LOS ANGELES_Most of the 21 million viewers who tuned into "60 Minutes" on Sunday night came for the Stormy Daniels interview.
Those who stayed beyond the adult film star's appearance got an up-close look at Giannis Antetokounmpo, the burgeoning NBA superstar who is so athletic and versatile that he leads the Milwaukee Bucks in scoring, rebounds, assists and blocked shots.
The segment on CBS' news-magazine show included one clip in which the 6-foot-11, 235-pound Antetokounmpo, nicknamed "The Greek Freak," jumped over a 6-foot-10 Knicks defender to make a one-hand catch of a lob-pass before slamming the ball through the hoop.
Among the other highlights of the 23-year-old with a 7-foot-3 wingspan was a dizzying array of spin-moves and high-flying dunks and a no-look, 25-foot reverse pass through his legs that would have made an NFL long-snapper proud.
This was the force the Los Angeles Clippers had to reckon with in Staples Center Tuesday night, the one that nearly took a wrecking ball to their playoff hopes.
Except the Clippers wouldn't let him. Antetokounmpo was dominant at times, scoring a game-high 26 points to go with nine rebounds, seven assists and five blocked shots, but the Clippers caught fire midway through the fourth period and pulled out a 105-98 victory before a crowd of 19,068.
Trailing by five points with 8 minutes 17 seconds remaining, the Clippers went on a 13-0 run that was highlighted by Austin Rivers' seven points, a steal and an assist. Rivers, Tobias Harris and Wesley Johnson each hit open three-pointers during the run, which gave the Clippers a 96-88 lead with 4:12 left.
Rivers had three points through three quarters and scored 10 in the fourth. Harris scored six of his 19 points in the fourth, and Lou Williams had 16 points in the game.
The Clippers, who made 15 of 28 three-pointers in the game, moved into ninth place in Western Conference and are 1{{ games behind eighth-place Minnesota with eight games left.
"It was a really tough mental night for us because we had a lot of guys struggling, we kind of lost our way," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "We had to dig down and just figure out how to win tonight and fix what we didn't do tomorrow."
Antetokounmpo, who entered with averages of 27.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.43 blocked shots, made that difficult.
He blocked three shots, two by DeAndre Jordan, late in the second quarter, plays that led to a pair of fast-break baskets, as the Bucks took a 62-56 halftime lead. He scored 10 points in the third quarter, as the Bucks took an 82-78 lead into the fourth.
But the Clippers did just enough defensively, with Harris, Sindarius Thornwell and Tyrone Wallace doing the dirty work, to prevent him from taking over the game.
"I think we guarded him as well as you can guard him," Doc Rivers said. "When youn have a nickname and Freak is at the end of it, you're probably pretty good, you know what I mean? He was good, but I liked how we guarded him. We clogged the paint on him. He's just tough, man ... he's 7-foot-9."
The Clippers sizzled out of the gate, making seven of seven three-point attempts, including a career-high-tying four by Milos Teodosic, in the first 6{ minutes.
Teodosic had 12 points in the first, a career-high for a quarter. He made an around-the-back pass to Johnson for a corner three and an eye-popping, two-hand, over-the-head, no-look pass to Jordan for a dunk in the second.
But two minutes before halftime, Teodosic hobbled to the locker room because of a sore left plantar fascia and did not return. He will undergo an MRI test on Wednesday and is expected to miss at least two games.
