in a row. I’m confident.”

Milwaukee (16-21) had won consecutive games but, yet again, could not win a third in a row. The Bucks are now 0-4 when trying to win a third straight game and are 4-12 in games following a victory. They came into the game having won five of their last seven.

“At some point we have to string ‘em together,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers acknowledged. “If we win two out of the three the rest of the season, it’s not awful, but we want that to be better.”

Stephen Curry scored 31 points on 12-of-21 shooting to lead five Warriors (20-18) players in double figures.

Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 34 points and 10 rebounds. He also had five assists in the loss. Five other Milwaukee players reached double figures. The Warriors scored 15 points off 12 Bucks turnovers and 22 second chance points off eight offensive rebounds.

Bucks lose their cool in second quarter

The playbook is out on the Bucks, part of which says that physical play can get under their skin. That became evident in the second quarter, when Green got to Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo committed a foul over 30 feet away from the basket hitting Green in the open court, a favor Green repaid later by sending the Bucks star sprawling onto the baseline after hitting him in the face with an elbow on a layup.

That required the two future Hall of Famers to talk it out together walking to half court, but afterward Antetokounmpo remained fired up and was called for a delay of game before shooting a free throw.

“I really believe that the referees are human and they’re going to miss plays. And it’s OK,” Antetokounmpo said when asked about the play. “I don’t think I’m one of the guys that complains a lot or show a lot of emotion when the play doesn’t go my way. Obviously, everybody has eyes and they have their opinions of what that play was and how I’m being officiated the last couple of years, not just this season. But at the end of the day, again, as I said, they’re human, they’re going to miss plays.

“But I think the most important thing is the player and referee relationship, which coming from Greece, I believed I saw it on TV. I saw it when Allen Iverson, when Michael Jordan, when Kobe Bryant, when Shaq, when all these all-time greats approached the referees and had the conversation. You know, what they thought it was and they felt comfortable doing that and I feel like sometimes when there’s a player that doesn’t show a lot of emotion and plays the right way and doesn’t complain, if I get hit and I approach a referee and I say like, ‘Hey, I think you should review that.’ I don’t want to impose my will to the game because I’m not the type of guy that will yell, yell because you see a lot of players, they yell, yell, yell, yell, yell. And then they just get numb to it, right? So, when I yell, it’s almost like they’re surprised and give me a tech.

“But I think you just gotta keep on growing upon that player-referee relationship like when I approach a referee or they approach me. They say, ‘Giannis, you gotta hurry up on your free throw. Your free throw routine, it takes too long.’ I’m like, ‘I appreciate you.’ Then I try to do my best, you know? And I feel like sometimes when I get hit and I approach the referee and I say, ‘Hey, I think I got hit in my face, I think you should review that.’ Sometimes, I think, maybe they should review it. It doesn’t take (long). It takes five seconds. It doesn’t disrupt the game at all, I think, and especially on a play like that.”

While that was all going on, Bucks guards Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins engaged in a lengthy conversation with referee Tyler Ricks.

Moments later, Antetokounmpo scored over Green and jawed with the Warriors big man on their way back down the court, resulting in Green shoving Antetokounmpo in the chest.

“I think, and maybe because I play through contact and I don’t manipulate the game, I try to play a fair game, try to play an honest game. I don’t think I’ve ever, you’ve never seen a play of me going down and be like ahhh, a flail, a flop,” Antetokounmpo said. “If I fall on the floor, usually somebody pushed me or somebody hit me in my face, right? So, I just don’t understand. Sometimes I watch plays and I have my people that are around me, my coaches telling me hey man, you’re so hard to be officiated and you’re having the Shaq treatment. Like, they foul you and they don’t call nothing because you play through contact. So, yeah, I understand that. And I’m OK with that. I love it. I love playing that way.

“But, I have a basket which I thought, in my opinion, I thought it was an “and one.” Coming down, I get pushed. Did everybody saw that? I was the only person that saw that? Everybody saw that? I’m not crazy right? Why is that not called? So, like, but I understand. They’re human. The same way I fall into the momentum of the game and I might approach a referee and might raise my voice because of my, how you say, I’m in the game, I’m playing and it’s loud and all that and I might raise my voice sometimes. And I feel like sometimes they do the same and they’re human and I understand and you just gotta be able to live with it and try not to complain.”

Jimmy Butler III then took advantage by getting the basket and drawing a third foul on Antetokounmpo in just 13 minutes of play, sending him to the bench.

He checked out with the Bucks trailing 53-50, but Butler’s free throws made it 55-50. That ignited a 11-0 Warriors run that included two Porter turnovers and a technical foul – which forced Rivers to pull him in the final seconds of the half with the Warriors up 65-53.

“I thought in the first half we didn’t do a good job of it,” Rivers said of his team keeping its cool. “But, listen, I also thought veteran teams like this get away with things like; how you don’t look at the flagrant foul is ridiculous, right? And listen, I’m a big Draymond Green fan before I say that, and the reason I am is because he’s such an instigator, all right? But they call a tech in the first half on (Porter) after Draymond Green’s waving his hands at refs, yelling at refs, but then they call a tech on (Porter). I mean, gimme a break. Clear flagrant foul. It was windup, impact. They didn’t even look. They didn’t even look! And then they all three come out at halftime and said man, we blew that, that was a flagrant, we should’ve looked.

“I’m like, my only question is what were you looking at? You called a foul. So you saw something. It’s really frustrating there. And so, what I’m saying is, in our defense, they see that, that’s frustrating.”

After the game, Porter acknowledged he needed to be better in that moment.

“I know once they call the foul they ain’t gonna give me that foul back, so I showed some frustration,” Porter said. “Like Doc said, I gotta let the coaches have the player’s back and let Doc handle it all. First tech, hopefully it’s my only tech for the year.”

Golden State outscored the Bucks 33-22 in the frame and made 57.1% (8-for-14) of its 3-point attempts. The Bucks on the other hand, committed five fouls and turned it over four times.

Though the Bucks would open the second half with an 8-0 run to once again pull it to three, they never got closer than that.

“But that’s not the reason we lost,” Antetokounmpo said of the non-calls. “That’s not the reason we lost. Golden State played better than us. We did not trust one another. We did not trust one another, we did not have good shot selection. We didn’t rebound the ball. There was a time our effort and energy was good and at time it was flat, and they did the complete opposite so they was able to win the game.”

Bucks can’t solve Warriors math problem

When Curry lined up a 3-pointer just about halfway through the third quarter, it was the Warriors’ 32^nd attempt of the game from behind the arc. And though it missed, it was 15 more than the Bucks had attempted to that point. Golden State had made 13 of those long-distance attempts, compared to just six for Milwaukee. The 21-point advantage had a lot to do with the fact the Warriors led 77-67 at that juncture in the game, negating Antetokounmpo’s dominance inside the arc (even though Antetokounmpo had hit two of those 3-pointers for his team).

This, of course, should have come to no surprise for Milwaukee.

Golden State entered the game leading the league in 3-point attempts (43.8) and second in makes (15.8) per game, though they were just 15^th in make percentage at 36%. Yet in the first half Warriors players Moses Moody (3 for 5), De’Anthony Melton (5 for 6) and Al Horford (2 for 2) found themselves with relatively clean looks.

To add some salt to those early stat lines, Draymond Green was 3 for 7 from behind the arc, including two 3-pointers halfway through the fourth quarter when the Bucks were trying to mount a comeback.

Curry, the league leader in individual 3-point makes and attempts, was held beneath his averages by going 3 for 9, but the sheer volume of Warriors makes were the difference.

Overall, the Warriors would shoot 38.3% from behind the arc but they made 18 of their 47 attempts. And while the Bucks were a more than respectable 43.8% and made 14 , but attempted only 32. The 12-point difference in makes proved to be a big part of the difference in the game.

Milwaukee came is as the league’s second-best 3-point shooting team at 39.5% but were just 15^th in attempts (37.4).

For over a decade, the Warriors present a math problem for opponents and unfortunately for the Bucks they were the latest team to not solve the equation.

“Exactly right,” Rivers said, noting it was another margin the Warriors won in. “We thought we could generate a ton of threes tonight, and every time we went downhill we did. And I thought we stopped doing that. I thought the reason is because we stopped trusting.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo dominates despite minutes limit

Sitting in a chair a couple rows off the baseline at Chase Center following practice on Jan. 6, Doc Rivers walked by Antetokounmpo and complimented him on a good session.

Antetokounmpo leaned back and said, “Coach I’ll be ready (Jan. 7). I’ll give you the best 28 minutes of my life!”

Rivers shouted back, “We upped it!”

Antetokounmpo’s eyes widened.

“To what?” he said, “Thirty-two now?”

Rivers said 30, a number which Antetokounmpo repeated with a tinge of disappointment.

The Bucks’ superstar had pushed the limits of his minute restriction on Jan. 4 in Sacramento, logging 31 minutes in the win over the Kings. He joked after the game he was scolded by the team’s training staff for that, but since returning from a soleus strain in his right calf on Dec. 27 the Bucks have been cautious about building Antetokounmpo’s workload.

“Keeping somebody healthy, just hope they don’t run into someone,” Rivers said before the Warriors game. “There’s no way you can keep someone healthy. I think that’s just impossible. You just hope they stay healthy, but there’s nothing any team’s gonna do to just keep a guy healthy. That’s impossible.”

For his part, Antetokounmpo has been dominating opponents despite the restriction. In his five games heading into the contest with the Warriors, he averaged 30.6 points in just 28.0 minutes. To do that, he’s shot a remarkable 65.5% from the field and 77.6% from the free throw line.

Against Golden State it was more of the same, as he scored 34 points in 31 minutes on 15 of 22 shooting.

“I feel good. I feel good,” he said after the game in Sacramento. “I mean, (expletive), I’ve played five games I’m averaging 30, (expletive), you know what I’m saying? But you know it’d be a cool line to not say I’m 100%. I’m like at 60 (percent). That would be so cool to say. Now, to be honest with you, my body’s getting aligned. It’s not aligned yet. It takes me a little while.”