Kevin Porter Jr. hit the game winner in the final seconds and scored 20 points to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 118-116 victory over the visiting, short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.

Milwaukee won its second in a row and eighth in their last 10 contests. It was a balanced scoring attack with seven Bucks scoring in double figures, including 18 from Ryan Rollins and 17 from Kyle Kuzma.

Jarrett Allen was nearly the hero for Cleveland, who played without Donovan Mitchell (groin), James Harden (thumb) and Evan Mobley (calf). Allen scored 27 points and laid in a shot at the buzzer that would have tied the game, but it was ruled no good after replay.

It was a first half full of runs. Plus a lot of 3-point attempts.

The teams combined to put up 50 3-point attempts in the half, with Milwaukee shooting 39% to Cleveland’s 33%. Both teams had a run of at least seven unanswered, with Milwaukee at one point rattling off a 9-0 run to take the lead in the second.

Jarrett Allen had 16 at the break to lead all scorers while Schroeder added 15. AJ Green led the Bucks with 12.

Another run would begin the second half. Milwaukee quickly went on an 11-0 stretch to start off the third, capped by two Kuzma 3-pointers to put the Bucks up 73-63.

Cleveland responded with another run. A 10-0 stretch from the Cavaliers erased the Bucks largest lead of the game of 12. Cleveland went into the fourth the same way they did the second half, up by one, 94-93.

The game remained a nail-biter until the end, when Porter Jr. hit a fadeaway jumper with 20 seconds to go to put Milwaukee on top.

Milwaukee snapped Cleveland’s seven game win streak against them and will have a chance to even the season series the fourth and final time these teams face off on Mar. 17.

–Field Level Media

Nikita Kucherov scored and recorded his 700th career assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning resumed the regular season with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.

The right wing fed Gage Goncalves, who later assisted on Kucherov’s tally, for a second-period goal to become the 64th player to reach the milestone and the third Russian-born one to do it, joining Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin.

Kucherov, whose point streak moved to an NHL-best 11 games, reached 30 goals for the ninth time in his career.

Brayden Point netted two goals and had a helper, and Charle-Edouard D’Astous returned with two assists.

Improving to 17-0-1 in his past 18 outings, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots as Tampa Bay won its sixth straight game and is 20-1-1 in the past 22 matches.

Coach Jon Cooper was not with the team following the death of his father, Robert, earlier this week and will also miss Thursday’s match at the Carolina Hurricanes.

John Tavares and Matthew Knies tallied for the Leafs, and William Nylander had two helpers.

After missing over two months with an upper-body injury and finally making three starts before the Olympic break, goaltender Anthony Stolarz stopped 32 shots.

In their second meeting this season and first game of a back-to-back set for both, Kucherov and Point both appeared to score in the first period, but Toronto successfully challenged for offside to take both markers down.

Vasilevskiy’s denial of Nylander’s deke and backhand-forehand effort with under three minutes left kept the opening period scoreless and the visitors holding an 8-4 edge in shots.

In a faster paced second, Point took a pass from D’Astous then waited out Stolarz, who was hindered by his defenseman Simon Benoit, and buried a sharp-angle shot at 7:07.

Goncalves then doubled the lead by securing a pass from Kucherov and netting a goal 51 seconds later.

Vasilevskiy made another fine stop on Nylander with about eight minutes left, stuffing his backhanded breakaway attempt.

Kucherov hit the net at 2:59 of the third, and Tavares broke the shutout bid at 16:19 on the power play.

Point scored 11 seconds later as Kucherov and Goncalves registered a second assist apiece, but Knies cut it to a two-goal deficit at 17:13.

–Field Level Media

Hilary Knight, captain of the gold-medal-winning U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team, took exception to a comment President Donald Trump made in the wake of the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team winning its championship game.

Trump invited the men’s Olympic team to attend the State of the Union speech, adding, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.”

He then said if he didn’t welcome the women’s team, too, “I do believe I probably would be impeached.”

Knight reacted while appearing Wednesday on ESPN: “I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and, unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold-medal feats.

“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history, as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke.”

While some members of the men’s team laughed at Trump’s comment, Knight wasn’t overly upset with them.

“I think there’s a genuine level of support there and respect,” she said regarding the men’s and women’s Olympic teams. “I think that’s being overshadowed by a quick lapse. I think the guys were in a tough spot, so I think it’s a shame this storyline and narrative has kind of blown up and overshadowing that connection and genuine interest in one another and cheering each other on.”

The majority of the men’s Olympic team players visited the White House on Tuesday and then went to the Capitol for the State of the Union. The players received bipartisan cheers when they entered the House of Representatives chamber after being introduced by Trump.

The U.S. women’s hockey team declined Trump’s invitation Monday, issuing a statement that read in part, “Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”

Knight, 36, collected her U.S. Olympic-record 15th goal at 17:56 of the third period in the gold-medal game against Canada, leveling the score at 1-1. Megan Keller’s goal 4:07 into overtime was the winner.

Knight emerged with her second gold medal in her fifth Olympics. The Seattle Torrent forward owns a record 10 golds from the IIHF World Women’s Championship.

–Field Level Media