Giannis Antetokounmpo And Kemba Walker Dueled In An Opening Night Thriller In Charlotte

The Bucks and Hornets opened their respective seasons on Wednesday night in a game few would have tabbed as the best of the night. Milwaukee jumped out to a 36-23 first quarter lead, and it looked like we were in for a rout, but a second half eruption from Kemba Walker suddenly made things interesting in what became a shootout between the teams’ All-Stars.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 23 points, 18 rebounds, and eight assists on the night, once again starting the season with an MVP caliber performance. For much of the game, Giannis was getting whatever he wanted at the rim, bullying his way past Charlotte defenders and finishing in traffic and over defenders.

However, his performance was matched by Kemba Walker who, as he’s done so many times in the past, put the Hornets on his back with 41 points to get them back into the game by hitting big shot after big shot.

The Hornets took their first lead in the game with inside a minute to play on a pair of Walker free throws, as they took a 112-111 advantage. The Bucks answered back with an Antetokounmpo drive to get to the free throw line, where he hit both of his free throws to go back up by one.

Charlotte put Kemba Walker into a pick-and-roll where he drove to the rim but couldn’t finish over John Henson. Henson tapped it out to the top of the key where Marvin Williams found a wide open Nic Batum, whose three ball went long at the buzzer to give Milwaukee a one-point win.