Giannis Antetokounmpo had a monster triple-double to help the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Washington Wizards on Saturday. The Greek Freak scored 42 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists, dominating the team at the bottom of the Eastern Conference Standings.
The Bucks have slowly improved their 2024-25 NBA season after a sluggish 2-8 start to their year. Antetokounmpo and his crew are now 10-9 in the Eastern Conference standings, thanks to the brilliant performance of their All-Star forward.
Antetokounmpo returned to action on Saturday after missing their 106-103 win against the Miami Heat on Nov. 26 with a knee issue. After the game, Giannis had high praise from experts for his 40-point triple-double but remained humble.
“I’m just trying to play basketball,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m going out there having fun, moving the ball, trying to make the right plays, trying to make shots. That’s pretty much what I do. I don’t know. That’s for coach or you guys to judge.”
The two-time MVP didn’t feel his on-court rhythm upon his comeback, despite his performance.
“Every move was powerful out there. I was able to be in balance, find my teammates in the corner when I was coming down. But I don’t feel like I was in rhythm. I didn’t feel like I was as much as I’ve been doing the last couple of games.”
Giannis has played 17 games for the Bucks this season, averaging 32.9 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 6.6 assists. Milwaukee is on a six-game winning streak and will want to extend it against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday. It will be an NBA Cup Game, and both teams have a 3-0 record.
Wizards head coach had high praise for rookie forward with how he defended Giannis Antetokounmpo
Although the Wizards lost against the red-hot Bucks team, they tried to put up a fight to capture their third win of the year. During their game, the head coach of Washington, Brian Keefe, assigned rookie forward Alex Sarr to guard Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Sarr didn’t have the best defensive performance against the eight-time All-Star. However, he had his moments against Antetokounmpo and had a surprising block on the forward.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iaAtIoFxXxE
After the game, Keefe spoke highly of the French rookie.
“Great assignment for him,” Keefe said of Sarr. “I thought he got him a couple times. Alex got at the rim. Cut him off, made him shoot some pull-ups and then he was helping off others too. So it wasn’t just guarding him. He was able to come in and help off a [Damian] Lillard, control the paint, use his size to help other people too. I thought it was a pretty decent showing for his first time guarding him.”
The next time Sarr and Antetokounmpo will face each other will be on Dec. 21.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
