brutal loss to the Washington on Dec. 31<\/a>, where the Wizards scored four points in the final 30 seconds to win 114-113, head coach Doc Rivers unloaded on the team for lack of focus and effort.<\/p>\nAnd Antetokounmpo once again found himself having to explain how things need to change, and in short order, for a great story to be written. Because he knows, perhaps better than most, that once you get into the postseason, anything can happen.<\/p>\n
Here are Antetokounmpo\u2019s big picture comments from his postgame media session before the New Year:<\/p>\n
Following a roughly two-minute breakdown of the final 30 seconds of action against the Wizards, Antetokounmpo added, \u201cI feel like winning two sometimes, we won two games in a row, sometimes our focus wasn\u2019t there. We started the game by doing the right thing. I think we went a little bit away from that.<\/p>\n
“Just gotta do a better job just keep on staying for 48 minutes, move the ball, calling plays, getting to the right spot, trust one another, getting downhill and understand that we can\u2019t do this on our own. It gotta be a team effort. Win or lose we gotta do it together.<\/p>\n
“I think that\u2019s a summary for the whole game pretty much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: Doc Rivers says the team did not deserve to win the game based on how the team played. You\u2019ve seen these mistakes throughout the year. How do you break out of it?<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo: \u201cIn basketball sometimes, you play the way you play, you might not deserve to win the game but you still win the game. Unfortunately that wasn\u2019t that night. There\u2019s been a lot of nights I\u2019ve been a part of ugly wins, they call it. Which, I don\u2019t care. When I go back home I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s ugly or pretty, nasty, dirty, clean, whatever. I still love when I win. But, OK. Coach Doc might not be wrong. I think we didn\u2019t play at a high level. We didn\u2019t trust one another. Kept them in the game too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd at the end of the day we have to understand it\u2019s either we are going to try to build winning and good habits, or we\u2019re not. We cannot win the game, two games on the road against two really good teams, in my opinion, Chicago and Charlotte and come back home and give a game away. Just put ourselves back in the position we just are. We have a very tough schedule coming up and every win, every game counts right now. It\u2019s either we can like, go the other way or we are going to figure out a way to win games.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sometimes it\u2019s hard when like, some people are trying to do the right thing and other people are not trying to. It might be discouraging at times. But I\u2019ve been part of teams, really good teams that two, three guys, four guys, try to do the right thing and they do the right thing and it pulls everybody else. I\u2019ve been on teams that two, three guys try to do the right thing and three or four guys not try to do the right thing and it pulls the team to the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as a leader I just gotta be better. I have to be better. Defensively I have to be better. Gotta move the ball more. I gotta playmake more. I think the way the offense gotta be played more around me. I feel like I get the ball only in positions that I gotta score. I gotta playmake better and also try to score. Go back to what I do. Put on the cape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: How do you continue to build that trust?<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo: \u201cDon\u2019t get discouraged. I feel like, and maybe it\u2019s me, too, sometimes. Once the ball is moving the right way and the ball might not go in. But we did the right thing. Sometimes you might break a play and you score, but it\u2019s not the right thing. You know? So, but, building winning habit and good habit is when you consistently do the right thing over and over again and you hold one another accountable on doing the right thing. That\u2019s where you build winning habits.<\/p>\n
“You know, some days you\u2019re gonna get away with not doing the right things, and that\u2019s when you have the ugly wins and that\u2019s when you have tough shots, one-on-one iso game, you can get away with it because there\u2019s some players on this team that are extremely talented.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, overall, 82 games, it\u2019s gonna catch up on you. And sometimes, as I\u2019ve seen we win one game, we win two games – win two games, sorry, the last time we won two games (in a row) was October – but when we win we go back to that. Maybe that has to do with growth. We\u2019ve gotta grow. We gotta grow, man. We gotta understand what position we are right now.<\/p>\n
“And I feel like a lot of people don\u2019t understand it. Tomorrow is going to be Jan. 1st right? We\u2019re 11th in the East. My whole career when I\u2019ve had winning seasons, like January to February before the break you gotta stack up wins and we have a tough schedule. I don\u2019t think we understand this could make us or break us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, I don\u2019t want to break. I want to be made. So, as a leader, as I said, just gotta keep myself accountable. Keep on trying to do the right thing. Keep on moving the ball. I gotta playmake more. And, just hope that that can inspire people to follow and try to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: You mentioned getting back to \u2018doing what you do.\u2019 Can you do that with a minute restriction?<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo: \u201cYeah, it\u2019s kind of hard because I\u2019m not in the shape that I need to be. I haven\u2019t played for 20-something days. Like, if I play 10, 15 games in a row I\u2019ll be in top shape. It\u2019s kind of easy, not easy, but it\u2019s easier to do harder stuff. And now, (Dec. 29) 24 (minutes), (Dec. 31) 28 (minutes), I don\u2019t know what next game is gonna be, if it\u2019s gonna be 26, 28, whatever. So, I\u2019m just gonna try to make the most out of the minutes that I\u2019m out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s not just when I play. It\u2019s everything. It\u2019s the way we approach the locker room. It\u2019s what we say at halftime. What we say in the huddles. How we watch film. Be able to take accountability. Like, watch film and can put like, in the film session, all my clips that are out on myself. Like, so it can start from somewhere. Because if the leader if usually take it then everybody gotta. Nobody can say much, right? Then when we step on the court it can translate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut right now we do the right thing, we talk about the right thing, we talk about playing together and all that but sometimes when we step on the court and things don\u2019t go well we go to \u2018me\u2019 mode. It\u2019s my turn, your turn, my turn, your turn. Yeah, if I don\u2019t complain and I don\u2019t yell and flail and do this and ask for the ball every single possession I don\u2019t think anybody can do that, you know? And that\u2019s what I try to do. But, it doesn\u2019t translate to the game. We haven\u2019t won. So, it doesn\u2019t translate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: Doc Rivers had said it\u2019s a sign of emotional immaturity, to fall back into bad habits. As a leader, can you break the team of it? Can it be taught?<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo: \u201cThis is the thing: Do I think emotional maturity will handle like a losing season or handle like a tough loss, I think yes. Over my career in the NBA, what 800-plus games probably, over a 1,000 games, so I can deal with a bad loss. Sometimes it\u2019s just hard, like as I said, try to do the right thing and you get discouraged because people don\u2019t follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then the other thing that happens is that; at the end of the day, I have a very hard job to do right? Whenever I put on my jersey and go out there, like my job is not easy. And if it was easy, I think a lot of people in the league would do it. But, some people don\u2019t and some people can\u2019t. So you have to control what you can control. I can control my attitude, I can control my effort, I can control how I approach the game, I can control my preparation.<\/p>\n
“Once I go out there, there\u2019s some things I can\u2019t control. Sometimes that’s frustrating. But, I\u2019m mature enough to understand that\u2019s part of the game. If it was a one-on-one game, if it as tennis, I lose, I go take a shower, I go talk to my coach what I did wrong, what I did well, come back and try to do it again. But it\u2019s not like (that). You gotta pick up 15 spirits.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, again, you gotta keep on reminding the team that we are OK. We can get out of this because it\u2019s going to be an incredible story. If we come back, think about the story, how it\u2019s going to look when we come back. I want to say it\u2019s going to be uncomfortable. People have to understand that in order for you to come back it\u2019s not going to be oh, we\u2019re just gonna win and all that. We gotta get dirty. It\u2019s gonna be uncomfortable. We\u2019re gonna be tired. We\u2019re gonna go back home and we\u2019re gonna be sore. We\u2019re gonna wake up the next day and probably don\u2019t want to practice. But this is what it\u2019s gonna take for us to be able to turn this season around.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if people are willing to do it, great. And if we are not willing to do it, can\u2019t control it. I can control what I can control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks players talk about last-second loss to Wizards Giannis Antetokounmpo, AJ Green, Kevin Porter Jr. and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[2126,108,7,103,60,2127,107,123,2125,102,121,3871,6,626,67,61,628,118,66,83,55,2128,117,128],"class_list":["post-518223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-bucks","tag-ai","tag-antetokounmpo","tag-basketball","tag-bucks","tag-content","tag-enabled","tag-giannis","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-highlights","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-milwaukeebucks","tag-nba","tag-negative","tag-news","tag-overall","tag-overall-negative","tag-sharing","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-story","tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-wi","tag-wi-content-sharing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115842987113755501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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