The Milwaukee Bucks have a lot of momentum on their side heading into Thursday’s matchup against the Charlotte Hornets. This is after Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co. destroyed this same opponent a couple of nights ago via a jaw-dropping 123-85 victory at the Fiserv Forum.
That represented Milwaukee’s biggest win of the season, and they will obviously want to keep their foot on the gas on Thursday in Charlotte.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Vocal on Milwaukee Bucks’ Defensive Improvements
Tuesday’s lopsided victory was a result of the Bucks flexing their defensive prowess all over a hapless Hornets side. Sure, the fact that Charlotte isn’t exactly one of the most formidable foes in the NBA today had a lot to do with the blowout, but you really can’t discredit Milwaukee for their commanding defensive performance on the evening.
Giannis sounded off on his team’s effort after the game as he highlighted the significant strides the Bucks have been taking of late:
“Sometimes, I feel like we come in and we don’t touch nobody,” Antetokounmpo said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “We just let them run their offense, move the ball, attack, flip it, they do fluff stuff, just to get the ball to the match-up that they want without getting touched. They work their offense for 60 seconds without getting touched.
“We have to be physical. When somebody is asking for a pick and roll, we gotta get in his body, make him feel us. The guy that’s gonna switch, make sure you get your hands, without fouling, to the screener. Make sure he feels that you’re right there and then switch up. Like we work on this stuff. We don’t do it all the time, but we work on this stuff, and when we’re at our best, like tonight, I think we were physical. People felt us today. So we gotta keep on doing that. We gotta keep ourselves to that standard.”
As Antetokounmpo said, Tuesday’s win was a near-perfect blueprint for the Bucks in terms of what they have to do — particularly on the defensive end — if they want to re-establish themselves as one of the most feared defensive units in the league.
The Bucks are still a work in progress and there’s no denying that a lot of work still needs to be done before they get to where they want to be. Nevertheless, they have been taking the necessary steps in the right direction of late, so it’s now a matter of building on these improvements and making sure that they do not regress.
Of course, Giannis will be them to remind his team every step of the way.
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