Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo star in Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks wins

By Issy Ronald, CNN

Updated 1034 GMT (1834 HKT) April 28, 2022

Steph Curry led his side to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2019.

(CNN)NBA All-Stars Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo led their respective sides-- the Golden State Warriors andMilwaukee Bucks — to playoff series victories on Wednesday.

In his first start of the postseason, Curry scored 30 points to propel the Warriors to the Western Conference semifinals as they defeated the Denver Nuggets 102-98, completing a 4-1 series win.Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo posted 33 points and nine rebounds to guide the Bucks to a 116-100 victory over the Chicago Bulls. The Bucks also wrapped up their series 4-1 and now advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.The Warriors began their game sluggishly and found themselves eight points down at the start of the fourth quarter but, after cleaning up their fouls, won the fourth quarter 32-20 and outshot the Nuggets 63% to 53% from the floor.Read MoreCurry's 30 points, five rebounds and five assists helped neutralize Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, who racked up an impressive 30 points, 19 rebounds and eight assists. Reigning MVP Jokic has put in huge individual performances throughout the series, but has found help hard to come by as Denver struggled in the absence of key men Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.Stephen Curryand Nikola Jokic battled it out in Game 5.After two seasons of missing out on the playoffs, Wednesday's victory marked the Warriors' first playoff series win in more than 1,000 days.«Tonight was just a weird feeling,» Curry told the media after the game, «because we hadn't been there in a while and wanted it so bad and kind of made it a lot more difficult for ourselves, but we still