There are more than a few factors that led to the Milwaukee Bucks’ disappointing loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. The fact that the Bucks allowed their opponents to blitz them early on is obviously a major aspect as Milwaukee just couldn’t dig themselves out of the deep hole they put themselves in.
For Giannis Antetokounmpo, however, another key factor was how his team just failed to cover Boston’s barrage from beyond the arc.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Calls Out Milwaukee
It’s no secret that the Celtics are one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA from deep. Boston attempts a league-high 43.7 three-pointers per game. The 16 triples they connect on per contest ranks second in the NBA, behind only the Dallas Mavericks, who record 16.7 per game.
The one thing about Boston’s shooting from distance is that they haven’t been the most efficient side. They are currently 10th in the NBA with a 36.6 percent shooting clip from beyond the arc — a number that they easily surpassed on Wednesday night.
Giannis knows that if they are to stand a chance against the Celtics, the Bucks can’t allow them to shoot 40.5 percent from rainbow territory. Boston’s 17 triples already account for 51 out of their 119 points on the evening.
“We just gotta be better,” Antetokounmpo said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “They want to shoot a lot of 3s. They get comfortable by shooting 3s. They play well when they shoot 3s and then they’re able to break down your defense and drive the ball, get in the paint and then kick it out for another 3.
“We got to do a better job to just defend the 3-point line, keeping guys in front of us. Hopefully next time, when we play them, we can do that. Or next time we play another team that wants to shoot a lot of 3s, we can do (that).”
The good news for the Bucks is that they will have a lot more opportunities to improve on this particular aspect of their game. It’s now just a matter of learning from their mistakes.
