The Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers battled it out on the basketball court on Monday night for what was their fourth encounter of the season. Milwaukee was coming off a 140-126 victory over the Pacers on December 13, but that has been their one and only win over their Central Division rivals.
Indiana made sure that this remained the case on Monday as they scored an impressive 122-113 victory at the Fiserv Forum to improve to make it three wins out of four against the Bucks.
Milwaukee Bucks Coach Adrian Griffin Reacts to Loss
Indiana’s main point of attack on the defensive end was, unsurprisingly, Giannis Antetokounmpo. They double-teamed him all night long and showed him all sorts of defensive schemes. The former back-to-back MVP still dropped a 30-point triple-double, but ultimately, even Giannis himself admitted that the Pacers made life difficult for him on Monday night.
For Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin, having these types of matchups against teams like Indiana is a great experience for his squad. They may have come home with a loss on Monday, but the rookie coach is still able to take away some positives from their defeat:
“Great. I love this because it gets us ready,” Griffin responded when asked how he felt his team responded to the Pacers’ defensive looks, via Gabe Stoltz of Brew Hoop. “This is how teams are going to play, especially in the playoffs. They’re gonna double-team, triple-team [Giannis]. … So, it always gives us the opportunity to get better, and it’s something we work on religiously.”
Griffin then pointed out that Antetokounmpo was still able to dominate despite the Pacers throwing everything at him on the defensive end, which is a testament to Antetokounmpo’s greatness.
“Giannis had a triple-double. We’re accustomed to teams playing that way,” Griffin continued. “The fourth quarter, when you turn it over, it just gets a little bit magnified, but for the most part, we were making some really good plays when they were double-teaming him.”
Griffin Tips Hat to Pacers
Griffin did not hesitate to give the Pacers their flowers after their hard-fought encounter. The Bucks did all they could to come back in this one, but Indiana just wouldn’t give them an inch.
“They were excellent,” Griffin said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Their bench, they really gave them a huge lift. I think we had a couple leads there. Our starters were in, we got the lead a couple times and then we were not able to sustain it when some of our starters went out of the game. Give them credit. They made plays I thought we had some really good looks as well tonight – they just didn’t fall tonight. I thought we played like three great quarters.”
Coach Griff will be looking at the law of averages when they face off against the Pacers again on Wednesday night. As he said, Milwaukee just couldn’t find the bottom of the net on Monday despite getting a lot of good looks. He’s hoping that this will all change on Wednesday.
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