By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo hopes that the 120-116 loss to the Houston Rockets will serve as a lesson for him and his teammates when it comes to finishing the job when up in the score down the stretch.
“Usually, when are maybe up by six with two minutes to go, we usually close the game, but we didn’t do it today,” Antetokounmpo said in a zoom call after the match. We got to learn from it and keep moving.” Antetokounmpo finished the match with 36 points, 18 rebounds and eight assists to become the only player along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the last 50 years to have at least 30 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in 15 games of the same season.
The Bucks were leading 112 – 104, 3:14 before the end of the fourth quarter until the Rockets launched a 0-9 run that brought them ahead. Giannis put Milwaukee up 116 – 115 with 24.3 seconds to play but the Rockets scored five unanswered points to get the win.
“It’s really nice to beat teams by 10, 20, 30. But you got to learn from this. It’s good to play close games,” Giannis commented. “You didn’t play a lot of close games in the other 65 games that we’ve played. We got to keep learning. Keep executing at the end of the game.”
Houston put on a couple of successful defensive plays in the last minutes to make the comeback. These stops included PJ Tucker and James Harden combining to “lock” Giannis, with the latter stripping the ball off the Greek Freak’s hands, to dish an assist to Russell Westbrook for the go-ahead layup in transition.
Harden then stalled a Bucks offense by deflecting a Giannis pass at the low post.
“I have nothing to prove to anybody. Nothing to say,” Harden said when asked if he proved something with that steal against Antetokounmpo, especially in light of the Greek Freak’s past comments on his defense.
He then shut down a reporter who inquired him about how difficult was to defend against Antetokounmpo, in a manner reminiscent of his teammate Westbrook.
“Next question”