Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard Speak Out Following a 130-111 Loss to the Toronto Raptors

The Milwaukee Bucks fell flat on Wednesday night, going on the road for the first time this season to face the Toronto Raptors, who defeated Milwaukee 130-111.

Toronto came into Wednesday’s game with the lowest offensive scoring (99.5 points per game) and offensive rating (99.6 points per 100 possessions). Coming into the game, the team had only scored 100 points twice, one of which was in overtime.

Bucks Fail on the Highway

From the start, Toronto was able to out-shoot, out-rebound, and even out-play the Bucks, building a 17-point advantage late in the first quarter. They led by as much as 27 points by the second quarter.

The Raptors not only put on their greatest performance of the season so far against the Bucks, but they were also constantly closing in on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

At halftime, Antetokounmpo was 1-for-4 for three points with one free throw attempt. He finished with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting and 6-of-9 from the free throw line. He also had two assists and four rebounds.

Lillard had 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting for the night. Other players, such as Brook Lopez, who couldn’t seem to find his flow, only had six points and hit one of his eight shot attempts. Defence was also not flowing smoothly. To be fair, the Raptors were dominating at home and were difficult to get around and block.

“We just gotta do a better job of taking care of the defensive glass,” Lopez told reporters. “They did an excellent job. They battled hard about it. That was clearly a point of emphasis for them. It appeared to be crucial to their game, and they performed admirably. We need to improve in this area.”

The Bucks forced 16 turnovers, allowing the Raptors to set a season-high with 33 assists on 48 field goals while playing their starters.

There are no excuses for poor performance

Antetokounmpo stated that there is no justification for how they performed and that they must groove by finding a solution and developing themselves.

“OK, we can make excuses—there’s a new player, a new coach—we can keep making excuses and think everything will be fine, but that doesn’t work in real life.” That is not how it works…We must play together. We need to be more specific about what we hope to gain from offense. We need to be more specific about what we’re trying to achieve defensively and who we’re going to let to attack us because you have to live with something. Nothing can be stopped. We can keep looking for solutions. We’re not quite there yet.

“Hopefully, we’ll improve in the future.” However, if we continue to believe that we will improve in the future, we will not. We have to come to the court every day and figure out how to improve. I feel that as a group, we will improve. Hopefully.”

It was a lack of communication, miscommunications, and attempting to do the right thing without going overboard that ultimately cost the Bucks. While Antetokounmpo and Lillard both stated at the end of the preseason that things would take time, losing to two teams that should have been easy wins for them was difficult to accept.

“Typically for me, I take charge, and I try to make things happen and do more,” he stated. “However, I’m like, I don’t want to do that.” I want to accept the fact that this is happening. And, you know, Giannis is probably thinking the same thing, and Khris is probably thinking the same thing.

“We want to demonstrate trust rather than simply returning to something that is not sustainable.” And I believe that as a result, things can get ugly at times. And, in my experience, it can get a little ugly out there when everyone is trying to do the right thing and no one wants to do the wrong thing. That’s what I believe is happening.”

We may, however, emphasize the positive aspects of the game. Malik Beasley has continued to demonstrate his importance to the Milwaukee Bucks’ lineup, scoring 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Unfortunately, despite his outstanding offensive efforts, his team was unable to support him.