Giannis Antetokounmpo elevated his scoring average to nearly 30 points a game last season and is off to another quick start.
Perhaps no team has struggled at defending Antetokounmpo recently as much as the Brooklyn Nets, whom the Milwaukee Bucks will host on Wednesday night.
Antetokounmpo averaged a career-best 29.9 points in 67 games last season as Milwaukee unsuccessfully defended its NBA championship.
He averaged 28.1 points for the 2020-21 season, and his 31.9 points per game against the Nets in the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals are his third-highest postseason scoring average, trailing the 35.2 he averaged in the NBA Finals against Phoenix and the 33.9 he averaged against Boston in last spring’s conference semifinals.
So far, Antetokounmpo is averaging 32.5 points in his first two games. He totaled 21 points and 13 rebounds in Milwaukee’s season-opening 90-88 win at Philadelphia on Thursday and then dominated with 44 and 12, respectively, in 28 minutes during a 125-105 win over Houston on Saturday.
“You run out of words to describe a player like that,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said. “I can’t imagine you guys actually have to write. I don’t know how you guys just don’t send the same article over and over with the same adjectives and everything like that because you need some new ways to just describe how his game grows. It’s tough.
“He’s obviously the head of the snake, the engine to everything we do. He just comes out with such great mentality and focus that it trickles down. It gives us all energy.”
Lopez was a Net for the early days of Antetokounmpo’s career from 2013-17, then spent a year with the Los Angeles Lakers before becoming his teammate in 2018-19.
Antetokounmpo’s career average of 24.7 against the Nets is his highest against any Eastern Conference opponent. He’s scored at least 30 points in seven of his past eight regular-season games against Brooklyn, including 44 on March 31 in Milwaukee’s overtime win in Brooklyn.
The Nets are off to a mixed start with shaky defensive results. After getting torched by Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram in a 22-point loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, they got their first win Friday when Kevin Durant hit the tie-breaking 3-pointer in the final minute to beat Toronto, then struggled again Monday.
In Monday’s 134-124 loss at Memphis, the Nets faltered in the second half and had trouble defending Ja Morant and Desmond Bane. After taking a five-point lead at halftime, the Nets were outscored 70-55 in the second half as they allowed Morant and Bane to score 38 points apiece while combining for 12 of the Grizzlies’ 16 3-pointers.
“I thought we lost our focus a little bit, especially starting the third,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “I called an early timeout, but we gave up 45 (points) in the third, and that was it.”
Brooklyn’s suspect defense came on a night when its star duo of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had their most productive showings so far. Durant and Irving scored 37 apiece and combined to make 28 of 44 shots, but Ben Simmons struggled again and fouled out for the second time.
Milwaukee is 19-5 in the past 24 regular-season meetings and has at least 120 points in eight of the past 11 encounters with Brooklyn.
–Field Level Media
