The Milwaukee Bucks have done the impossible.
Behind a 28-point outing from center Greg Monroe, the Bucks handed the road-weary Golden State Warriors their first loss of the season, dropping the defending champions 108-95 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Saturday.
The Warriors are now 24-1.
Just as they did on Friday, the Warriors looked noticeably disjointed throughout Saturday's contest. They immediately conceded a 12-point deficit in the first quarter, and they repeatedly lagged in transition against the young Bucks.
Golden State eventually closed the gap, but the reigning champions simply looked off. Case in point: The league's most accurate team shot worse from deep than the league's worst 3-point shooting team (6-of-26 against 6-of-14).
Draymond Green fired up airballs. Stephen Curry repeatedly hit front iron. Andre Iguodala passed up wide open looks. Even Klay Thompson, who returned and was well-rested after missing a game due to a sprained ankle, clanked all but four of his 14 attempts.
Related - Klay Thompson: Bucks 'didn't shut us down; no one shuts us down'
Context does matter here. The reigning champions had played a thoroughly exhausting double-overtime contest against the Boston Celtics the night before, and didn't land in Wisconsin until 3:30 a.m. Golden State had also played six straight road games, and were trying to become the first team in NBA history to go undefeated on a seven-game trip.
But the bottom line is that they lost, and credit goes to the Bucks, who played a nearly perfect game while also on the second night of a back-to-back.
To beat the Warriors' hydra, they needed a Herculean effort to cut off the head of the snake. Buck guards Michael Carter-Williams and O.J. Mayo smothered Curry, and used their length to disrupt his rhythm. Milwaukee's rangy bigs also did a dutiful job of providing help, and picking the right spots to help.
Curry scored 28 points on 2-of-8 shooting from deep. He did most of his damage at the basket, but that was probably preferable to letting him catch fire from deep.
The Bucks held the Warriors 5/32 shooting (16%) on jump shots in the half court including 1/15 of pull ups to snap their historic streak.
— Synergy Sports Tech (@SynergySST) December 13, 2015
Offensively, the Bucks relied on a relentless diet of drives and post-ups. They had the size advantage at almost every position, and used it effectively. The 6-foot-7 Carter-Williams repeatedly scored over the diminutive Curry, and Monroe was an unstoppable force on the low block. Tack on a steady slew of transition finishes from Giannis Antetokounmpo - who earned his first career triple-double - and Jabari Parker, and the Bucks' ordinarily dormant offense overpowered the backpedaling Warriors.
As tired as they were, Golden State did make a final push. After falling down by 13 with six minutes remaining, the Warriors turned to their trusty small-ball lineup. However, with Curry's prayers going unanswered, downsizing only exacerbated their problems.
Monroe reeled off 11 points in the fourth quarter as he was met with minimal resistance in the paint. Carter-Williams went on to punctuate the victory with an emphatic slam which brought the ecstatic home crowd to its feet. Related - VIDEO: Bucks' Carter-Williams seals upset over Warriors with steal, slam Brushing aside all the hoopla, the Warriors' run was bound to end eventually. During their record start, they made a 23-point comeback, survived two overtime battles, fought the Toronto Raptors to the wire twice, and generally took everyone's best punch. They withstood it all, but the run looked to have taken its toll on the players both mentally and physically. As Green explained after the game, the Warriors can finally have something resembling normalcy.
Draymond Green told his teammates, "We can have a regular season now." The past six weeks have felt like the playoffs.
— Rusty Simmons (@Rusty_SFChron) December 13, 2015
As for the Bucks, the sleepy northern franchise renewed their status as giant killers. Saturday's win was the sixth time in franchise history that the Bucks have snapped a team's run of at least 12 wins - including ending the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers' untouchable 33-game winning streak.
Related - Curry after Warriors' 1st loss: '33 was within our grasp'
But there's also a silver lining for the Warriors: The previous five victims of Milwaukee's upsets have all gone on to win the championship. That's a trade-off the Warriors would almost assuredly accept.
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