NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HAWKS VS. BUCKS

June 25, 2021

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Milwaukee Bucks

Game 2: Postgame

Milwaukee Bucks 125, Atlanta Hawks 91

Q. The spinning layup, when did you know how you were going to finish?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: When I decided. So yeah, I was going to my usual move, trying to get the basket. But at first, I wanted to dunk the ball, but I saw Capela coming, one of the best shot blockers in the league, so I decided to avoid him. So yeah, that was it.

Q. I don't know if you caught this, but the free throw stuff was a topic of discussion today. Did you make a conscious effort to try to go quicker?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: No. No. Usually I take eight to nine seconds. Borderline 10 seconds. When my coaching staff tells me to like speed it up, I know that maybe I'm around 10. Or sometimes the referee talks to me and tells me, "You've got to speed it up." Then I make an effort to maybe take it a second or two seconds faster.

But my mindset going into this game was go through my routine, get as many dribbles as I can, get my breath and just shoot my shot.

Q. After Game 1, you seemed so calm in the postgame. How much of that attitude from you and other players dictated how well you played today?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: You know, obviously I was calm, it wasn't the end of the world, but if it were the last day, I would be a little more nervous. But I trust my teammate. Trust our habits. I think everybody is on the same page. We know what we've got to do. And everybody knew that we've got to come in here and get this game.

So that's what we did from the first possession of the game but we took it each possession at a time so we tried to get one stop at a time and tried to make as many stops as we can possible for the entire game, and that worked in our favor.

But at the end of the day, you know, there's got to be some urgency, but you still have to enjoy the fact that we're here, you know, because we worked extremely hard to be in the last four teams standing. But you know, now going on the road obviously going to be some urgency. We are going to try to play good games, good basketball and have lots of fun, also.

Q. I think 20 fast break points in the first half, Jrue leaking out at times if the bigs got a rebound. How important was it to get out and get running?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: Very important. Very important. They crash; they crash the boards and they play fast, too. They shoot a lot of long threes, so the rebounds are always long. So we have a lot of opportunities that you can run, and we want to play fast; fast, but smart at the same time, and we were able to do that tonight.

Q. I don't know that I've seen you throw the deep ball with Jrue before, what gave you the confidence tonight?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: He was wide open. When I had the ball it was easier to throw, usually my first steps, it's like a dribble. When I had it, it was easier to deliver it to him.

Q. Talk about Brook Lopez’s effort tonight.

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: Unbelievable. He was unbelievable tonight. He was unbelievable in the first half and he was playing in the drop and he was protecting the rim. He was unbelievable. We need him to do this, keep doing this.

Q. Talking about being in the dribble lanes more often. How do you feel that made an impact?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: Definitely. Definitely. It just crowds the whole space for everybody and we have -- we have to do our job. At the end of the day, Jrue is picking up Trae full court, so we have got to be behind him. He's got to know that it's all behind him, me, Brook, P.J., we are behind him.

So it's the least we can do. But I think that really makes a big difference like showing, being in the lane, showing help and making other guys make the play so he can pass the ball.

Q. Just the turnovers, particularly the first half, how were you able to do so much of a better job and get points off them?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: We just tried to keep them in front, make them make a play, and as I said earlier, we were in passing lanes a lot. We tried help, we tried to show length, just make them play crowded.

So when you're active and when you're ready, we can attack and we were able to get some steals.

Q. You said it important to try to enjoy this, but between the end of Game 1 and the start of Game 2, what was enjoyable for you? How did you enjoy what you needed to do to get ready for Game 2?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: For me, the way I think about it is I'm going to be doing this for a long time, you know, so I've got to enjoy each game. It's my second time being in the Eastern Conference Finals and playing in a packed arena with people supporting us and loud for us. It's enjoyable.

There's also an enjoy factor when you go on the road and everybody is booing you and everybody is counting, one, two, three, four. You can enjoy that, too. Whatever I do, I enjoy each moment. You never know when it's going to be taken away from you. You can never take nothing for granted. And as I said, I'm going to be doing this for a long time, and if I'm going to enjoy, can't stop me.

Q. Jrue was talking about the fact that he felt like he was just smarter on defense defending Trae tonight. What does it mean to you to have a teammate who takes his assignment so personally and serious to improve from Game 1 to Game 2?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: It's big. He set the tone defensively. When you see a guy picking up, and you're behind, you're ready, you're ready to go. He did an unbelievable job. He forced turnovers. He made it as tough as possible. He made them play deep into the clock so when they were coming down, it was 18, 17, 16. We need that from him. We need him to keep doing that and he definitely helped the team a lot.

Q. Do you brace for and look at what they might do or do you look at what they have done or do you look at the possibilities of what could change?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: That's for Coach Bud. Obviously we're going to watch film tomorrow. We're going to see what we did better from Game 1 to Game 2 and we have to keep doing that and do it better to Game 3. At the end of the day we have to focus on ourselves and how can we get better and put ourselves in position to win, position to win a game.

But we have to keep getting better each game at a time and from Game 1 to Game 2, we are better, and we're happy about that. Hopefully from Game 2 to Game 3, we can be better.