Giannis Antetokounmpo is not too happy with the way the Milwaukee Bucks are playing defense. The Greek Freak indicated as much after he urged his teammates to take more “pride” on the defensive end following their loss to the Houston Rockets on Saturday,
With Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard leading the scoring, the Bucks have no problem on offense. However, it’s on defense where they are really struggling. With the departure of Jrue Holiday in the trade for Lillard, Milwaukee lost a defensive anchor and a premier perimeter defender. It surely doesn’t help that no one from the team has stepped up to fill that massive hole.
Milwaukee’s porous defense was evident once again during the Rockets showdown. Seven Houston players were able to score in double digits, led by Alperen Sengun who had 21 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field. For what it’s worth, H-Town played just nine players in the contest–meaning only two scored below 10 points.
Overall, the Rockets attempted 83 shots and made 36 of them. While the Bucks made 35 shots on 76 attempts, they simply cannot win if they don’t make key stops.
In his presser following the Bucks 112-108 loss, Antetokounmpo highlighted that it all boils down to one thing for them to build a better defense: “pride.”
“Pride. Pride. Pride. Pride. We gotta take it personal,” the one-time Defensive Player of the Year said, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
“Offense is gonna be there some nights and some nights it’s not going to be there. Your defensive effort, though, has got to be there. And defensively, our effort was not there. There was no pride. Guys were just driving the ball, straight line drive, getting to the paint, overhelping, shooting threes, offensive rebounds. There was nothing. This was not the Milwaukee Bucks.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo also emphasized that they cannot always rely on the offense to score 130 or 140 points a game and save them by outgunning the opponents. As he said, it “not going to work that way.”
Milwaukee Bucks’ Defense a Big Problem
Sure enough, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s issue with the Milwaukee Bucks defense isn’t without any merit. After all, they actually rank in the bottom half of the NBA when it comes to defensive rating.
As it currently stands, the Bucks are 21st when it comes to defensive rating. While they are the second seed in the East, it’s mostly because their offense saves them.
The Bucks allow the sixth-most points per game in the conference, which is definitely not a recipe for success.
There is still a lot of games left on the season for the Bucks to fix their defensive woes. With the trade deadline coming up, it might also be the best time to assess the market and see if they can bring in a guy who can help.
At the end of the day, unless the Bucks do something, their defensive issues will continue to persist.
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