Milwaukee Bucks of America star, Giannis Asdetokunbo (Antetokounmpo) has expressed delight in his club bright start to the season in USA’s National Basketball Association (NBA) league, and declared emphatically that they will not lose steam along the way, megasportsarena.com reports.
While NBA faithful are also amazed at the burst of form Antetokounmpo is showing, with early signs of gunning to retain the most valuable player award he won last season, the Nigerian-born star, who plays for Greece, said the better part of it all is that his team are playing well.
With that in view, Antetokounmpo stressed that he has no doubt The Bucks can stay locked in and keep going with their top form amid a historic start to the NBA season, in which they have already enacted their best victory streak since 1981/82.
The Bucks extended their winning run to 12 games by thrashing New York Knicks 132-88 at Fiserv Forum on Monday, improving to an NBA-leading record of 18-3, which matched the franchise’s best start.
In that game, the reigning MVP contributed 29 points, 15 rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes on the floor, to ensure The Knicks suffered a seventh straight loss, after which Antetokounmpo (aka The Greek Freak) declared that The Bucks have what it takes to maintain their mental edge all the way through the season.
He also making top marks again, having claimed his 20th double-double in 21 appearances this season but, while admitting he has made significant strides as a creative force for Milwaukee thus far, Antetokounmpo insisted that the task at hand is for all players in the franchise to step up and keep their heads up to maintain their glorious start to the campaign.
Antetokounmpo said: “We’ve got to do our job. It starts with the coaching staff, it starts with the leader. When I come here, I’m not thinking about the 12 games we’ve won, I’m thinking, ‘How can I do my job? How can I win tonight?’ That’s the most important thing.
“What we’ve done for 12 games, I know we’re playing great basketball and everybody’s having fun, but that’s in the past. We’ve got to keep getting better, keep improving as a team, because we’re trying to translate everything we’re doing right now to the end of the year.
“We’ve got to keep takings steps forward. Everybody shows up every day and they’re hungry. Nobody is relaxed. We show up, we do our job, we smile, we’re having fun and it’s nice. Usually teams tend to relax, but we don’t do that.
“I’m just trying to find my team-mates. I get a load of double-teaming, so that was a little bit frustrating because my pass was not as accurate, usually they’re more accurate. It was something that I knew I had to do more going through the season.
“I learned from the playoffs last season that I have to play make the whole game. Mentally I was prepared enough for this season to do it more, and I think by doing that [you] definitely take a step forward, you get better. I think I’ve got a lot better in that aspect in my game.”
