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Giannis Antetokounmpo shares his thought process on the big-time defensive play versus the Portland Trail Blazers
The Milwaukee Bucks found themselves in a dogfight against the lowly Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night. While many expected the game to be a cakewalk in favor of the loaded Bucks, that was hardly the case as the Blazers came out swinging and established a massive 26-point lead, 81-55.
The veteran Bucks did not get rattled and rallied to take a 104-102 lead with 18.1 seconds remaining in the game. The Blazers had another shot at either tying the score or reclaiming the lead, but Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo had other plans.
Big-time block
With Bucks coach Adrian Griffin instructing his wards to switch everything defensively, Giannis found himself in a one-on-one situation against a player he's familiar with—former teammate Malcolm Brogdon, who he played with from 2016 to 2019.
"You want to send him left. He's a hard right driver, goes all the way," Antetokounmpo said.
"He kind of baits you that he's going to go left and then goes quick to his right. Now, I knew that, but it's kind of a shaky play because I want to contest the shot because I think we're up two at that point, right?"
With those variables in mind, Giannis trailed Brogdon all the way to the rim before going up to block the latter's layup attempt. The officials initially called Antetokounmpo for a foul, but the Bucks' coach's challenge proved successful, overruling the foul and upholding the "Greek Freak's" block.
"I'm happy that God blessed me with length, and I was able to get my fingers on the ball and get the block, but at the end of the day, I knew that he wanted to go right, but thank God, I had great timing, and I was able to deflect the shot," Giannis explained.
Going one-on-one vs. Giannis
The Bucks' defensive sentinel, Brook Lopez, wasn't on the floor on that fateful play, so he had a good look at Giannis' stellar defensive stand. For Lopez, it wasn't anything he hadn't gotten used to in all the years he had played with the Greek Freak.
"That's what he does," Lopez said.
"And it's great to be able to have that option ready to go. Switch it up and have that option, it's a bit more aggressive. I mean, no one really wants to be going against him one-on-one."
