Giannis takes beating but looks indefensible
BOSTON – The worse Giannis Antetokounmpo feels, the better he feels.
So when Antetokounmpo left TD Garden on Sunday victorious after Game 1 of this NBA Eastern Conference semifinals series, matching the Boston Celtics jab for cross – walking just a bit gingerly after getting out of the cold tub, and stretching the right calf or knee while talking about it – that in itself was a win for Antetokounmpo. Not just the stats book that read triple-double: 24 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists. Not the awestruck compliments from his Milwaukee Bucks teammates.
The fact that he felt like trash.
So he felt ... great.
“First of all, I don’t know, maybe I’m weird,” Antetokounmpo said. “I thrive through physicality. Like, I love feeling beat up after games. I don’t know why. My family thinks I’m a weirdo.
“When the game is finished, I just kind of look at my body. (He gestures to his heart and his core.) If I don’t feel like I am beat up or, if I wasn’t physical enough, or they were physical to me … I feel like I didn’t give everything for my team.”
Antetokounmpo isn’t an all or nothing guy, he’s an everything all the time guy. Antetokounmpo called it setting a tone – and that’s got to be a concern for the Celtics.
Because they’re a really, really good defense that tried to get physical with Antetokounmpo as well as play solid position defense. And in the first half it was really working well.
“Showing help, being physical,” Antetokounmpo said. “Being active. “They were really good.”
It’s not typical for Antetokounmpo to miss driving layups, but he did – a handful in the first half – and he was getting frustrated, looking to the referees for a foul call. While Antetokounmpo was the only player in double figures at halftime with 14 points, this wasn’t his usual scoring efficiency.
Boston’s team defense is excellent. When the Celtics weren’t harassing Antetokounmpo away from the ball and the basket, they were flooding his path with Al Horford and people named Williams, and lots of hands. This wasn’t an off game for Giannis as much as it was a great defensive swarm by Boston.
It could have rattled him. But we are seeing the other side of Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP, the NBA champion, the one who can’t be pushed around literally or figuratively.
It doesn’t seem to take much, but this is what Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said he told Antetokounmpo.
First: “Keep working, keep working, keep reading the defense,” Budenholzer said.
And then:
“Keep attacking, keep attacking,” he said. “And also, you know, just keep us focused on the defensive end – make things happen on that end, and things will happen for him when on his drives and on his attacks.
“And I think as the game went, he was rewarded more and more.”
Strategically, it made sense. Antetokounmpo kept driving and found ways to be effective elsewhere. Kicking out assists, drawing fouls. On the defensive end he also added 10 rebounds and two blocked shots. But the unspoken message must have been even more powerful. This is not an intimidated Bucks team.
Milwaukee basically maintained a 10-point lead or a little more throughout the second half. TD Garden was primed to erupt for any cause of celebration, but the Celtics just couldn’t meet Milwaukee on the scoreboard and sometimes the loudest noise was the organ music. It was a stunning performance by the Bucks, who were not favored, having less rest, playing on the road, and also missing forward Khris Middleton for two weeks with a knee injury.
But when Antetokounmpo once again executed that … Dodgeball Dunk? …
Glass Cracker? ...
Selfie Slam? ... (help me out here, this thing needs a name) ... in the fourth quarter, throwing the ball off the backboard and rebounding it for a put-back dunk, it’s a stunning display of dominance. Who guards that?
Doing that Tracy McGrady-stuff in an All-Star Game is one thing.
Doing that against a rested Boston team, in Boston, in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals, is another.
“It’s just instincts!” Antetokounmpo said. “Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Lately it has been working out.”
“It’s elite,” teammate Jrue Holiday said, shaking his head like he just saw someone walk on water. “It’s elite. I can’t do that.”
“Me neither,” Bobby Portis added. “I wouldn’t even think about trying,” Holiday continued. “That’s elite.
“I wouldn’t say it’s surprising. But, when you see it you’re like …” “Damn,” Portis said.
“That’s a video game,” Holiday said. “I could maybe do that on an 8-foot hoop. Not ... with the best players in the world.”
This was Antetokounmpo’s second career playoff triple-double, and he didn’t even shoot well at first. The first was against the Miami Heat last year.
But not long forgotten is the fact the Bucks fell from the No. 2 to No. 3 seed and lost home-court advantage on the last day of the regular season when Milwaukee rested its starters in a loss at the Cleveland Cavaliers, while Boston beat the Memphis Grizzlies and took the No. 2 seed.
Celtics guard Marcus Smart said at the time the Bucks had every right do to what they felt best, but then he added this: “If that means that they thought by (resting starters), they didn’t need home-court against us or weren’t too worried about us, that’s fine. We’ll go out and we will play our game and let our game do the talking and see where it leads us.”
This is exactly what it means. The Bucks, led by Antetokounmpo, aren’t intimidated by anyone or anything right now. Historic road venues, great defenses, down a man. It doesn’t matter. The tone has been set. Antetokounmpo has embraced everything in his career, and now he’s embracing the pain with defending the title he’s won.
Good luck to everyone tasked with stopping that (Game 2 is at 7 ET Tuesday, TNT).