The New Orleans Pelicans competed their tails off, especially in the first 24 minutes, but the dominant Milwaukee Bucks grabbed control out of the locker room at halftime to win 136-113 going away.
Playing without their two leading scorers in Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas — and still pondering when the first minutes of the season will come for Zion Williamson, the Pelicans were always going to be running uphill, through the snow, both ways against the Bucks.
Milwaukee entered Saturday night on a five-game winning streak and had two of their Big 3 in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday in uniform.