Brooklyn Nets have beaten the Milwaukee Bucks for the third time this season and for Giannis Antetokounmpo, that should hit their pride as players.
For him, they did not have the competitive spirit against their visitors on Thursday as they trailed by double digit most of the game before getting close by one point with 37 seconds left.
“We’ve played them four times and they’ve beat us three times,” he said post-game as quoted by The Athletic’s Eric Nehm.
“In a game like this, it’s about individual pride. It’s about who’s going to compete, you know who’s going to play harder. And I think three out of the four times they’ve played harder than us.”
Antetokounmpo first went off about the Bucks lack of competitiveness in November when they went 2-8 to start the season.
The rant appeared effective for a moment and now, they are back needing to bring that up again.
The Nets pretty much controlled the game starting from the end of the first quarter when they built a seven-point lead.
The lead ballooned to double digits and the Bucks played catch up since then.
Antetokounmpo scored 27 points and had 13 rebounds and seven assists while Damian Lillard contributed 23 points.
Cameron Johnson punished the Bucks like the last time they met as he top-scored for them with 26 points while Cam Thomas had 24 off the bench.
Pat Connaughton agrees with Giannis Antetokounmpo
The usual rotation guys were not producing that much and Andre Jackson Jr. was ejected early.
Coach Doc Rivers had to dig deep on his bench and he fielded in Pat Connaughton whose minutes were reduced this season.
PatC made a good account of himself in the limited minutes, recording two points, four rebounds, one steal, and one block.
He did not say it directly but Connaughton seems to have suggested post-game that they were not playing their usual games lately.
He mentioned about their win against the Indiana Pacers the other day where they needed a 19-point comeback.
“We don’t want to play with fire… We want to look at how we can be better in both of those situations,” he said
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