Giannis Antetokounmpo is already urging his teammates to “be better” in every facet of the game, even though the season is not yet halfway through. The Milwaukee Bucks forward is upset over their subpar play, which started 2024 with a 3-1 record.

The Bucks lost to the Houston Rockets on Saturday at the Toyota Center, 112-108, despite Antetokounmpo’s 48 points (16 of 25 from the field) and 17 rebounds. This was the Bucks’ third straight defeat.

Compared to the Milwaukee of December, this club appears to be entirely different. The club had an 11-win, 2-loss record at the time and appeared to be a scoring machine.

Currently, however, they have lost every game phase to them. Houston, in particular, had a 63-43 halftime lead and an 89-73 lead going into the fourth quarter, but their defense was unable to stop them. Thus, the star forward’s frustration.

“We need to improve,” said Antetokounmpo.

Two days following the loss, Giannis vented his annoyance at the state of the team and chastised his colleagues.

“We need to improve. The Greek player asserted, “We need to be trained better. We need to play better. We need to defend better. We need to trust one another more.

“Everything and everyone needs to improve. Antetokounmpo inquired, “It starts with the team manager; he has to wash our clothes better.” He continued, “The bench has to be better, and the team leaders have to be more vocal.”

“We have to be better,” he said, challenging his players to step up their assault and defense and even asking the coaching staff to come up with a stronger game plan. We’ll see; we have four months to recover.”

Coach Griffin acknowledges the team’s deficiencies.

Head coach Adrian Griffin of the Bucks acknowledged that his squad did not play as a cohesive one against the Rockets. It will materialize. It is a sport played in teams. There are five guys there,” he said.

“I believe that as a team, we dug ourselves into a hole and worked hard to escape it, but we just ran out of time. About how Houston outplayed them, he remarked, “They did a tremendous job defensively.

The Bucks will play the Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics, and Golden State Warriors this week. Time will tell if Giannis’ outburst had any impact or if the squad has to undergo a more significant overhaul.