Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo dominates in Greek win over Iran
By Adam McGee
Milwaukee Bucks duo Giannis Antetokounmpo and Thanasis Antetokounmpo helped Greece to a comfortable win against Iran on Sunday.
Greece’s perfect preparations for the FIBA World Cup continued in Heraklion on Sunday, as Milwaukee Bucks duo Giannis Antetokounmpo and Thanasis Antetokounmpo helped guide their national team to an 88-58 victory over Iran.
As has become customary at both club and national team level, Giannis put in a truly dominant performance to thrill the Crete crowd as they soaked up the Aegean International Tournament action.
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Having tasted his first action of the summer last time out against Hungary, Giannis now had a chance to build up some momentum and sharpness as he works towards peaking in China next month.
In a particularly aggressive mood, there was no sign of Giannis showing any willingness to settle. Time and again, the reigning NBA MVP barrelled his way through the paint, got to the rim at will, and either finished authoritatively or picked out teammates from there.
That meant there wasn’t much opportunity to gauge if Giannis has made any notable offseason progress with his jump shot, although it did lead to frequent trips to the free throw line, where the 24-year-old looked encouragingly confident.
In all, Giannis logged just 21 minutes of action, but by no means could he be accused of failing to make the most of his time on the floor. The end result was 19 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.
In other Bucks news, Giannis wasn’t the only Antetokounmpo to get a taste of the action on Sunday. Having been forced to sit out the team’s two previous games due to injury, Thanasis Antetokounmpo got his opportunity to shake off some rust against Iran.
Although he was clearly feeling his way back into things in limited minutes, Thanasis delivered a number of encouraging moments. Shortly after first entering the game, Thanasis dished a beautiful wraparound assist from an inbounds pass on the baseline.
Even more encouragingly for both Greece and Milwaukee fans, Thanasis looked committed to providing spacing as he worked up and down the wing and toward the corners, and even knocked down a confident and smooth triple from the left side of the floor for good measure.
The icing on the cake for both brothers came in the form of a beautiful, free-flowing team move, when quick passing ultimately found Giannis in the paint, who instead of simply dunking it, sensed his older brother sprinting in and dropped off a disguised pass that set Thanasis up for a powerful slam.
Next. Milwaukee Bucks stars in first taste of World Cup tune-up action. dark
Next for Greece, it’s on to the Acropolis International Tournament in Athens later this week. Starting on Friday, that event will provide Greece with a much sterner test as they’ll match up with Italy, Serbia, and Ersan Ilyasova‘s Turkey. A strong showing against those teams, and the Greeks will have every reason to be ultra-confident jetting off for China.