Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 2018 All-Star Game highlights

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo played in his second All-Star Game on Sunday night in Los Angeles, racking up highlights in the process.

In what was one of the most exciting All-Star Games in recent memory, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo just came out on the losing side on Sunday in Los Angeles.

As a member of Stephen Curry‘s Team Stephen, Antetokounmpo and his teammates were narrowly edged out due to some intense defense from LeBron James and his Team LeBron in the game’s closing minutes.

Antetokounmpo, Curry and Co. had spent most of the game playing with a comfortable lead, but in a refreshing change from years past, the NBA’s biggest stars locked in and competed late on to provide an entertaining spectacle for the fans.

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Having set a Bucks franchise record with his 30-point tally on his All-Star debut in New Orleans last season, Antetokounmpo couldn’t quite reach those dizzying heights again on this occasion.

Still, Antetokounmpo played well, finishing with 16 points, seven rebounds and two assists, on 6-of-14 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from the free throw line.

Of course, beyond the box score, Antetokounmpo had more than his fair share of memorable plays and moments in his second All-Star Game too.

Let’s take a look at some of Giannis’ highlights from the NBA’s marquee event on Sunday.

Rim-rockin’

Although this was relatively tame by Giannis’ standards, it still was a perfect example of both the athleticism and intensity that the 23-year-old brings every time he steps on the court.

Finding himself wide open in the paint, Antetokounmpo almost dropped the pass from DeMar DeRozan, but was able to recover quickly, using his long arms to pick the ball up off the floor.

Without any hesitation, and in a single, fluid movement, Antetokounmpo brought the ball straight up and exploded into a forceful dunk, leaving the nearby Victor Oladipo floundering with no chance of impacting the play.

In years past, this dunk would have blended into the background in an All-Star game, but with much less showboating and a greater intensity all around on this occasion, this dunk from Giannis remained notable.

Dunking on teammates

Giannis trying hard in the All-Star Game has been discussed so much in the past year that it borders upon becoming a cliche now, but on Sunday in Staples Center, he produced another great example of his focus.

Just how much does Antetokounmpo care about playing in the All-Star Game?

Well, it’s at least enough to put teammates on a poster without a second thought.

While the Greek Freak grabbed plenty of attention with multiple putback dunks last year, there weren’t quite as many opportunities to follow it up this time around. As such, when Giannis finally spotted an opening, he grabbed it with both hands.

When James Harden missed a layup, rather than having a chance to grab the rebound for himself, Antetokounmpo gave him a taste of the Tim Hardaway Jr. experience, coming in from above to slam it home over his teammate.

https://twitter.com/Bucks/status/965411397902286853

Goaltending?

Forget the review that left LeBron James and Kevin Durant furious late in the fourth quarter, the most egregious piece of officiating in this year’s All-Star Game came from an incorrect goaltending call that took an incredible block away from Antetokounmpo in the box score.

While the officials can scrub the box score clean, they can’t destroy the tape, and so the record lives on of Giannis’ emphatic block on Kemba Walker.

In a play that will be all too familiar to Bucks fans, Walker cut in from the wing, cruising to the rim for what he thought would be an easy layup in an exhibition game, but Antetokounmpo had other ideas.

Giannis tracked Walker from the moment the pass landed in his hands, ultimately timing the block to perfection. How the Hornets’ guard didn’t hear the giant footsteps bearing down on him remains a mystery, but the play acts as further evidence that Antetokounmpo doesn’t take plays off.

Gyro slam

The block and the dunk on Harden may be more instantly spectacular, but it was Antetokounmpo’s final play of the game that was really his piece de resistance.

While much has been made of the improved defensive effort that was on display on Sunday, it was at its most evident in the game’s final five minutes. With a single possession separating the teams, Team LeBron locked in and took on the kind of defensive stances that were once foreign to All-Star games.

When Harden swings the ball to a wide open Antetokounmpo, he has the time and space to attempt a dagger three-pointer, but the Bucks superstar thought better of it.

Instead, the Greek opted for his go-to move. With Durant, one of the few players in the league with the required size and defensive acumen to stop him, sizing him up, Antetokounmpo broke out a smooth euro-step.

The result left Durant scrambling and allowed Giannis to glide through to the rim for a dunk at a pivotal juncture in the game. Antetokounmpo making the difficult look easy is an increasingly common occurrence, but this truly was a thing of beauty.

“He travels all the time”

Lastly, Antetokounmpo delivered one more highlight after the game had wrapped up. As Russell Westbrook gave an interview to TNT’s Kirsten Ledlow at centercourt, Antetokounmpo crashed the party to have his say.

“He travels all the time”, interrupted a clearly good-spirited Giannis, in an interaction that earned a laugh from the often serious Westbrook.

The pair had gone head to head on a couple of occasions, with Westbrook fouling Antetokounmpo on two separate shot attempts throughout the game.

Giannis may have just been having fun with Westbrook about his own shuffling feet, although it’s just as likely that it could have been an imitation of the Thunder guard’s own complaints about Antetokounmpo.

Next: Milwaukee Bucks: Every All-Star In Franchise History (2018 update)

Antetokounmpo’s use of the gather step is a frequent catalyst for calls of travel from spectators around the league, so maybe this was just Giannis’ own way of outing Westbrook as a highlight truther.