After taking down the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, the Indiana Pacers pulled off another massive upset on Thursday by defeating the Milwaukee Bucks, 128-119, in the semifinal of the NBA In-Season Tournament.
The Bucks were expected to emerge as the victors of Thursday’s elimination game but instead, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the rest of the squad are now going home empty-handed.
Giannis Antetkounmpo Vocal on Milwaukee Bucks’ Shortcomings
Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo had a straightforward explanation as to what led to his team losing Thursday’s do-or-die showdown. According to the former back-to-back MVP, it was a simple case of one team just being hungrier than the other.
“Played harder than us. Simple as that,” he said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Obviously playing the zone, you’re not guarding, you’re just guarding like an area. Try to keep – have a guy in front of you. And sometimes when the ball goes up, obviously if you try to find a body to get back, you know, to kind of crack a body but at the end of the day, I don’t even think that was the case. I think they just played harder than us and we’ve just got to accept it.”
Giannis isn’t making excuses here. He knows that the Pacers just wanted it more and that the Bucks got punished for their lack of passion in the game.
Giannis Points to Rebounding
Antetokounmpo then rued Milwaukee’s lack of effort on the boards. The Bucks were outrebounded by Indiana 51-46, which looks even worse once you consider how they gave up 46 offensive rebounds to the Pacers.
“How many offensive rebounds they had, 11 (in the second half)? That 23 points, second, whatever it’s called, second-chance points, yeah, that’s the game right there,” he said. “That’s the game right there, man. Played harder than us. They crashed the board. Defended better. They were better.”
I see no lies here.
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