Giannis Antetokounmpo welcomes the Bucks' playoff tests: 'Pressure is earned and I love it'
Giannis Antetokounmpo folded his arms across a black hoodie that read “Be better. Be different." The two-time reigning NBA most valuable player was days removed from a season that, in many respects, indicated growth over the previous years that earned him such hardware.
He wasn’t interested in reflection, though, his mind set on the playoffs. He did acknowledge he felt he improved his skills and his confidence had grown in new parts of his game, however, which begged the question – has it set him and the Milwaukee Bucks up for the ultimate success?
“I don’t know. We’ll see,” he said. “I don’t know. I’m in a good place mentally, physically. Now the result is what’s going to determine that, correct? But I can’t worry about that. If I make the shots, yeah I was ready. If I miss the shot, no, I wasn’t ready. I don’t worry about that. I just worry about how I am physically, how I am mentally. I’m in a good place.
“What I know about me is that I’m going to be out there and I’m going to be try to compete. I know the worst thing that can happen is me missing a shot. That’s the worst that can happen. So, I’m in a good place. I’m just going to go out there and compete. Hopefully the season made me create good habits and made me ready for the playoffs. And if it didn’t, it didn’t.”
There should be little doubt that the work Antetokounmpo has put in has prepared him, from regimented practice and pregame routine to incorporating new moves and shots into games.
What comes next is how opponents will try to shake that confidence. The Bucks open the playoffs at 1 p.m. Saturday against the Miami Heat at Fiserv Forum.
Let it fly
Of the many highlights of Antetokounmpo’s MVP performance in the All-Star Game was a three-pointer off an assist from Denver’s Nikola Jokić. Antetokounmpo collected the pass, pump-faked and then stepped back into a corner three. Jokić put his hands on his head in disbelief of what he was watching, and then celebrated wildly when the ball swished through.
It was a signal of growing confidence. In his 35 games before the all-star break, Antetokounmpo shot 28.5% from behind the three-point line. In his 26 games after, he shot 33.3%.
"We’re all still going to give them to him – nobody in their right mind is going to allow him to get to the lane and dunk the ball at will,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “The three is always going to be the best option for his opponents. So if he’s knocking those down, we’re all in big trouble.”
Playoff opponents will build the “wall," and the Bucks have surrounded Antetokounmpo with far more options both in personnel and in scheme to break it down. But he will have to swing a hammer and chisel of his own from the outside.
“He knows that we believe in his jump shot,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “This year he’s letting it fly and we love it.
“That’s the stuff that personally I love because when he shoots it with no hesitation it goes in a lot of the time.”
But it’s not just the three-point shooting that will be important. He's incorporated more mid-range and post options and those are going in, too. Before the all-star break, he shot 55.7% from the floor. He made 58.8% afterward.
On the whole, Antetokounmpo put together his second-best shooting season of his career (56.9%). He also set a career high in effective field goal percentage at 60%, which adjusts for the fact that a three-point field goal is worth one more point than a two-point field goal.
It’s something he will need to carry into the postseason.
In the four straight losses to end the 2019 Eastern Conference finals, Antetokounmpo shot 43.5% from the floor and 35.7% from the three-point line. In the four games he played against the Heat last year, he shot 50.8%, 21.4% from deep.
In 48 playoff games, he has shot 51.4% and 32.5% from behind the three-point line.
“It is important that he’s at least a threat,” said Ryan McDonough, the Phoenix Suns’ general manager from 2013-18 and currently NBA analyst for Radio.com. “He doesn’t have to be a knockdown shooter, but he needs to be a willing shooter, he needs to not hesitate on perimeter shots ... because if not, we know what’s coming. Teams will sag off him. They’ll dare him to shoot. They’ll wall off the paint. They’ll try to slide in and take charges. Against good teams in the playoffs in particular, especially as you advance and get close to the top of the pyramid and the competition gets better and better each round, you can’t get to the basket anymore. You have to make shots over the top of the defense.
“I feel like that’s the next step for Giannis and the Bucks to finally break though and make an NBA Finals or potentially win a championship.”
A free throw test
Along with confidence in his outside shot, Antetokounmpo has found it at the free throw line.
He experimented with form and routine early in the year, and while he shot only 68.5% for the season there was a real uptick late; he shot 71.9% over his final 46 games.
Antetokounmpo changed form and routine following a 10-second violation in Atlanta on Jan 24 and debuted the methodical process against Toronto on Jan. 27.
“It’s a way for him to remind himself of the things that are important in his shot, in his free throw to do,” Bucks assistant coach Josh Oppenheimer told the Journal Sentinel after the change, “which has made him confident and he’s getting great results with it.”
In that game against Toronto, played in the empty Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, the Raptors broke out an old tactic to try to get into Antetokounmpo’s head – counting loudly to 10 while he went through his routine.
It wasn’t the only time that happened, either.
Philadelphia center Dwight Howard made his complaints so well-heard in the Bucks’ 124-117 victory on April 22 at Fiserv Forum that the TNT and Bally Sports Wisconsin broadcasts had to acknowledge it.
It’s actually nothing new for Antetokounmpo, who has dealt with that at other points in his career.
"Yeah, I’m sure those calls is what changed that game – that went right into our scouting report,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said with a laugh. “I was joking around with Giannis after the game. He actually came up to me and said, ‘Coach I thought I heard you yelling, counting to 10.’ I said it’s the only thing I could focus on in a game like that. So I was kind of joking around with it in the game.
“But listen, it’s close. I don’t really care, honestly. It’s not a focus. The guy’s working on getting better at the line. Sure it’s close, you know, but how many of those are you going to get in a game? One maybe. And one would be a victory.”
While opponents from Denver’s Jamaal Murray to Phoenix’s Jae Crowder to Atlanta’s Clint Capela and an assistant with Brooklyn have been heard or seen on broadcasts counting or talking to officials, at least one coach said he’d have his captains mention it pregame.
"Once you get into the playoffs, you will bring up everything to give yourself an advantage, said Hawks interim head coach Nate McMillan. “If we feel that that is an advantage to them we certainly will bring that to the attention of the league and the officiating crew that particular game. I don’t even think officials have a clock on that. It’s something that a lot of people are starting to pay attention so I’m sure they’re looking at it.”
It’s just another part of Antetokounmpo's game that will be tested. In the last two postseason series in which the Bucks were eliminated, he shot 47.2% from the line against Toronto and 53.7% against Miami.
In the postseason throughout his career, Antetokounmpo has made 62.7% of his 373 free throw attempts.
“I think the confidence with Giannis just continues to grow," Budenholzer said. "I think the ball in his hands is always a good thing, including him shooting it. Him shooting free throws, himself shooting whatever shot he gets to and takes. It’s important for us and he’s going to be in that spot. We believe in him and he’s going to take ‘em and make 'em or he doesn’t. Not every player makes every shot.
“But the work and the time and the effort that Giannis has put in and the belief in him is just there.”
Now in his eighth season, with more experience to draw from – both in past playoffs and game-closing situations this year – Antetokounmpo welcomes what is to come.
“Pressure, I believe that pressure is earned,” he said. “If I wasn’t who I am today and I didn’t work as hard as a I work and I didn’t focus on the game and didn’t love the game and I didn’t compete the way I am, we wouldn’t be talking about pressure.
“Pressure is earned and I love it. I’m out there, I want to compete and I want more pressure because the better I get the more pressure I have. I’m in a good place mentally, good place physically. All I care about is competing and learning from – like everybody else in this world – learning from the past, playoff runs we had and hopefully we can be in a better position this year.”