Giannis Antetokounmpo Blasts Bucks’ Effort: ‘Are We OK With Not Competing? I Don’t Know’

November 9, 2024

The Bucks are staring at the kind of early-season struggles that ignite the rumor mill, and Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t having it.

After a 116-94 drubbing at the hands of the Knicks, Giannis put it bluntly: this team needs to compete. Sitting at 2-7 and tied for 13th in the East, urgency isn’t just a word — it’s an alarm bell.

“Did we compete the previous game? Yes,” Antetkounmpo said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “Did we compete the two previous games, Cavs and Cavs? Yes. Did we compete today? No. That’s something you can control.

“If you’re going to go out there and you’re not going to compete, you’re not going to win the game. Sometimes you compete your ass off and you don’t win the game, but at least you give yourself a chance. We played great last night. We came to New York, we lost by 30. You gotta compete. Are we OK with not competing? I don’t know. I’m not OK with that s—. So, we gotta do a better job competing. We got Boston in two days. If you don’t compete, you’re going to lose by 30. Simple as that.”

Friday night at Madison Square Garden was rough. The Knicks pounced from the start, securing five offensive boards in the first nine minutes and turning them into 10 quick points. By the final buzzer, they outworked Milwaukee on the glass 48-41 and ran the Bucks out of the gym in transition, tallying 21 fast break points to Milwaukee’s eight.

Doc Rivers is doing what he can to shake things up. Gary Trent Jr. was benched in favor of rookie Andre Jackson Jr. earlier in the week, and Rivers played Giannis for the entire first quarter Friday.

The result? Still a no-show in the hustle department. And with defense no longer the backbone it once was — sputtering since Jrue Holiday‘s departure — it’s no surprise they had zero answers for Karl-Anthony Towns, who lit them up for 32 points with a blend of three-point bombs and drives that left Brook Lopez looking a step too slow.

The Bucks are watching teams circle like sharks, ready for the possibility that Milwaukee may consider drastic measures if this nosedive continues. While the front office isn’t tipping its hand just yet, the clock is ticking, and everyone knows it.

For a team once built on stopping opponents cold, they’re now ranked 28th at defending pick-and-rolls, and that’s a stat that speaks volumes.

“We gotta compete,” Antetokounmpo said. “We gotta do a better job competing. At the end of the day coming to New York, playing the way we’re playing, teams will not just give us games.

“Teams will not feel bad about us and just don’t compete. We have to come out with the mentality that we have to compete for every possession. One possession at a time. Every ball, every loose ball.

“Whenever the ball is on the floor, we gotta get our body on the floor and try to get that ball. Put our body on the line. We gotta do a better job competing. We didn’t compete at all. That’s the bottom line.”