3 areas Giannis Antetokounmpo must improve against the Boston Celtics
No. 3 – Giannis Antetokounmpo must get out to better starts
In both Game 1 and Game 2, Giannis Antetokounmpo really struggled out of the gate. In Game 1, he had three turnovers in the first four minutes and the Bucks fell behind by eight in the first quarter. In Game 2, he took several questionable shots at the beginning of the game, started 0-for-6 from the field, and the Bucks were down 18-3 in the blink of an eye.
The Bucks must get out to better starts so that they aren’t playing from behind, and that starts with Giannis. In the first half, he is shooting just 7-for-25 in this series. At the very least, he needs to be taking better shots than he did at the start of game two, where he was attempting a ton of jump shots, both midrange, and threes, right away.
This is something that is especially important on the road so that you can steal momentum from the home team and take the crowd out of it a bit. The Bucks were unable to get out to fast starts in Games 1 or 2 but hopefully going forward they, and Giannis, can start fast and put the pressure on Boston from the very beginning.
Giannis may be known as a second half player, as he led the league in second half points per game in the regular season, but avoiding these awful starts can help prevent situations like game two from occurring where the Bucks are playing from behind all game.
Giannis is going to be fine. He is going to put up his good averages and be an effective player in this series. He’s the best player in the world for a reason. But he still has his areas to improve in, and against a great team like Boston, he is going to have to be more than just fine for the Bucks to win this series. We’ll see if the Greek Freak can get going as the series heads to Milwaukee.