The Bucks have dropped seven straight games, and if the playoffs started today, the 8-12 Milwaukee wouldn’t even make the East play-in games.
Four of those recent losses came without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was out with a groin strain, but he returned on Friday night and the result was the same, a 118-109 loss to New York. After the game, Antetokounmpo called out everyone on the Bucks, saying they need a more focused mentality.
_“Nobody should have a personal agenda. Nobody should worry about what they want from themselves. Worry only about winning mentality, winning mindset. The more we can win the games, the more everything takes care of itself ..._
_“Can I make an excuse that we’ve played a lot of games and guys are tired and it’s a huge load on people? Yeah. Can I also make an excuse that’s human nature when \[Kevin Porter Jr.\] goes down and myself goes down, it’s human nature to think that you got to carry a load ... But that’s not how you win games. That’s not how you build culture._
_“At the end of the day, you got to come in, do your job, do what you’re paid to do, defend ... do the little things. And sometimes, when you worry about doing the little things, all the other things add up. If you’re so concerned about scoring the ball and get yourself going offensively and that doesn’t work for you, now you feel like you cannot do nothing.”_
Antetokounmpo himself has played at an MVP level, averaging 31.1 points per game on 63.4% shooting, with 11.1 rebounds and 6.9 assists a night. The Bucks have also gotten a leap from Ryan Rollins this season, who is averaging 18.3 points per game. Despite that, the Bucks are 20th in offense and 21st in defense in the league, combining for a -3.1 net rating.
There is plenty of time to turn things around in Milwaukee and get back to looking like the team from the opening week of the season — and the Bucks need that, nor next summer is going to be very interesting for this team and Antetokounmpo.
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