Bucks Zone

"In the NBA, you just can't dig yourself a hole like that" - Adrian Griffin on the Milwaukee Bucks trailing by as much as 33 points

Milwaukee needs to figure out how not to fall behind by considerable margins.

Jonas Panerio

© Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
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The Milwaukee Bucks have a potent offense that can overhaul huge deficits. With a roster headed by Giannis Antetokounmpo and flanked by All-Stars Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez, they have the firepower to take down any team in the league. However, there’s only so much a team’s offense can do if the defense consistently gives up open looks at the basket.

The Bucks experienced this firsthand on Monday against the Utah Jazz. They were trailing by a whopping 33 points at one point, thanks to an abysmal defensive performance in the first half. Despite their best efforts to mount a comeback with their explosive offense, they ultimately fell short and lost the game, 132-116.

Lauded the comeback attempt

Milwaukee trailed by 33, 72-39, late in the first half but scored 44 points in the third quarter to trim the deficit to 10, 100-90. The Bucks pulled to within eight, 111-103, but that was as close as they’d get in the fourth quarter. After the game, Griffin lauded his team’s resiliency but, at the same time, preached they couldn’t afford to dig themselves in such deep holes.

In their last game versus the Houston Rockets, the Bucks also trailed by as many as 21 points.

"We easily could have thrown in the towel. Guys were great. Bobby gave us a lift off the bench tremendously. Everyone in the second half, I thought, we flipped it a little bit in terms of our energy and effort. We made it a ball game. But in the NBA, you just can't dig yourself a hole like that," Griffin said.

Snowballed in the first

It didn’t take long for the Bucks to fall behind by a considerable margin as the Jazz came out firing from long range. Lauri Markkanen got the three-point shooting spree started 44 seconds into the game. Less than five minutes after tip-off, Milwaukee was already down 12, 21-9. At the end of the first, the Jazz already held an 18-point advantage, 41-23, thanks to 11 three-point shots.

“I think the first possession, Lauri Markkanen had a 3, and after that, everything just went downhill,” Antetokounmpo said.

“They had 11 in the first quarter, 16 for the half. That’s a lot of 3s, man; I’m not going to lie. We’ve got to do a better job of defending the 3. But at the end of the day, if you don’t defend the 3, don’t defend the drive, you don’t get rebounds, just got to find our identity.”

"We got to help him" - Adrian Griffin reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo's losing triple-double performance

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Jonas Panerio
JONAS PANERIO