{"id":136433,"date":"2025-04-26T18:44:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136433"},"modified":"2025-04-26T18:44:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:44:49","slug":"bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-playoff-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/26\/bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-playoff-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks Can’t Rest on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Record-Breaking Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Milwaukee Bucks secured a much-needed Game 3 victory<\/a> on their home floor on Friday night, bringing their round one series with the Indiana Pacers<\/a> from 2-0 to 2-1. It was the first step in attempting to bounce back against the Pacers who have had their playoff number going back to last year’s playoffs. Indiana has had the upper hand until Game 3. The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>‘s playoff record-breaking performance led Milwaukee to the win. The question is, does he have to keep playing this way for the Bucks to prevail? Is it enough?<\/p>\n

Bucks Can’t Rest on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Record-Breaking Play<\/h2>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s playoff record is Milwaukee Bucks only hope of overcoming Indiana Pacers<\/h3>\n

While Giannis was magnificent in Game 3, the outstanding play of Gary Trent Jr.<\/a> was also key in Milwaukee’s 117-101 route against the Pacers. Trent recorded 37 points on 11-16 shooting, including 9-12 from three. Trent’s three-point outburst tied Ray Allen’s Bucks record. It was also Trent’s career playoff-high in points. Trent wasn’t the only Buck to secure a piece of history, though, as Giannis again had his way offensively.<\/p>\n

No player in NBA history has ever started a playoff series in the way Giannis has. In three consecutive games, he’s recorded over 30 points, over ten rebounds, and shot 60% from the field. His stat lines from Game 1 to 3 read 36-12-1, 34-18-7, and 37-12-6. Oddly enough, he’s made 14 field goals in all three games, no more and no less. Those numbers are history-making, but Giannis is also impacting the game defensively. He’s recorded three blocks in the middle of all the points he’s scoring. Giannis has been nothing short of amazing, and the Bucks remain alive because of him.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo + help<\/h3>\n

A significant reason Milwaukee fell two games to zero was their lack of production from the supporting cast. Giannis didn’t have Damian Lillard<\/a> in Game 1. He has since returned but is evidently not totally himself yet, scoring just 21 points in two games. Kyle Kuzma<\/a> has also been ineffective, recording only 21 points in three games (zero points in Game 1). Trent’s 37 points is the largest contribution by someone other than Giannis in these playoffs so far, and it’s why they’re down in the series instead of up. We can hardly expect Trent to replicate that performance in Game 4, which means it must come from someone else.<\/p>\n

Giannis needs help, and he was quick to compliment the help he did get in Game 3, specifically from Trent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always want to have players that they\u2019re gonna go out there and\u00a0go\u00a0compete,\u201d <\/em>Antetokounmpo\u00a0said. \u201cAnd obviously, when you play defense, you get energy. When you see the ball go in, then you shoot more and he was hot. I\u2019ve been with the Bucks for a long time. I\u2019ve never seen a guy make nine 3s in a playoff game.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m very, very happy for him [Trent Jr.], but be humble in victory. Be humble in victory. Be humble in victory. We have a lot of games ahead of us. He definitely helped the team get this one tonight, but we have another one in two days.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Milwaukee goes back to work Sunday evening, and hopefully, Giannis gets more help from his running mates. Whether it’s Dame, Kuzma, Trent, or Bobby Portis<\/a>, it has to come from somewhere, or Giannis’s playoff records will come to a halt after an early round-one exit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Michael McLoone-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Milwaukee Bucks secured a much-needed Game 3 victory on their home floor on Friday night, bringing their round one series with the Indiana Pacers from 2-0 to 2-1. It was the first step in attempting to bounce back against the Pacers who have had their playoff number going back to last year’s playoffs. Indiana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":136434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[15,1608,62],"tags":[1255,187,1623,306,1128],"class_list":["post-136433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bucks","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-bobby-portis","tag-damian-lillard","tag-gary-trent-jr","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-kyle-kuzma"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136433","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\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136433"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136452,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136433\/revisions\/136452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}