After dropping Thursday’s national TV game against the injury-riddled Grizzlies, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo called out his team’s effort and desire to win, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. While Milwaukee is currently 35-21, the No. 3 seed in the East, the Bucks are just 3-7 under new head coach Doc Rivers, Nehm notes.
“We have to want it, man,” Antetokounmpo said. “Like enough with the talking. Enough with the, ‘our s–t don’t stink’ mentality. Do we really want it? Are we putting in the work? Are we going to put in the effort? Are we going to fight for what we think that we deserve or what our goals are trying to accomplish? That is the most important thing.
“Guys are tired, that’s an excuse. New coach, excuse. New system, excuse. New defense, excuse. All of it, it’s excuse. At the end of the day, you’re going to go out there and try to play basketball, try to compete and they competed harder than us today. They competed harder than us two days ago. We are not on track of what we are trying to do and I feel like the team feels it. The team feels it. I feel it.”
As for Rivers, the longtime veteran coach said some of his players’ minds may have been elsewhere in the final game before the All-Star break.
“It just told us where we are at,” Rivers said of the open to the third quarter. “The first play, we gambled for the 50th time in the corner, guy drives, we have to help, leads to a 3. We come back. On our set, two guys forget what we’re running. Then we missed a shot, and then nobody gets back. That’s how we start out the third quarter. That tells you all you need to know about where our heads were.
“We had some guys here and we had some guys in Cabo.”
Here’s more on the Bucks:
- Antetokounmpo may not have shown any obvious signs of the injury on Thursday after scoring 35 points on 15-of-17 shooting in 37 minutes, but he continues to deal with patellar tendinitis in his right knee, per Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required). The two-time MVP was initially listed as probable on the injury report but was downgraded to questionable before eventually suiting up. Antetokounmpo has missed just two games this season, and none since the injury popped up a couple weeks ago, Owczarski adds.
- In an interview with Katie Heindl of UPROXX, Antetokounmpo suggested the Bucks have done a good job ensuring Damian Lillard feels comfortable in Milwaukee. The All-Star guard had spent his entire career with Portland before being traded to the Bucks shortly before the season began. “We had to make him feel as comfortable as possible on the basketball court, but also off the court. It’s hard. We knew it would be hard for him. I think everybody, the team, did a good job,” Antetokounmpo said. “We supported him, and now he feels comfortable. So, our goal stays the same: to be the last team standing.”
- Before making their mid-season hiring of Rivers, the Bucks called Wyc Grousbeck for feedback on his former coach, the Celtics co-owner revealed on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.” “I love Doc,” Grousbeck said, per Souichi Terada of MassLive.com. “I got a reference call on Doc from the Bucks. Truthfully, I made a truthful statement, of course. I said we would not have won it in 2008 without Doc. He took that team, molded it together and led the way. He had a ton to do with the championship, and he’s always going to be very special. Very special friend of mine.”