Greek Freak out: Giannis goes a little nuts
Giannis Antetokounmpo sounds like he’s ready to go Greek-freaky on Knicks forward Mario Hezonja.
“Oh, yeah, I’m going to punch him in his nut next time,” Antetokounmpo declared after the Knicks’ 136-134 overtime win over Milwaukee on Saturday night.
Midway through the first quarter, Hezonja raced down the court and dunked the ball with the Greek Freak chasing him. After the play, Antetokounmpo crashed to the floor and Hezonja stood over him and glared at him, before raising his arms to rile up the Garden crowd.
“I want to get the crowd involved even more. That was a perfect moment for it,” Hezonja said after the game. “I want them. I’m the type of a guy that always wants the crowd getting involved. Honestly, if you’re afraid, this is not for you. I don’t want to be disrespectful, but if you feel fear, this is not the place for you, New York is not a place for you, and this team is not a place for you.”
Antetokounmpo responded with a coast-tocoast stuff with his left hand and a hard shoulder bump against Knicks forward Noah Vonleh, and he went on to finish with 33 points and 19 rebounds. The “next time” the teams will meet, by the way, is Christmas Day at the Garden.
Courtney Lee was active for the first time this season after missing the first 23 games with a neck injury, but the veteran swingman did not play.
Knicks guard Trey Burke didn’t return to the game after landing awkwardly and leaving in the first quarter with a sprained right knee, though Xrays were negative.
Even so, second-year guard Frank Ntilikina didn’t get off the bench, marking the first time this season the secondyear guard was out of the rotation entirely.
“Coach’s decision, but as you could see with these guys, none of them are ever in the dungeon,” David Fizdale said. “[Ntilikina] was the example of my postgame speech because if you watched our bench tonight, he was the most energetic, the first one up, the first one rooting guys on, the one making sure people knew what they were supposed to do coming out of timeouts.
“And that’s not easy when you’re getting a DNP. But as you know and as they know, I will come back to him in no time. [Damyean Dotson] is a perfect testament of that.”
Indeed, Dotson, who had been a DNP in six games earlier this season, scored 21 points in 33 minutes in the win. Ntilikina, the Knicks’ firstround pick (eighth overall) in 2017, was a starter in 14 of the team’s first 23 games.
“It’s not frustration,’’ Ntilikina said. “I think it’s motivation because as a competitor you want to be out there on the court to help your team. My job and my mindset is to keep working harder to be able to get back on the court.
“Of course as players everybody wants to play. … I’m just going to stay positive for [my teammates]. All I want is our team to be successful.”