“We have to get our act together, it’s as simple as that. We didn’t beat Boston, the Cavs or the Knicks. Those are the three best teams in the East, and we played horrible against those teams.”
Clearly, the Bucks’ season is far from being a smooth ride. Certainly, the team painfully returned to the Top 6 in the East (20 wins – 17 losses) after a cataclysmic start to the campaign. But the new XXL defeat against Jalen Brunson’s Knicks (140-106) once again illustrates the problems of the team of Doc Rivers.
Since the start of the season, in their eight clashes with the Top 3 teams in the East (Cleveland, Boston and New York), the Bucks have yet to win a single game! Is the finding alarming? Giannis Antetokounmpo still puts the statistic into perspective, while the “Greek Freak” is already looking at the progress accomplished over the past two months, which has allowed the Wisconsin franchise to return to a much more honorable sixth place.
“I think we’re a much better team now than we could have been in November. We proved it by playing good basketball over longer periods of time. Now, at the end of the day, when you play better teams, you have to do a better job. Our adversaries are not going to give us anything, they are not going to lie down in front of us. We have to go and get these victories,” he added.
See you in the playoffs?
At the heart of a difficult season, with a “Big Three” struggling to get going, this is not the time to pull each other in the way. The objective will be to recreate “good habits”, as Giannis Antetokounmpo insists, in order to be ready for the next meeting against one of these three teams, namely Cleveland, on March 9.
For Damian Lillard too, even if the setback conceded yesterday at Madison Square Garden is cause for concern, we must put Milwaukee’s season into perspective.
And as for a possible reunion in the playoffs and a potential psychological advantage on which Boston, Cleveland or New York could try to surf, “Dame Time” already had its ready-made answer.
“There was a year in Portland where we were getting our butts kicked by OKC in every regular season game. We ended up in the playoffs and we were the ones who kicked their butts (4-1 in the first round of the 2019 playoffs). So of course, we haven’t yet beaten the best teams in the East. But we have to face it, understand why, put things in context and move forward.”he said, before recalling that Milwaukee only lost by one and two points in its first two games against Cleveland.
To get off on the right foot, the Bucks will now tackle a series of four games at home, against Sacramento tomorrow, then Orlando, Toronto and Philadelphia.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | To | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 30 | 35.0 | 60.2 | 18.2 | 59.1 | 2.1 | 9.8 | 11.9 | 6.1 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 2.4 | 31.7 |
| Damian Lillard | 29 | 36.2 | 43.9 | 37.7 | 91.5 | 0.6 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 7.4 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 24.9 |
| Bobby Portis | 35 | 25.2 | 46.7 | 38.0 | 78.7 | 1.7 | 6.3 | 8.1 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 13.8 |
| Brook Lopez | 36 | 32.0 | 48.7 | 37.2 | 75.0 | 1.1 | 3.7 | 4.8 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 12.3 |
| Khris Middleton | 14 | 23.5 | 44.3 | 36.8 | 83.9 | 0.3 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.4 | 12.2 |
| Gary Trent, Jr. | 34 | 24.5 | 43.6 | 42.5 | 90.6 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 9.6 |
| A.j. Green | 34 | 21.6 | 45.8 | 45.2 | 88.9 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 8.0 |
| Taurean Prince | 36 | 25.7 | 45.2 | 45.1 | 72.2 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 7.3 |
| Pat Connaughton | 18 | 15.8 | 38.2 | 29.8 | 75.0 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 4.5 |
| Ryan Rollins | 21 | 11.2 | 47.4 | 39.4 | 81.8 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 4.5 |
| Andre Jackson, Jr. | 35 | 17.6 | 41.4 | 35.2 | 53.8 | 1.1 | 2.1 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 3.5 |
| Delon Wright | 23 | 16.1 | 30.6 | 27.3 | 57.1 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 2.8 |
| Tyler Smith | 11 | 3.5 | 64.3 | 37.5 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 2.0 |
| Marjon Beauchamp | 17 | 4.0 | 40.7 | 23.1 | 83.3 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
| A.j. Johnson | 5 | 2.1 | 50.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.4 |
| Liam Robbins | 9 | 4.6 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 33.3 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| Chris Livingston | 3 | 2.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| Stanley Umude | 10 | 3.4 | 33.3 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.6 |
