The crowd was loud, but then soon turned down as the Milwaukee Bucks hosted the Philadelphia 76ers and lost 130-125 at the Fiserv Forum for a St. Patrick’s Day Sunday matinee.

All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo managed to set a new career-high 52 points in the sold-out arena, which also set a new attendance record.

But he met his match in All-Star Center Joel Embiid who led his team with 40 points and 15 rebounds. The Bucks, who are currently the top seed in the league, were met with their match as a team against the No. 3 seed 76ers as the visiting team used superstar players Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and JJ Redick to win.

  • Milwaukee Bucks vs Philadelphia 76ers Sunday afternoon. Photo: Kahrima Winston

Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown spoke on Embiid’s performance postgame, and highlighted how it took the whole squad to contain Antetokounmpo, quite possibly the number one player in the league, and his number one team.

“Guarding Giannis, I think he did a good job,” Brown said. “But it took a village. It really did. So, good job.”

The togetherness is what the Bucks seemed to be missing more than any shot or free throw. Newly-acquired big man Nikola Mirotic went 0-of-6 from three on the night, even having played substantial minutes. Second-year athletic forward D.J. Wilson showed his worth in the first half, shooting lights out and helping cut down on the 76ers margin, but his spark seemed to have disappeared in the second half. And the Bucks were missing Malcolm Brogdon, whose announcement of a minor plantar fascia foot injury came not even 24 hours before Sunday’s game on Saturday night.

“Just his steady presence. He’s always consistent,” forward Khris Middleton said on missing Brogdon. “He’s a big part of what we do here on and off the ball, on the defensive side. He just makes big plays for us. We just have to be professional. We’re a team. If a guy goes down, it’s got to be a group effort to pull us together. We do have stretches like that when we have key players down or out, so it’s not going to be one person, or two people. It’s going to be everybody to feel that void.”

  • Giannis and the Bucks warming up pregame.

It was all Antetokounmpo to fill these shoes on Sunday, and he delivered with his career 52, 16 rebounds, and 19-of-21 shots from the free throw line. Middleton finished with 19 points, and others like Eric Bledsoe and George Hill played through Brogdon’s absence in the backcourt.

Indeed it was all Antetokounmpo in the second half, who twisted his own ankle in the third quarter, but got up strong. A few ferocious dunks, a pretty spin off the baseline, and a poster on Simmons kept the Bucks afloat until the final minutes.

Milwaukee just wasn’t enough for the heavy rotation and hot-shooting of the 76ers, whose Simmons put Antetokounmpo back on a poster dunk. Of course, Embiid kept scoring and forced the Bucks to play the foul game.

The matchup was one for the ages and for live television broadcast. The home team erupted when their team scored and booed when the other team scored. If this regular season game is any indication of what the upcoming playoffs will be like, then the Bucks will likely have their hands full, especially without Brogdon, in the East with teams like Philly who know how to enter a building and pick up a win, in spite of career-highs, season records, attendance records, All-Star players, and injuries.

“If we play Philly in the playoffs, we are going to learn from tonight’s game and hopefully we can react better and play better,” Antetokounmpo said on the possibility of facing the Sixers in the playoffs.

An obviously tough loss by only five points for the Bucks, but it was an even tougher game overall against an Eastern Conference foe. The Bucks have another tough game and matchup just right around the corner on Tuesday night as LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers visit Fiserv Forum.

Antetokounmpo turned into the Hulk in his green uniform and dropped 52 on Embiid and his Sixers, and perhaps, he can do it again, but he’ll have to turn back into his signature Greek Freak, something unlikely and unseen, and do something unlikely and unseen, and do it even better to pick up the win for his team on Tuesday night.

Tipoff against the Lakers is at 7 p.m and will be broadcast live on NBA TV.