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“You realize you can kill yourself”

The Milwaukee Bucks have had a difficult season, hampered by numerous absences from the squad. Giannis Antetokounmpo was often the only survivor of the trio of stars of the team, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday having missed a lot of matches. But in this situation, the Greek adopted a new attitude. We knew the Giannis so determined that he carried his team on his shoulders, but at the start of the season, despite the absences, he adopted a slightly different philosophy, which he hopes will help him in the long term.

“In my early years, when we were starting to lose, I was like, ‘fuck. No way to lose. ‘ So I took a lot of responsibility and weight of the game on my shoulders to win Game 13 of the regular season, ”Giannis Antetokounmpo told The Athletic. “But who will remember that?” You won’t remember it. Now I realized that you just have to build good habits. Building good habits with your team and when you are away, when the game is close in the last minutes, this is where you have to engage the mentality: ‘We are not going to lose. I’ll do whatever it takes. ‘ But at the end of the day, you realize you can kill yourself. Jrue was out. Khris was out. Brook was out. Donte is out. And I’m going to kill myself doing this, but I had a discussion with the coach. He said to me, ‘Just play the right way. Whatever the outcome, just play the right way. ‘ “

The Greek, who no longer has the same pressure to win since he has won everything it is possible to win in the league, has decided to rely more on his teammates

“Before there was kind of that pressure, ‘I have to do this. I have to do it on my own. I want to be NBA champion. I want to win. I want to win. I want to win.’ »Giannis explains. “And now there is no more that pressure. It’s like just doing the right deed, finding your teammates and the guys are going to shoot. You have to rely on them. There is less weight on the shoulders. I try to read the game, make the right pass, the right action, find the open player and live with the result. “

Basically, rather than wear out constantly attacking the circle, facing a wall of players, and going out on his teammates often as a last resort, Mike Budenholzer wants him to slow down and watch more of this. that it is happening around him, and seeks to serve his teammates. As on this first possession against the Pistons recently

Or here where he takes his time when the two-way take

“I think he’s grown a lot and I hope we’ve grown a lot in our ability to win, score and run without him just having to be in this super aggressive mode to attack the circle.” , said Mike Budenholzer at The Athletic. “We need him in this mode, but he can find opportunities to pass the ball on his spin, when help comes, play hand to hand, do different things. I think he just has more variety in his game and hopefully we have more variety. And this is something that is quite natural, it is the logical progression of a team, a player and the coaches. “

This ability to create in those situations, where he is not in motion, is a new string in his bow.

“LeBron is LeBron through his ability to involve others, and Giannis has the ability to do the same,” explains Pat Connaughton. “I think it’s just that he sees more and more opponents defending on him like defending on an MVP, a Finals MVP, and he’s starting to anticipate how he can impact the game without scoring. As he improves in this area, he will be able to win in this league. I mean, we’ve seen the monstrous stuff he does, but that passing ability and that ability to read a defense and almost get ahead of a defense, you see he’s playing chess, not to the ladies. “

This way of playing is necessarily less tiring, even if it does not deprive itself of martyring opponents in transition.

“Last year and years past when the game was over my body was so damaged, but now I feel like I can do a game again,” Giannis said. “It comes with maturity. It comes with knowing the game, putting yourself in a position to be successful without going through a war every night. “

As the Bucks have their Big 3 again and streak the wins, this adjustment could pay off in the long run for the winger, who has been put to great use in recent months.

Via The Athletic

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