MILWAUKEE (AP) — Payton Pritchard scored 25 points, rookie Hugo González had career highs of 18 points and 16 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics beat Milwaukee 108-81 on Monday night to spoil Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s return from a right calf strain.
Derrick White also scored 18 points for the Celtics, who have won three straight and seven of eight. White and Pritchard each had nine assists.
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Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) shoots against Boston Celtics' Luka Garza during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Ryan Rollins, right, shoots against Boston Celtics' Ron Harper Jr. and Luka Garza during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Ryan Rollins, right, drives to the basket against Boston Celtics' Ron Harper Jr. during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla gestures during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Boston Celtics' Baylor Scheierman, left, strips the ball from Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Antetokounmpo had 19 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes in his first action since getting injured on Jan. 23. The Bucks went 8-7 during his absence.
Overall this season, the Bucks are 15-16 with Antetokounmpo and 11-18 without him.
Boston was missing five-time All-Star Jaylen Brown due to an illness. The Celtics also rested Neemias Queta, who scored a career-high 27 points in a 114-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.
González started for just the third time. The 28th overall pick in the 2025 draft came in averaging 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds.
Nikola Vucevic had 10 points, seven assists and five rebounds in his first start since the Celtics acquired the two-time All-Star from Chicago at the trade deadline.
Boston went on a 24-5 run that started late in the first quarter and carried over to the second as the Celtics turned a 15-14 deficit into a 38-20 lead. Boston stayed in control the rest of the way.
The Celtics led by 22 before carrying a 57-43 edge into halftime. Milwaukee cut the margin to nine early in the second half, but Boston responded with 15 straight points.
Milwaukee has lost its last three games, all by at least 23 points.
Celtics: Host Charlotte on Wednesday.
Bucks: Host Atlanta on Wednesday.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) shoots against Boston Celtics' Luka Garza during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Ryan Rollins, right, shoots against Boston Celtics' Ron Harper Jr. and Luka Garza during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Ryan Rollins, right, drives to the basket against Boston Celtics' Ron Harper Jr. during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla gestures during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Boston Celtics' Baylor Scheierman, left, strips the ball from Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke Monday to widening concerns that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran could spiral into a protracted regional conflict by declaring: “This is not Iraq. This is not endless," even as he warned that more American casualties are likely in the weeks ahead.
While the Trump administration has cited Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the chief concern to be addressed, officials increasingly are pointing to the threat from Iran’s ballistic missiles as a key reason to launch the attacks as well as an opportunity to take out the government’s leadership and the sense that negotiations around the nuclear program have stalled.
Trump said Monday that Iran’s conventional missile program “was growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas.”
Hegseth said at a separate press conference with Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the operation had a “decisive mission” to eliminate the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, destroy the country’s navy and ensure “no nukes.”
Trump, Hegseth and Caine have not suggested any exit plan or offered signs that the conflict would end anytime soon as the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on the future of the Islamic Republic and hurtled the region into broader instability. Caine said the biggest U.S. military buildup in the Middle East in decades would only grow because the commander in the region “will receive additional forces even today.”
“This is not a so-called regime-change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.
Trump, however, in video statements released after the strikes began, urged the Iranian people “to take back your country.”
The conflict has spilled into the wider region, with Iran and its allied armed groups launching missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets in the Middle East.
Six American troops have been killed, with Trump, Hegseth and Caine predicting more casualties. All were Army soldiers and part of the same logistics unit in Kuwait, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
When asked about the six deaths Monday, Hegseth said an Iranian weapon made it past allied air defenses “and, in that particular case, happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified.”
Eighteen American service members also have been seriously wounded, said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.
The latest sign of the escalating upheaval came when, the U.S. military said, ally Kuwait “mistakenly shot down” three American fighter jets during a combat mission as Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones were attacking. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely from the American F-15E Strike Eagles and were in stable condition.
Asked if there are boots on the ground now in Iran, Hegseth said, “No, but we’re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do.”
He said it was “foolishness” to expect U.S. officials to say publicly “here’s exactly how far we’ll go.”
Trump told the New York Post on Monday that he wasn’t ruling out U.S. forces in Iran if “they were necessary.” He noted, “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground."
At the White House, Trump said the mission was expected to take four to five weeks but “we have the capability to go far longer than that.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the Capitol that the U.S. “will do this as long as it takes to achieve" its objectives and warned that “the hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military."
Hegseth also dismissed questions about the time frame and said Trump had “latitude” to decide how long it would take. “Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks," he said. “It could move up. It could move back.”
In laying out a case for the strikes, Hegseth did not point to any imminent nuclear threat from Iran and said again that strikes by the U.S. and Israel last June “obliterated their nuclear program to rubble.”
Instead, Hegseth pointed to threats from other weaponry that justified the operation: “Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions.”
He added: “Our bases, our people, our allies, all in their crosshairs. Iran had a conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie their way to a nuclear bomb.”
Hegseth said that during negotiations leading up to the attack, Iranian officials were “stalling" despite having “every chance to make a peaceful and sensible deal.”
He also justified the operation by describing Iran’s government as having started the conflict from its inception, declaring that for 47 years it has “waged a savage, one-sided war against America.”
In a private briefing Sunday, Trump administration officials told congressional staffers that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the U.S., three people familiar with the briefings said.
Trump, a Republican, had said the objective of the mission was to eliminate “imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” And senior Trump administration officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, told reporters Saturday that there were indicators that the Iranians could launch a preemptive attack.
As with the attack that dropped massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities last year, Caine said the military used B-2 stealth bombers in the new operation with a 37-hour round trip.
He said the penetrating bombs were dropped on Iranian underground facilities" but did not specify that they were nuclear facilities. Nuclear sites were not among the types of targets on a list released over the weekend by U.S. Central Command.
The administration says Israel and the U.S. have bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships.
Caine on Monday referenced the use of cyber technologies, saying the U.S. “effectively disrupted communications and sensor networks” that left “the adversary without the ability to coordinate or respond effectively.”
Without giving specifics, Caine said the military “delivered synchronized and layered effects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran’s ability to conduct and sustained combat operations on the U.S. side.”
Caine said Trump gave the go-ahead order for the strikes at 3:38 p.m. EST on Friday. That meant the president gave the green light when he was aboard Air Force One heading to Texas with Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and actor Dennis Quaid.
Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Charleston, S.C.; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; David Klepper, Ben Finley and Lisa Mascaro in Washington; and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump departs after a Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump walks past Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as he exist the East Room of the White House following the Medal of Honor ceremony, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine speak during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine take questions during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listens during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, greets Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
