MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks have lost one game this season. After that game, despite playing without three of their top eight rotation players, Giannis Antetokounmpo made it clear that the Bucks need to compete every night if they want to have a successful season.
On Thursday night, they did just that at home, beating the Golden State Warriors 120-110 without Antetokounmpo, who was scratched 60 minutes before tipoff because of left-knee soreness.
“It doesn’t matter who plays,” Antetokounmpo said. “As long as you go out there, you’re going to give it everything you have, and this is who we’re going to be.
“We’re going to be a bunch of guys that play hard, that make plays, that space the floor the right way, guys that make open shots and guys that give everything every single night and make every single night a bar fight. It’s going to be a fight every, every, every single night.”
The Bucks did exactly what Antetokounmpo asked Thursday, going toe-to-toe with the veteran-laden Warriors.
Milwaukee did it as a team with eight players in double figures, but the standout performance belonged to fourth-year guard Ryan Rollins, who scored a career-high 32 points. Rollins knocked down 13 of the career-high 21 shots, including 5-of-7 from 3, and added eight assists and three rebounds, while also having the the toughest assignment on the other end: guarding Stephen Curry.
“He was hooping. Ryan is a hooper, yo,” said Bucks guard Cole Anthony, who had 16 points off the bench. “He be in here grinding every single day. He’s a pro.
“It wasn’t just on the offensive side, too. He turned us up defensively. He set the tone off the rip, guarded Steph the whole game. That’s a heck of a performance.”
Afterward, Rollins admitted that he was fighting through cramping in his legs to close out the game. But the 23-year-old still played a career-high 36 minutes and fought through the discomfort to compete against the team that acquired him on the night of the 2022 NBA Draft and the veterans who were showing him the ropes his rookie season.
“That’s my guy, man,” Rollins said of Curry, who signed his jersey for Rollins after the game. “He was my locker neighbor my first year. My first year was very fast for me, too, so, he was a great, down to earth dude.
“Him being Steph Curry, him just being so down to earth and humble and just how he talked to me when I was just coming in and for who he was at that time, his stature, (it was) very humbling.”
Even if Rollins appreciated his time with Curry as a rookie, he didn’t hold anything back as they went head-to-head Thursday.
With five and a half minutes remaining, Rollins bumped Curry to the ground as the Warriors point guard prepared to run off a screen from Draymond Green. Brandin Podziemski scored on the play, but the Bucks believed the Warriors took notice of Rollins’ bump that was not called a foul.
Your browser does not support the video tag.
On the next possession, Rollins got past Jonathan Kuminga on a drive and Green gave Rollins a strong foul to end his drive to the rim before Rollins attempted a shot. On the ensuing inbound play, Kuminga tied up Rollins and bumped him to the ground. The action on the floor got a rise of multiple players on the Bucks’ bench, but officials calmed the situation and Doc Rivers took a timeout shortly after to regroup.
“I think I bumped Steph, that’s why Draymond did what he did,” Rollins said. “I didn’t expect nothing different. I kind of liked it. Just turns me up a little bit more. It was fun, though.
“Just use that energy to just keep playing hard, use it on whatever end, the next play whether offense or defense … yeah, it’s really just using the energy. Like I said, it turns me up, so, I just, I like to bump, so, I liked that.”
Out of the timeout, Gary Trent Jr. hit a 3 to push the Bucks’ lead to eight. However, the Warriors didn’t go away and cut the lead to two on Curry’s fourth 3 with 4:03 remaining.
Rollins rose to the occasion and knocked down a stepback 3.
Another game, another career-high for Ry.
He’s got 27! pic.twitter.com/sRksuAxYOd
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) October 31, 2025
The Bucks poured it on over the next two minutes with both Myles Turner (17 points, seven rebounds) and AJ Green (10 points) knocking down clutch triples and Rollins isolating Warriors center Al Horford for a mid-range jumper to give the Bucks an 11-point lead with 2:07 to go.
Eventually, the Warriors cut the deficit to seven with 45 seconds left, and Rollins once again had the ball in his hands. The Bucks’ young point guard ran the shot clock down as low as it could go, and then did his best Curry impression with a stepback 3 from 28 feet.
GO OFF THEN RYAN ROLLINS! pic.twitter.com/odTyKlAFZV
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) October 31, 2025
“Watching him on film before tonight, you see he’s being very calculated on how to use his speed and create space and get downhill,” said Curry, who had 27 points, four 3s and five turnovers. “Shooting shots when he’s open. It seems like the game has slowed down enough when he’s making proper reads.
“You obviously saw it tonight, he played fearless out there … I’m happy for him, but I’m also pissed off.”
For Rollins, Thursday’s career-best performance was just the latest chapter in a storybook start to this season. After signing a three-year, $12 million contract over the summer, Rollins was going to come off the bench for the Bucks, but a left ankle sprain to Kevin Porter Jr. in Milwaukee’s season opener vaulted Rollins into the starting lineup.
On Tuesday, Rollins put up a then-career-high 25 points in the Bucks’ win over the New York Knicks. He topped it against the Warriors. The opportunity may not have been expected, but Rollins is making the most of it.
“Sometimes you need the opportunity to go out there and show what you can do, and I’m happy that he’s doing well with his opportunity right now,” Bobby Portis said of Rollins. “Hopefully, he can continue it for us, man. He’s been great for us on both ends of the floor, getting deflections, being on the right rotations, leading guys as well, using his voice, getting guys in the right position, so I’m proud of him.”
