THE Milwaukee Bucks were humiliated by the Golden State Warriors in a 125-90 blowout on Wednesday night. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co were slapped with a rude awakening from the Dubs after the Bucks racked up an impressive six-game winning streak.
The message was clear after Golden State embarrassed Milwaukee: The Bucks still have a lot of work to do.
For most of the season, defense has been a major problem for the Bucks. Their issues on that side of the ball surfaced again Wednesday night, but at the same time, that wasn’t the end of their 35-point drubbing at the hands of the Warriors.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers emphasized that their offense was the biggest problem. Giannis Antetokounmpo echoed his coach’s thoughts in a painfully honest postgame tirade:
“We can’t allow our offense to dictate our defense,” Antetokounmpo said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “At the end of the day, we have to be better. They scored 125 points. At halftime, they had 78.
“In the first six minutes of the third quarter, I think we were aggressive, we were physical, we were making them tough shots, and in the first two minutes they had about five points. We got back in the game, and after that, the moment the ball doesn’t move, everyone doesn’t touch it anymore, everyone doesn’t have any energy, now our defense isn’t as good.“
As Giannis noted, the Bucks tried to make a game of it in the third quarter, where they outscored Golden State, 23-15. And then, as Antetokounmpo also pointed out, Milwaukee suddenly lost focus.
The Warriors held the Bucks to just nine points in the fourth quarter, while scoring 32 more on their own side of the court to complete the blowout.
Simply put, the Bucks need to be much better than this going forward.
