There’s been a lot of talk surrounding Damian Lillard’s lackluster performance for the Milwaukee Bucks in Tuesday’s surprising loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Although it's just a preseason game, the fans could not help but throw a bit of shade on Dame after he went 2-of-11 from the field for just five points in 24 minutes of play.
One man who, as always, was able to live up to all the hype was none other than Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Giannis put in a marvelous effort for the Bucks in his limited time on the floor. The former back-to-back MVP finished with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, to go along with 10 rebounds, two assists and four steals in just 25 minutes of play.
In spite of his noteworthy performance, Antetokounmpo still was not satisfied.
“I don’t know how I look, I’m rusty,” he said after the game, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I’m rusty. I’m heavy. Last time I played was obviously against Miami and even when I played that game I wasn’t really healthy.”
If this is Giannis when he’s not healthy, then you can just imagine how much of a problem he’s going to be when he is. Then again, we have seen it many times in the past, and we can fully expect the same level of dominance from him this coming season.
As Giannis implied, he still hasn’t fully recovered from offseason knee surgery. It’s not that he’s still dealing with pain in his knee, but rather, he just isn’t up to speed just yet.
“I think sometimes I expect too much out of myself and I grade myself very, very hard, but at the end of the day it’s going to take some time,” Giannis said. “I’ll have some bad games, I’ll have some good games, I’ll make some mistakes, but at the end of the day, slowly, slowly keep on getting my rhythm, keep on getting where I want to be, keep on polishing my moves, keep on getting to my spots easier.
“But right now it’s two games. I don’t know how I look — I haven’t watched the clips — I know I have played just through instincts. But just my feeling, the way I feel normally, is not there yet. I don’t expect it to be there.”
The Bucks have one more tune-up game on Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies at the Fiserv Forum. They get a week off after that before opening their season against the Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 26. You can be sure that Antetokounmpo will be ready for that one.
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