Giannis Antetokounmpo credits Bucks turnaround to NBA Cup

Giannis Antetokounmpo credits Bucks turnaround to NBA Cup

The Milwaukee Bucks had a disastrous start to their 2024-25 season, starting the season 2-8. They weren’t scoring (19th in offensive rating), they weren’t defending (22nd in DRTG), they weren’t rebounding (23rd in REB%), they weren’t winning the margins that they needed to to win games outside of Giannis Antetokounmpo consistently playing at an All-NBA level.

After their Nov. 10 loss to the Boston Celtics, the switch flipped. They are 11-3 since, climbing up to the No. 6 seed in the East, 0.5 game behind the Miami Heat for the No. 5 seed and just 1.5 games back of the New York Knicks for homecourt.

When asked about their recent turnaround on Friday, Antetokounmpo stated that the Emirates NBA Cup was the biggest reason.

“We were playing very, very bad basketball at the beginning of the year, and we just needed to win games,” Antetokounmpo said, according to ESPN’s Jamal Collier. “We were just trying to turn the season around for us. We were bad. Now we’ve been competing, we’ve been playing better, guys are together, and we’ve had a great stretch. We’ve just got to keep it going.

“Nobody likes losing. Everybody plays to win. I think we definitely had as a team, a little more urgency. We had to fix some things. We had to play more team basketball, we had to compete in a higher level.

“Me and Damian came together and realized that’s very important. From the time we did that … we’ve been playing great basketball.”

To give a couple of other individuals their flowers: AJ Green’s breakout needs to be discussed. Over his 14-game stretch, he’s averaging 8.1 points on 41.3 percent shooting from beyond the arc in 24.8 minutes per game.

Better yet, he consistently takes the toughest defensive assignments, taking pressure off of Damian Lillard, Gary Trent Jr., Andre Jackson (another very good defender), and Taurean Prince. His 6-foot-4 frame and sturdy base allow him to move his feet incredibly well and hold his own consistently.

Prince has been ignitable from 3-point range, knocking down 52.0 percent of his triples over the team’s last 14 games; Jackson deserves credit for his defensive activity and non-stop motor, especially with his weakside rim protection, even though he’s very limited offensively; Lillard is playing his best basketball of the season after a slow start shooting the rock.

Antetokounmpo has been perhaps their only constant, but they have gotten ancillary production from its role players, looking more jelled on both ends of the floor, leading to this recent surge with an NBA Cup at stake.

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