{"id":129182,"date":"2025-03-17T15:36:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=129182"},"modified":"2025-03-17T15:36:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:36:50","slug":"bucks-star-giannis-antetokounmpo-milwaukee-must-improve-compete-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/17\/bucks-star-giannis-antetokounmpo-milwaukee-must-improve-compete-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks Star Reveals What Milwaukee Must Fix to Compete for Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a slow start to the year, the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> look like potential title contenders once again. With less than a month left in the season, they are 38-29 and own the No. 4 seed in the East. Currently, they are in a three-way battle for homecourt advantage between the Indiana Pacers<\/a> and Detroit Pistons<\/a>. Still, as things stand, the Bucks are in a good spot to potentially make a deep playoff run this year. Led by Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> and Damian Lillard<\/a>, the Bucks are a threat in the East. However, they still have some work to do to be considered legitimate title contenders, according to one of their stars.<\/p>\n

Following the Bucks’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> on Sunday, Antetokounmpo revealed that the team must perform better on the road ahead of the playoffs (subscription required<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for you to be a good team, you gotta win on the road,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cAt times, we have won on the road and at times we haven\u2019t. We haven\u2019t been as good, I think, on the road this year that we\u2019ve been in the past. Just gotta go take it a game at a time and try to get some wins on the road. \u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This season, the Bucks are 14-17 when on the road.<\/p>\n

Bucks Star Giannis Antetokounmpo Reveals What Milwaukee Must Fix to Compete for Title<\/h2>\n

The Bucks’ Outlook With a Month Left in the Season<\/h3>\n

While the Bucks still have a long way to go to be considered top-tier title contenders this season, there is a lot to like about the team. The Bucks stand as a well-rounded team and rank in the top half of the league on both sides of the ball. Furthermore, Antetokounmpo is putting together another MVP-caliber campaign.<\/p>\n

This season, “The Greek Freak” is averaging 30.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game. He is also shooting 60.3% from the field. While he will not overtake players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> or Nikola Jokic<\/a> in the MVP race, Antetokounmpo deserves some consideration. Recently, head coach Doc Rivers<\/a> spoke about Antetotokumpo and shared the same sentiment (subscription required<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, I was talking to one of the better coaches in the league and he brought it up,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cHe said, \u2018How the hell is no one talking about Giannis? He is doing different stuff. His assists keep going up. I mean, I don\u2019t know what the guy has to do.’\u201d<\/p>\n

After finishing in the top 10 in MVP voting in each of the last eight years (including winning the award in 2019 and 2020), Antetokounmpo will likely earn another top finish in the award race again.<\/p>\n

The Last Word On Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks<\/h3>\n

As it stands, it will be difficult for the Bucks to become bigger title contenders in the East compared to teams like the Boston Celtics<\/a> and Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. However, with less than a month left, a lot can change. For the rest of the way, the Bucks will look to gain momentum heading into the playoffs. If they get hot, they will have a chance to return to their first NBA Finals series since 2021.<\/p>\n

Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a slow start to the year, the Milwaukee Bucks look like potential title contenders once again. With less than a month left in the season, they are 38-29 and own the No. 4 seed in the East. Currently, they are in a three-way battle for homecourt advantage between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":103621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,15,62,3],"tags":[306],"class_list":["post-129182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-bucks","category-nba","category-news","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129186,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129182\/revisions\/129186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}