Bucks Notes: Giannis, Lillard, Defense

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo played his 65th game of the season on Thursday vs. Brooklyn, which means he’s now eligible for all the major postseason awards, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter).

A two-time MVP and seven-time All-NBA member, Antetokounmpo has an excellent case for additional hardware in 2023/24. He’s averaging 30.7 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 6.4 APG, 1.2 SPG and 1.0 BPG in 35.0 MPG. 6.4 assists per game represents a career-high, and he’s also shooting a career-best 61.4% from the field.

Here’s more on the Bucks:

• Antetokounmpo had missed the previous two games with a hamstring issue. He discussed the injury following Thursday’s victory, according to Eurohoops. “My goal was to play 82, but when the goal falls apart, you gotta fall back to the second one,” Antetokounmpo said. “There’s a bigger goal here to capture, and you have to think about the bigger picture. I could play through the pain, but it’s not smart in the long run.”
• Damian Lillard has never been known for his defense, but he made some key plays on that end in crunch time last night, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “I think, in my career, I haven’t been known as a defender, but down the stretch of games, I’ve always been able to have a moment or do what I needed to do at the end of a game defensively,” Lillard said. “And it’s not always going to result in a steal. … But tonight, it just happened to be steals. And when you’re on a team of this caliber, I think is important for everybody to just do whatever you got to do for us to win, because we don’t have anything else to play for other than to win. So, I think it’s going to happen in a lot of different ways. And tonight, that’s just how it happened.”
• Head coach Doc Rivers discussed the team’s recent “slippage” defensively prior to Thursday’s game, as Nehm relays (via Twitter). Rivers noted that while being without Antetokounmpo obviously played a factor, the team’s guards also need to do a better job navigating screens, as too many perimeter players have been getting into the paint with little resistance.