Antetokounmpo scores 59 and Bucks beat Pistons 127-120 in overtime

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 59 points to pace the Milwaukee Bucks to a 127-120 overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night.

It was a league-high for points by an NBA player this season and the second-highest single-game total for Antetokounmpo, who had 64 against Indiana last season.

Antetokounmpo hit 21 of 34 shots and 16 of 17 free throws and added 14 rebounds and seven assists as the Bucks rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit.

Brook Lopez added 29 points for the Bucks. Cade Cunningham led Detroit with 35 points and Malik Beasley had 26 against his former team.

Detroit's Ron Holland II was fouled by Antetokounmpo with one second left in regulation and the score tied at 111, but Holland missed both free throws.

The Pistons were without starters Jaden Ivey and Tim Hardaway Jr. Ivey was out with a toe injury and Hardaway missed the game after taking stitches to the head following a fall in Tuesday’s game against Miami.

Milwaukee played without Damian Lillard (concussion protocol), Ryan Rollins (left shoulder instability) and Bobby Portis (right elbow contusion).

Pistons: Beasley was hot from 3-point range, hitting 4 of 5 in the first half as Detroit shot 61.5% from beyond the arc (8 of 13). He finished 8 of 16.

Bucks: Antetokounmpo made every basket for Milwaukee in the first quarter, hitting 7 of 10 field-goal attempts and all eight of his free throws for 22 of the team’s 24 points.

Detroit's Isaiah Stewart pulled down Antetokounmpo by the jersey and was assessed a flagrant foul 2 and ejected with 3:02 left in the third quarter. Antetokounmpo made both free throws.

The Bucks improved to 22-1 against Detroit since the 2018-19 season and won their 10th straight in the series.

The Pistons visit Toronto on Friday night and the Bucks visit Charlotte on Saturday.

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

Milwaukee Bucks' Gary Trent Jr. and Detroit Pistons' Cade Cunningham go after a loose ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Detroit Pistons' Ronald Holland II misses his second free throw with one second to go during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Milwaukee Bucks' Andre Jackson Jr. and Detroit Pistons' Tobias Harris go after a loose ball during overtime of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Detroit Pistons' Cade Cunningham fouls Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Detroit Pistons' Wendell Moore Jr. fouls Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo gets past Detroit Pistons' Tobias Harris during the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

JERUSALEM (AP) — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured.

“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X.

He added that he and U.N. colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment. U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service.

At least three people were later reported killed and dozens injured in the airport strike. The U.N. team members left the airport and were “safe and sound” in Sanaa while the injured crew member was being treated at a hospital, she said.

Tremblay said the damage assessment would be made on Friday morning to see whether WHO chief and the U.N. team can leave Yemen.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the escalation in attacks between Yemen and Israel and described Thursday’s attacks as “especially alarming,” Tremblay said.

Israel’s army later told The Associated Press it wasn’t aware that the WHO chief or delegation was at the location in Yemen.

The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military in a statement said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.

Israel's military added it had "capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively.”

The strikes, carried out over 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned" as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran.

The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings and a bloodstained floor and vehicle. Iran's foreign ministry condemned the strikes. The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in recent days.

The U.N. has said the targeted ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014.

Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, while other missiles and drones have been shot down. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The U.N. Security Council has an emergency meeting Monday in response to an Israeli request that it condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying them weapons.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in Gaza overnight, the territory's Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said all were militants posing as reporters.

The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists were working for local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel that ignited the war. Israel's military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups operate political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.

Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. Sobbing young men attended the funeral. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds, with blue press vests draped over them.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel hasn't allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds.

Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.

Separately, Israel's military said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.

Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half the fatalities have been women and children, but doesn't say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The offensive has caused widespread destruction and hunger and driven around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.

Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and it was aware of uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid.

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the name of the local news outlet is Al-Quds Today, not the Quds News Network.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Smoke rises from the area around the International Airport following an airstrike, as seen from Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. The Israeli military reported targeting infrastructure used by the Houthis at the Sanaa International Airport, as well as ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif, and Ras Qantib, along with power stations.(AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Mourners carry the bodies of eight killed Palestinians, some are wrapped with the Islamic Jihad flag, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Mourners carry the bodies of killed Palestinians, some wrapped with the Islamic Jihad flag, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

A boy walks along of a damaged street after the latest Israeli military operation, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A mourner cries while she takes the last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A Palestinian killed during an Israeli army operation is buried in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A mourner cries after taking a last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Mourners cry while they take the last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Locals stand next to a damaged building after the latest Israeli military operation, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Relatives and friends mourn over the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A relative mourns over the body of one of the five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners react as they carry the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A relative mourns over the body of one of the five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives and friends mourn over the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians, mostly journalists, gather around the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A woman reacts during the funeral of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)