Mitchell's 37 points power Cavaliers to victory over Bucks as Antetokounmpo exits with injury

CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 37 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied for a 118-106 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, who saw All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo leave Monday night's game due to injury.

Antetokounmpo immediately went to the locker room with 3:03 remaining in the second quarter and did not return due to a left groin strain. The 14-year veteran came into the game tied for second in the league and leading the Eastern Conference in scoring at 32.6 points per game.

Coach Doc Rivers said there would further testing for Antetokounmpo on Tuesday.

Antetokounmpo was listed as probable on the injury report due to left knee patellar tendinopathy, but finished with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists in 13 minutes.

Mitchell, second in the Eastern Conference in scoring at 30.4 points per game, had 25 points in the first half. It is the fifth time this season he has had at least 35 points in a game.

Sam Merrill added 20 points, including six 3-pointers, for the Cavaliers, who have won three of their last four. Merrill had 11 points in the final 12 minutes as Cleveland took control.

The Bucks, who have dropped three of four, had seven players in double figures. Ryan Rollins led the way with 22 points and Myles Turner added 15.

The game was tied at 88 before Cleveland took control with a 12-3 run late in the third and early in the fourth quarter. The Cavaliers' largest lead was 14 points late in the game.

Milwaukee jumped out to a 30-16 advantage with three minutes remaining in the first quarter before Cleveland began rallying back.

Cleveland has won seven straight over Milwaukee and is 19-4 against Central Division foes since March 2024.

Bucks: Host Philadelphia on Thursday.

Cavaliers: Host Houston on Wednesday.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Cleveland Cavaliers' Jarrett Allen dunks as Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis Jr. looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Cleveland, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Milwaukee Bucks' Kyle Kuzma, center, shoots over Cleveland Cavaliers' Dean Wade, left, and Lonzo Ball (2) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Cleveland, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, right, talks to referee Dedric Taylor (21) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Cleveland, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo drives to the basket as Cleveland Cavaliers' Donovan Mitchell, right, looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Cleveland, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Cleveland Cavaliers' Donovan Mitchell (45) looks to pass as Milwaukee Bucks' Ryan Rollins, rear, obscured, defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Cleveland, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

When people talk about baking, they often focus on the final product. The tender cookies, the domed muffins, the rich brownies. But the real draw of baking starts long before you roll out the pie crust.

Baking can be many things: an act of creation, connection, control. There’s something comforting about the structure of it: the measuring, the stirring, the transformation of a handful of ingredients into something delicious.

Even if life doesn’t always feel orderly, follow the recipe and things should turn out as planned. It’s like therapy, with a present at the end.

“Baking is how I best connect with the world around me -- making something wonderful and sharing it with others and seeing how much joy they receive from something I made with my own hands,” says chef Joanne Chang, co-owner of Flour Bakery in Boston and an author of baking cookbooks.

"It’s a way to make the world a bit sweeter one cookie, cake, pie at a time.”

When it’s cold outside, there’s something cozy about a warm kitchen and the aroma of something sweet.

But baking can also be catharsis for more volatile feelings: The term “rage baking” was popularized by writer Tangerine Jones, who turned to flour and sugar to channel her anger at the world’s injustices.

Baking can be about maintaining traditions, or possibly curiosity (what is julekake, anyway?).

Hannah Skobe, a doctoral student in astrophysics in Pittsburgh, loves the chemistry aspect of baking — how butter behaves differently at different temperatures, for instance, or why the proteins in egg whites break down when they are over-beaten.

She also finds the process therapeutic, a much-needed break from work.

Ron Ben-Israel, who focuses on elaborate wedding cakes as chef and owner of Ron Ben-Israel Cakes, in New York City, was drawn as a child to “watching as ingredients change through technique” in his mother's kitchen.

"Especially the process of whipping egg whites into meringue fascinated me,” he said.

For him and others, there's an element of nostalgia. A parent’s rugalach recipe, the pie their favorite aunt made every Thanksgiving, the cookies they helped decorate as kids.

Or, it's a way to mark the calendar: a crunchy, buttery crisp in the fall after an apple picking expedition, Irish soda bread on St. Patrick’s Day, a favorite birthday cake that must be made every year.

Alex George of the blog Lily P Crumbs finds something satisfyingly tactile and tangible about baking. Cracking eggs, creaming butter — there’s a lot of sensory pleasure to be had, especially in a screen-centric world. Kneading dough for bread, spreading the icing on cinnamon rolls.

Her readers, she says, “love the process as much as the payoff."

George loves inventing new kinds of baked goods, seeking inspiration whenever she tries a new food: “Savory food is my favorite kind of muse. One incredible French onion soup I had recently inspired my caramelized onion biscuits with French onion soup compound butter.”

Bernard Wong, an avid home baker in New York City, also enjoys delving into new techniques. He has experimented with laminated doughs (think croissants and puff pastry), and has recently played with the East Asian technique — known as tangzhong in China and yudane in Japan — of pouring boiling water over flour to partially cook it, resulting in softer, fluffier breads.

Wong takes pleasure in satisfy a craving for something by making it himself. For instance, he couldn’t find anadama bread, a traditional New England yeast bread, “but I know how to make it.

“It’s economical, I get to control what’s inside of it, and it passes the time when I’m in my apartment and keeps my hands busy,” he said.

He often chooses high-quality ingredients and still saves money compared to buying the finished product. He splurges on expensive chocolate like Callebaut and Valrhona, for instance, and jams as many chips as possible into his cookies.

Even better, confections like these are shareable and can be a way of expressing a sentiment. It might be as simple as “I missed you,” or “I thought you might need something sweet to get through this moment.”

Skobe recently made a banana cake with cream cheese frosting for her co-workers: “I loved seeing all of my friends come to my desk to grab a slice.”

As Chang puts it: “I’m grateful I get to do something that I love so much and that others love so much too."

At its heart, baking feels hopeful. It might be about feeding others, or celebrating, or creating a moment of calm in an otherwise chaotic world, but it’s also about the belief that if you measure the ingredients and follow the steps, something good should come out of it.

Oh, and julekake? It's a Norwegian Christmas cake.

Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at https://themom100.com/. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.

For more AP food stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/recipes

An Apple Streusel Pie is displayed in New York on Nov. 9, 2018. (Cheyenne M. Cohen via AP)

Brownie batter is poured into a pan in New York on Oct. 7, 2020. (Cheyenne M. Cohen via AP)

A woman applies non-stick spray to a muffin tin in New York on Oct. 23, 2023. (Cheyenne M. Cohen via AP)

This combination of photos shows eggs, left, shortbread dough, center, and a muffin tin being prepped for baking. (Cheyenne M. Cohen via AP)