By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
The Milwaukee Bucks continue to struggle in the first games of 2024, having now registered three losses over the last four matches after the last night’s (6/1) game against Houston Rockets.
A common factor in these results was the Bucks’ lackluster defense. Milwaukee allowed 125.3 points in the back-to-back defeats to the Indiana Pacers and the one to the Rockets. Houston actually scored 63 at halftime and had 93 points two minutes into the fourth period vs. the Bucks” 75 before the team slowed down down the stretch.
After posting 49 points and 17 rebounds, Bucks’ superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was far from happy with what he saw as a lack of defensive effort by his team that he believes goes against the team’s identity.
“Offensive is going to be there some nights and some nights, it’s not going to be there. Your defensive effort though has got to be there. And defensively, our effort was not there. There was no pride,” Antetokounmpo said per Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
Giannis was frustrated with how easy Rockets’ players scored and run their offensive systems.
“Guys were just driving the ball, straight line drive, getting to the paint, overhelping, shooting threes, offensive rebounds. There was nothing. This was not the Milwaukee Bucks. This is not who we are.
After trailing 63 – 43 at halftime, the Bucks tried to catch up and were able to trim the margin to single digits down the stretch but couldn’t come to a shooting distance.
“In the second half we were better,” Giannis mentioned. “Third quarter we were better. Fourth quarter we were better. We won both quarters. Yeah, we went out there and competed. We make it harder, pre-switch, fronted the post, put our hands in the ball, made it tough for them, got every rebound we could. We made it tough. That’s who we are. In the first half we didn’t do that. And it’s not good man. Because right now we’re playing a type of basketball, especially defensively, that is not us. We have to be better. In order for us to win, we have to be better. ”
The Bucks are still second in the Eastern Conference, now standing at 25 – 11. Antetokounmpo calls for improvement and hopes that his team will have things figured out once the playoffs begin.
“Every single thing, everybody has to be better. It starts from the equipment manager — he has to wash our clothes better. The bench has to be better, the leaders of the team have to be more vocal, we have to make more shots, we have to defend better, we have to have a better strategy, we have to be better. We have four months to get better, so we’ll see.”