The Milwaukee Bucks’ eventful offseason has done well to distract fans from the fact that their team is coming off a highly disappointing first-round playoff exit last season.
While it is true that Giannis Antetokounmpo is looking ahead to what his new-look team can do this coming season, there’s also no denying that their staggering postseason loss to the Miami Heat is still something that still weighs heavily on his mind.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Reflects on Milwaukee Bucks’ First-Round Exit
So much has happened since Giannis and the Bucks lost out to Miami in five games in the opening round of the playoffs last term. However, Antetokounmpo is not one to forget easily:
“Obviously, it was hard time for us having a good regular season and going the first round and ending our season like that,” he said, via Marc J. Spears fo Andcsape. “And it was just unfortunate because we couldn’t catch a break and I don’t want to talk about the excuses. But obviously, it wasn’t a good feeling for the team. Everybody was in disbelief when we [lost] Game 5 at home. We were looking at one another and we were like, ‘We just lost in the first round of the playoffs.’”
Even Bucks fans will agree that the mere thought of the Miami Heat brings back some bad memories. As Giannis said, however, Milwaukee isn’t making any excuses. They got beat bad in the first round and there’s simply no escaping that fact.
Instead, Giannis wants to face that monster head-on.
Fuel for the Fire
Antetokounmpo is making an effort not to forget about that playoff loss. It’s not that he hasn’t moved on from it; Giannis just wants to make sure that his team uses that as fuel to motivate them heading into the new season:
“But at the end of the day, in life, sometimes that happens,” he contiuned. “And at the end of the day, what are you going to do about it? You’re going to sit down and just keep on whining about it and feeling bad about yourself, or you’re going to do something about it? And hopefully this year we can get back in this right position, same exact position, and power through that. We got to take a game at a time, but when we get to the first round be better when we lose the first game, be able to respond when we face adversity. But it wasn’t a good summer. And sometimes it’s good to have summers like that, to have kind of like a bad taste in your mouth.
“It makes you work harder. It makes the team even more locked-in because even though we had a good team last [season], we couldn’t advance from the first round. So, tough time for the team. And obviously because of that, a lot of changes was made from coach on. Coach Bud was together with us for five years. We won the championship together and now [we are] on to other things. But at the end of the day, again, it was a lesson and hopefully I’ll learn from it and hopefully the whole team can learn from it. Then, once we get in the same position again, we are better.”
It sounds to me like Giannis and the Bucks are going to be playing with a chip on their shoulder this coming season. There’s also that tinge of revenge that seems to be on his mind as Giannis looks to be in the “exact position” they were last term.
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