Tim BontempsESPN November 23, 2023, 12:53am ET5 minutes read
Giannis is unhappy after being taken out of the game
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo appears to have a disagreement with coach Adrian Griffin after he was removed from the game in the third quarter.
BOSTON – Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and coach Adrian Griffin appeared to be having a heated exchange when Antetokounmpo left Wednesday’s game midway through the third quarter, but neither had much to say after the Bucks’ 119-116 loss to the Boston Celtics to say this at TD Garden.
“He wanted to stay inside, I wanted to give him a breather. That was it,” Griffin said afterwards. “And then I told him to stay at the table for one possession and he came right back out.”
Antetokounmpo responded with just one word when asked to explain the incident:
“NO.”
The exchange came with 5 minutes, 58 seconds left in the third quarter after Antetokounmpo was called for a carrying violation. As he walked to the other end of the court, he looked at the Bucks’ bench, shook his head, then seemed annoyed that Bobby Portis was checking in for him.
Antetokounmpo then sat at the scorer’s table and had a lengthy discussion with Griffin, which ended with Antetokounmpo coming back into the game on the next dead ball.
Regardless of what happened between Antetokounmpo and Griffin, what happened on the court was easy for everyone to see. The Celtics jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back, leading from start to finish. They controlled the game for the first 44 minutes before allowing Milwaukee to come back as quickly as possible, as the Celtics often do as games progress.
Boston, now an NBA-best 12-3, led by as many as 21 players and shot 17-42 from 3-point range. Jaylen Brown had his best game of the season, scoring 26 points on 10-for-16 shooting to go along with 8 assists and just 1 turnover.
“I feel like I’ve been doing that all season,” Brown said of his play. “Definitely just another part of my game that I’ve developed. This is a new year, it’s a new season, and I feel like I’m playing my best basketball, just like how I see the court. And how.” I get into the flow and rhythm of things and feel like I can continue to do that. I think once I get going, more people will outplay me and trust me to read the right thing. I think we should go into this a lot more.
What was most important to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was that he was pleased with his team’s performance. He had openly criticized his players’ lack of concentration in Sunday’s win in Memphis and Monday’s loss in Charlotte.
For the most part, that wasn’t the case on Wednesday night, as the Celtics immediately pounced on their biggest rival and didn’t let up for most of the game. And while Milwaukee outscored Boston 37-25 in the fourth and turned the comfortable lead into a one-possession game in the final minute, Mazzulla was pleased with the performance.
“I was definitely impressed with our mindset,” Mazzulla said. “It’s something we have to fight for all the time. But I thought tonight we got our performance back, like real performance. Like our grit, our toughness, and I thought we got our connectivity back on offense where it was.” It was like every time someone touched the ball they were ready to make a play or a to execute a blow.
“I thought the ball had a different kind of energy tonight. So we just have to fight for it. I know it’s a long year, but the more we do this and complement each other, the more dangerous I think we’ll be.”
Wednesday also marked Jrue Holiday’s first game against the Bucks since they traded him for Damian Lillard just before the start of the season, paving the way for the Celtics to acquire him from the Portland Trail Blazers a few days later.
Holiday struggled on offense with just one assist and two turnovers. But he still played a crucial role as he spent the game guarding Antetokounmpo, who was en route to 21 points on 7-for-20 shooting.
“I haven’t seen that in a long time,” Bucks forward Khris Middleton, who played a season-high 28 minutes, said with a smile afterward. “But you know, that’s what he does. He’s all over the place, guarding different matchups, matchups you wouldn’t think he would or should be guarding. But that’s how talented this guy is.”
While Holiday didn’t speak to reporters afterward, Lillard did so after playing his first game in this long-standing rivalry. Although he understands the importance of Wednesday’s game, Lillard said both sides know there is still a lot of basketball left to play.
“We fought to make it a game, and once we did, you don’t usually get over the hump like that,” said Lillard, who scored 27 points. “They played a game that they deserved to win, but we didn’t.”