Jalen Suggs scores career night 32 points against Milwaukee Bucks

As Bulldogs fans know, Suggs doesn’t come easy. He wasn’t in the team’s locker room long before he trotted back to the scorer’s table, his hand wrapped in athletic tape. The 6-foot-2 guard returned with just under two minutes left in the third quarter, just in time for another epic clutch performance.

From lofted 3-pointers to acrobatic finishes at the rim, Suggs carried Orlando forward offensively in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 points, including 10 in a row, to put his team in position to potentially clinch the game in the final seconds decide. He knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the score at 100 apiece with 3:07 left in regulation, then gave the Magic the lead with an 18-foot jump shot to make it 1-1. 45 to get to 104-103.

Mental errors on the Magic’s part opened the door for the Bucks to regain the lead in the final minute. Damian Lillard took advantage of two favorable matchups, the first leading to a stepback 3-pointer and the next to a breakaway dunk, to make it 108-107 in Milwaukee’s favor with 32.1 seconds to play.

Suggs had two good shots from long range in the final 12 seconds, although he missed both shots as the Magic’s surge late in the fourth quarter came up just short. Anthony Black had 17 points and Moritz Wagner 13 points off the bench, while Goga Bitadze posted a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

Suggs and Bitadze connected on a well-executed pick-and-roll that ended with the latter throwing a poster dunk over Giannis Antetokounmpo. Defensively, he disrupted Milwaukee’s offense early and often in the first quarter. He recorded three steals, one of which resulted in a nice forward pass to Tristan da Silva in transition.

The Minnesota native’s career night on Tuesday comes just two days after he scored 26 points in Orlando’s win over the Phoenix Suns. He had seven games with 20 or more points this season, including a then-career-best 31 points against the Chicago Bulls on November 27.

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