George, Sarr help Wizards outlast Bucks, playing without Antetokounmpo, 109-99

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George, Sarr help Wizards outlast Bucks, playing without Antetokounmpo, 109-99

2026-01-30 10:51 Last Updated At：11:01

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kyshawn George scored 23 points, Alex Sarr added 16 points and 17 rebounds, and the Washington Wizards beat the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks 109-99 on Thursday night.

Amid swirling trade rumors, Milwaukee’s two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo missed a second straight game with a calf strain.

Khris Middleton and Bub Carrington each added 13 points for Washington, which held a 61-43 rebounding advantage in its second straight win.

Myles Turner scored 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for Milwaukee, which lost its fourth straight and seventh out of its last eight games.

Bobby Portis Jr. and Kyle Porter each added 19 points for the Bucks, who began the day in 12th in the Eastern Conference and four games out of the last play-in spot.

Wizards rookie Tre Johnson rolled his left ankle while sinking a jumper with 11:10 left in the second quarter. He left the game about three minutes later and did not return.

Washington led by 18 in the second quarter and took a 57-43 lead into halftime. The Wizards held the Bucks to 34.6% shooting and 21.7% from 3-point range in their stingiest defensive first half of the season.

It was still an eight-point lead late in the fourth before Milwaukee's Ryan Rollins hit a 3-pointer and Kuzma followed with a turnaround jumper to close it to three. A few possessions later, Turner's 3-pointer from Kuzma's feed made it 101-99 with 1:30 left.

Sarr answered with a runner, Carrington and Bilal Coulibaly each sank a pair of free throws, and the Wizards held the Bucks scoreless on their final four possessions.

Bucks: Visit Boston on Sunday.

Wizards: Host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night.

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

New cold snap adds urgency to winter storm recovery across the South

BELZONI, Miss. (AP) — Hundreds of National Guard troops in ice-stricken Mississippi and Tennessee mobilized Thursday to clear debris and assist people stranded in cars or stuck at homes still without electricity as Southern states raced to recover from a crippling winter storm before another blast of dangerous cold hits.

The National Weather Service said arctic air moving into the Southeast will cause already frigid temperatures to plunge into the teens (minus 10 Celsius) Friday night in cities like Nashville, Tennessee, where more than 79,000 homes and businesses still had no power five days after a massive storm dumped snow and ice across the eastern U.S.

Glyn Alexander, 73, endured three days without electricity before deciding to leave her home in Belzoni, a small city in the Mississippi Delta. She was cozier Thursday at a local warming shelter, where a generator kept the indoor temperature at a balmy 82 F (28 C).

“Three days in the cold, sleeping in the cold, eating in the cold,” Alexander said. “I just couldn’t take the cold anymore.”

At least 85 people have died in areas affected by bitter cold from Texas to New Jersey. Roughly half the deaths were reported in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The prolonged freeze left some residents increasingly desperate in a region unaccustomed to such conditions. Emergency dispatchers in Mississippi received calls from people running out of food and medications while stuck at home. In Tennessee, social workers coordinated with police and firefighters to check on residents who hadn't been heard from in days.

“No one really knew that it was going to be like this, or how bad,” said CJ Bynum, who used his Jeep to help drivers stranded along Interstate 55 in northern Mississippi, where 18-wheel trucks still lined the icy highway two days after traffic ground to a halt

Harriet Wallace, who works for a Nashville social services agency, said police and firefighters were visiting homes to check on older adults whose relatives couldn't reach them by phone. All were found alive, she said. For those without power who refused to leave, officers helped charge phones and get groceries.

“They are finding blankets and just sitting there with no TV, no power, nothing,” Wallace said. “Some are a little delirious.”

More than 230,000 homes and businesses were without electricity Thursday night, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us. The vast majority were in Mississippi and Tennessee, with roughly 88,000 each.

Nashville Electric Service said 963 linemen were repairing damage after the storm snapped hundreds of power poles in the area. A utility vice president, Brent Baker, said full restoration could take until the weekend or longer.

Interstates 55 and 22 remained closed in northern Mississippi as emergency crews used tow trucks and snowplows to clear the highways.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said 650 National Guard troops were clearing fallen trees from roads and delivering meals, blankets and other supplies by truck and by helicopter. The Tennessee National Guard said about 170 soldiers and airmen were assisting with recovery efforts, including helping more than 200 people stranded in vehicles and homes and providing rides to nearly 300 emergency and health care workers.

Mississippi officials say it's the state’s worst winter storm since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened across the state, known as one of the nation’s poorest. But for some communities, they weren't enough.

In Batesville, Mississippi, where most of the city’s 7,400 residents were without power, Mayor Hal Ferrell said officials were dealing with outages at nursing homes, a shortage of generators for shelters and ice-covered interstates that slowed deliveries.

“We’re just stymied with everything we’re trying to do,” Ferrell said.

Health experts warn that prolonged exposure to cold without heat poses serious risks, especially for young children, older adults and people with cardiovascular conditions.

“The body can handle cold temperatures briefly very well,” said Dr. Hans House, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Iowa, “but the prolonged exposure is a problem.”

As hypothermia sets in, the body shivers and reduces blood flow to hands and feet to preserve heat, House said, raising the risk of frostbite. As exposure continues, people can become sleepy and confused, and in severe cases the heart and lungs can fail.

Forecasters say the subfreezing weather will persist in the eastern U.S. into February and there's high chance of heavy snow in the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia this weekend, possibly up to a foot (30 centimeters) in parts of North Carolina. Snow is also possible along the East Coast from Maryland to Maine.

The National Weather Service said freezing rain was possible Thursday night in parts of Mississippi, and light snow showers could hit Nashville overnight Friday. Forecasters said the extreme cold and subzero wind chills (minus 18 C) represented the greatest danger.

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia, and Thanawala from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee, and Sarah Brumfield in Washington contributed.