The Greek critique
It was hard not to be left wanting more out of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Bucks’ Game 5 loss to the Celtics on Tuesday night, when taking into account his lofty standards.
In nearly 41-and-a-half minutes, Antetokounmpo finished with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field (6-of-9 from the free throw line), 10 rebounds, nine assists, two steals, two blocks as well as two turnovers and was a -2 for the night.
Despite getting off to a hot start for the night scoring wise, Antetokounmpo was rather anonymous offensively for considerable spells, which speaks to other structural weaknesses that have been well covered ground among Bucks fans.
But combine that with his gargantuan workload and Antetokounmpo certainly looked passive over the course of the second half as he lacked an assertiveness to take the game by the antlers when the opportunities presented themselves.
With that said, Giannis did plenty to set up quality looks for his teammates as his presence drew plenty of crowds that opened up kick out opportunities to shooters or cutters to the rim.
Of course, that all makes complete sense after the two-time All-Star played every single minute and second of the half, which was a point brought up by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Matt Velazquez after the game:
I asked Giannis about playing the whole second half. Here's his answer: “It did not affect me. I talked a little bit with coach, coach told me that he was going to keep me in. I’ve done that in the past and I was pretty cool with it.”
— Matt Velazquez (@Matt_Velazquez) April 25, 2018
In any event, the opportunity for the Bucks to take a pivotal Game 5 last night took a hit with their superstar rather reluctant to grab the game’s reins through a variety of factors.