MILWAUKEE — Following a 122-106 win over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez provided an exasperated response to one fact about the game.
“I don’t know what you want me to say anymore,” Lopez said, shaking his head at his locker.
The same fact about the Bucks’ third-quarter performance drew disbelief from shooting guard AJ Green.
“In the third?” Green asked. “Geez.”
What was the fact that left them incredulous? Lopez and Green were reacting to finding out Giannis Antetokounmpo had scored 25 of the Bucks’ 29 points in the third quarter, the most recent example of Antetokounmpo’s dominance. Lopez and Green smiled and laughed as they reflected on the moments of absurdity that can come from playing with one of the best players on the planet.
“It’s amazing,” Green said. “It’s incredible. I mean, I didn’t even realize that. He carried us throughout that third quarter because we kind of had a rough start to the third and that’s where he carried us. He did what he does.”
“Obviously, Giannis was just, S-Tier, just the best player on the planet leading us through that third quarter,” Lopez added. “And we need him to do that and he’s always been there for us.”
Giannis had 25 of the 29 points in the third quarter.
S Tier. Best player on the planet. pic.twitter.com/54VvH2uKZ4
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) November 21, 2024
On the night, Antetokounmpo scored 41 points on 17-of-25 shooting — his 21st career game with at least 40 points with a 70 percent field goal percentage or better, the most in NBA history — and also added nine rebounds and eight assists, but his third quarter is what stood out in Wednesday’s win. The Bulls did not have an answer for Antetokounmpo, who scored 32 points in the paint on Wednesday.
“He has that ability,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “Just attacking downhill. He came into the game to try to be a facilitator and that’s good, but we want him to do that and stay aggressive at the same time. And I thought he turned it on then.”
Throughout this season, the Bucks have struggled at the start of the second half, especially in games where they have a halftime lead. More often than not, Rivers has been forced to take the first timeout of the second half as the Bucks have come out flat or uninspired. Antetokounmpo scored four quick points to start the third, but the Bucks still had a familiar lull, forcing Rivers to take that timeout.
Out of that stoppage, Rivers drew up an easy play to get Antetokounmpo moving downhill toward the rim.
Damian Lillard, who put up 20 points, five rebounds and 10 assists on Wednesday, has the option to work in the pick-and-roll with Lopez on this play, but this is a look the Bucks have been using as far back as the fourth game of the season against the Boston Celtics. With so much attention on Lillard and Lopez, Antetokounmpo was given an easy runway to the rim.
A few plays later, off a missed tip-in from Bulls forward Josh Giddey, Lillard found Antetokounmpo running down the middle of the floor in space.
“I think Dame helped me a lot,” Antetokounmpo said of his big third quarter performance. “In the second half, I got the ball a lot in transition. Dame feed me two, three times in transition. I was able to attack and get some easy ones.”
But Antetokounmpo’s third quarter dominance was not only about getting out in transition. The veteran forward also dominated in half-court settings as the Bulls struggled to find anyone big enough or strong enough to put up the necessary resistance to keep him from getting to the rim.
When the Bulls opted to use Julian Phillips, a 198-pound forward who recently turned 21 years old, as Antetokounmpo’s primary defender to close out the third quarter, the Bucks attacked the mismatch relentlessly.
“Then I went to the post and then I took my dribble, my crab dribble and I saw they wasn’t coming, so in the moment I felt that, it was like, ‘OK. It’s an opportunity for me to go,’” Antetokounmpo said. “And I was able to get in the paint, make some plays for myself or for my teammates.”
There were moments where the Bucks executed well and constructed smart half-court looks, like this high-low post entry pass from Bobby Portis.
But there were also times when Antetokounmpo was simply just too much for Phillips to handle down low.
While much of third quarter was about his scoring, Antetokounmpo also assisted on the lone Bucks’ basket scored by someone else: a huge, momentum-building corner 3 by Green who had 18 points and was 5 of 7 from 3.
“It could go the other way,” Antetokounmpo said about the counter to his third quarter aggressiveness. “If I felt like they were coming, then I gotta pick them apart. I gotta be smart.”
In the end, Antetokounmpo’s third-quarter takeover carried the Bucks through a third-quarter rough patch and allowed them to stay in control, leading Milwaukee to blow out the Bulls and win comfortably in the fourth quarter. After a 2-8 start to the season, the Bucks have won four of the last five games.
During this recent successful stretch, Antetokounmpo has regularly shown off an ability to be a facilitator and a dominant scorer. And while those abilities are not new, the last five games have seen Antetokounmpo seemingly pick the way he is going to control the game and lean into the strengths of those two different identities better than ever before.
At the start of this five-game stretch, Antetokounmpo tallied 22 potential assists in a 99-85 win over the Toronto Raptors. The following night, he scored 59 points against the Detroit Pistons. In a one-point loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday, Antetokounmpo again looked to dominate with the pass and tallied 12 assists. On Wednesday night, he started the game looking to pass and get his teammates involved before taking over as a scorer in the second half. How has he been able to flip between his two offensive personalities, he was asked?
“I’m selfless enough to do that,” Antetokounmpo said. “There’s going to be days that I gotta score the ball. There’s going to be days that I don’t have to score the ball, I gotta move the ball. You gotta be willing to do it. If you’re not willing to do it, it’s not going to be out there on the court for you to see.
“Every game, it switches, but you’ve gotta be willing to do both. You know, there’s going to be some times that Dame’s gotta score 40. There’s going to be times that he has to get 15 assists. That’s what winning basketball is.”
What makes Antetokounmpo so impressive at this point in his career is not just his willingness to be able to dominate games as both a passer and a scorer, it’s that he can pull it off and he knows which nights call for which approach. If teams are going to send double- and triple-teams his way, he is talented enough as a passer to pick them apart. If teams choose to use a big-bodied defender to try to play him one-on-one, Antetokounmpo will score more efficiently than anyone else in the NBA.
Here is today’s exchange with Bucks coach Doc Rivers in regards to the latest on Khris Middleton: pic.twitter.com/dqER6qMTNA
— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) November 20, 2024
Whatever the game calls for, Antetokounmpo can provide. Thus far this season, with Khris Middleton still sidelined and working towards feeling comfortable enough to play five-on-five, each game has called for Antetokounmpo to provide quite a bit. Until more reinforcements arrive, he will need to continue to leave teammates in awe if the Bucks are to climb out of their early-season hole.
(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo: Stacey Revere / Getty Images)
