Jrue Holiday scores career-high 51 points, Giannis Antetokounmpo has triple-double in Bucks' win

INDIANAPOLIS – The Milwaukee Bucks held back the pesky Indiana Pacers Wednesday night at Gainbridge FieldHouse, winning 149-136 to improve their NBA-best record to 55-21. They are now 11-4 in March.

Indiana dropped to 33-44 and have lost four in a row.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday dominate

The Bucks handled the Detroit Pistons on Monday without their MVP candidate (right knee soreness) and all-star point guard (personal reasons), but the duo were back Wednesday and immediately asserted themselves offensively – and they never looked back.

And when it was all said and done, the pair put together perhaps the greatest regular-season game by a duo in team history.

Holiday played 32 minutes and scored a career-high 51 points on 20-of-30 shooting. He was also 8 for 10 from the free throw line. He dished out eight assists and had eight rebounds.

Antetokounmpo also played 32 minutes and scored 38 points on 14-of-18 shooting. He also went 10 for 14 from the free throw line. He handed out 12 assists and pulled down 17 rebounds.

They accounted for 61.3% of the team’s points when Holiday exited for good at the 3 minute, 38 second mark of the fourth quarter with the Bucks up 145-126. At that point, the star duo had 20 of the team’s 27 assists, made 34 of their 56 shots and had 48 of their 90 field goal attempts.

It was the fourth 40-point game of Holiday’s career (and second this season), and he reached that with 2:50 left in the third quarter. He then set a new career-high seconds later. His previous best was a 41-point effort on April 21, 2018 while with New Orleans.

It was the fifth triple-double of the season for Antetokounmpo, and he recorded it in the quickest amount of time in his career with 8:50 left in the third quarter.

In a 74-point first half for the Bucks, Antetokounmpo and Holiday combined for 47 points. They made 18 of 23 combined shots with the rest of the team going a combined 11 for 25. Antetokounmpo nearly had his triple-double in 18 first half minutes, clocking 20 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Holiday’s 27 points in 16 minutes matched his 10th-highest scoring game of the season.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jrue Holiday, Giannis Antetokounmpo go off in Bucks win over Pacers