Giannis Antetokounmpo of his own development team enjoys a moment in the NBA Finals despite Milwaukee Bucks 2-0 hole

MILWAUKEE – The Bucks returned home for the 3rd and 4th games of the NBA Finals in a less enjoyable spot after the Phoenix Suns won two races to open these seven best cases in Phoenix.

But if the Bucks situation is judged solely on how superstar striker Giannis Antetokounmpo has approached his media obligations, it’s easy to assume that Milwaukee was the team that led the two games without anything, instead of having to face difficult situations on Sunday night in the 3rd game. here on the Fiserv forum.

Take, for example, a Saturday afternoon. Antetokounmpo, wearing heavy ice bags on both knees and without shoes, stepped onto the podium, looked at the gathered media and said with a smile, “This is going to be fun.” Then, when asked the first question of the session, he initially stared ahead and just offered, “I’m just here so I’m not fined.” and told everyone – twice – that he was just kidding.

And later, when Antetokounmpo was asked among his own development team where Milwaukee finds himself, he said it’s simply his way of dealing with events as opposed to letting the gravity – play for the first time in the NBA Finals time, and lagging behind in a 2-0 series – weigh him.

“You know, I personally think, of course, that it’s the finale. Like tomorrow, we all understand what kind of game we’re going for tomorrow,” Antetokounmpo said of a series of Bucks deficits. “So we know what we have to do. But at the end of the day, you have to keep it light. You can’t say to yourself, ‘Oh, it’s the finale.’ You have to do this. There is so much pressure, man. ‘No, like it’s still basketball. It’s easy to say, hard to do, but at the same time you have to try to approach it this way. One should just keep it light. Had to keep the ball light. keep the atmosphere light.

“Once we go there and see the fans, you know you understand what kind of game you are. But I personally, one thing that helps me is keep it light and enjoy it. Knowing that I enjoy things I really want to put my heart into it. If I don’t enjoy it so I just go through the movements.So I just try to enjoy it, enjoy this, try to enjoy being here.We have come a long way to be in this position and we have to try to get the best out of it.I think we did in the first round, the second round, the third We’re doing it now and hopefully it works well. ”

One thing that remained consistent on Antetokounmpo Saturday virtually every other time he sat in front of the media recently was that he was emphasizing two things he focused on every time he went out on the field: enjoying himself and competing. And despite being down in the series, he felt he could achieve both of these two losses to Phoenix in Milwaukee.

For Bucks, simply Antetokounmpo on the field after collapsing at all in the 4th match of the Atlanta Eastern Conference Finals – a play Antetokounmpo has previously said he will initially be away for a year but only pay him a week – is cause for optimism.

But beyond that, Milwaukee has been in the situation before. It wasn’t until a month ago that the Bucks came home after losing the first two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Brooklyn Nets and only to win four of the remaining five games to advance.

And while the situation isn’t exactly the same as this, it gives the Bucks the muscle memory and confidence to know they can go back and win the title.

“A lot of people thought the season was done,” Bucks guard Khris Middleton said of Bucks ’position in the Nets series. “We still believed in ourselves. We came back and we had an ugly grind-it-out game that we found a way to win.

“Sometimes it’s not going to be beautiful. Sometimes it’s going to be ugly. We just have to find a way to win one game at a time from now on.”

Although part of the turn of this series of Bucks starts with both Middleton and Jrue Holiday going in a way they couldn’t win in both Phoenix games, but especially in Game 2 where they shot a combined 12 vs. 37 Field when Antetokounmpo is playing again in the same way as the Game In 2, goes a long way toward returning to Milwaukee for this series.

His line of statistics from Game 1 was impressive – 20 points, 17 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a shot in 35 minutes – but he only took 11 shots and was not his usual aggressive self in the transition. In Game 2, however, Antetokounmpo was transcendent and finished 42 points in a 15-for-22 shoot with 12 rebounds, four passes, a steal and three blocks in 40 minutes, and he got everything he wanted everywhere.

And while Antetokounmpo didn’t want to say anything significant about his game from Game 1 to Game 2, he admitted that he’s getting more comfortable with the mid-level game he’s trying to develop, and was part of his success in Game 2.

“I’m more comfortable,” he said. “I’m not trying to think about it. Now that you said that, I can go miss them tomorrow because of you. But no, I feel more comfortable. I’m just trying to be aggressive, trying to go downhill. Sometimes guys stay in front of me or they create a wall that won’t let me finish So you have to try to figure out other ways to be effective, whether it’s ball passing or pulling a mid-jump or getting to the spot and then shooting over them.

“But you just have to feel the means to be effective. Sometimes you’re going to make them. Sometimes you miss them. But you have to keep aggressive. My mindset is always trying to get downhill, try to make the right game, the right decision, either input, or scoring. But like I said, sometimes you have to take those shots. You have to keep guessing the defense. But I feel comfortable and hopefully moving forward, I can feel more comfortable in those shots and be even more effective. “