{"id":18228,"date":"2024-01-05T19:06:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T16:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/18228\/bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-wowed-after\/"},"modified":"2024-01-05T19:06:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T16:06:48","slug":"bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-wowed-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=18228","title":{"rendered":"Bucks&#8217; Giannis Antetokounmpo wowed after 1st battle with Spurs&#8217; Victor Wembanyama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bucks&#8217; Giannis Antetokounmpo wowed after 1st battle with Spurs&#8217; Victor Wembanyama\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Andrew Lopez, ESPN<span class=\"timestamp \">January 5, 2024, 5:44 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>SAN ANTONIO \u2013 As Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo forced his way to the rim in the final minute of Thursday night&#39;s game against the San Antonio Spurs, he tried to create space against rookie center Victor Wembanyama and stood up as he has done so often in his career.<\/p>\n<p>But the result was anything but common for Antetokounmpo.  The long wingspan of Wembanyama, the No. 1 overall pick, pushed the ball away and gave the Spurs a chance against the team with the third-best record in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio&#39;s final shot, a corner 3-pointer by Tre Jones off a pass from Wembanyama, fell short as Milwaukee held on for a 125-121 victory.  But the post-match was mainly that of the battle between two players who are unlike any other.<\/p>\n<p>In their first meeting, Antetokounmpo finished with 44 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists in 39 minutes, while Wembanyama had 27 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocks in 26 minutes.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#39;s Choice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Bucks-Giannis-Antetokounmpo-wowed-after-1st-battle-with-Spurs-Victor.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1704470807_201_Bucks-Giannis-Antetokounmpo-wowed-after-1st-battle-with-Spurs-Victor.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Both players had several strong moments as they battled it out until the very end.  In an <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/exciting\/\"   title=\"exciting\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">exciting<\/a> sequence, Antetokounmpo dunked over several Spurs on one side and Wembanyama responded with a self-alley-oop off the glass on the next possession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s special,\u201d Antetokounmpo said.  &#8220;He&#39;s going to be a very good player. He plays the right way. He plays to <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a>. I&#39;ve never seen anything like it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wembanyama said Antetokounmpo was one of the players he watched the most growing up and called him one of the greatest players in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always extra motivation and I know I\u2019m a competitor,\u201d Wembanyama said.  &#8220;So I want to go after everyone and be the bad guy on the field. So it was a great match.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Spurs, who fell to 5-29 on the season, fell behind by double digits early in the first quarter and appeared headed for another blowout defeat.  But San Antonio quickly fought back in a game that featured eight lead changes and five ties in the fourth quarter alone.<\/p>\n<p>But late in the fourth, Antetokounmpo took over.<\/p>\n<p>Antetokounmpo outscored the Spurs by himself 12-8 in clutch time.  The 12 clutch time points were the second-most in Antetokounmpo&#39;s career as the Bucks improved to 14-5 in clutch games, the most wins in the league.<\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee also got 25 points, 10 assists and no turnovers from Damian Lillard on the second straight night on the road after losing a tough game to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said it was a fun game to watch and a fun game to coach with Antetokounmpo and Wembanyama chasing him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo of the most unique and talented big men,\u201d Griffin said.  \u201cI use this [big-man term] vaguely because they are very versatile players.  <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/man\/\"   title=\"Man\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Man<\/a>, that was fun.  I thought Wemby was great.  I thought Giannis was phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bucks forward Khris Middleton, who did not play in the second half, said he enjoyed watching Wembanyama&#39;s aggression late in the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo compete, not be afraid of the moment,\u201d Middleton said.  &#8220;He&#39;s not afraid to shoot and make a move, make a pass or just take a chance in a close game, especially late in the game. You can tell he&#39;s not afraid of the moment. He loves the challenge and this will be big for him in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Keldon Johnson, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, watched Wembanyama play throughout the year, but called it &#8220;amazing&#8221; to see how he and Antetokounmpo competed throughout the game .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Vic did an incredible job,\u201d Johnson said.  &#8220;He made some incredible plays. He showed up tonight like he always does. But it&#39;s a good feeling, and it gets the competitive juices flowing when you see those two compete.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Second Spectrum, this is only the second time Antetokounmpo has been blocked on a driving dunk this season.  And the person who delivered that dunk was someone who had been watching Antetokounmpo from afar for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI try to gain knowledge from as many great players as they do,\u201d Wembanyama said.  &#8220;Giannis is one of the players I&#39;ve watched the most. The way he uses his body, he does 100% of what he can do with his body. It&#39;s something I admire and I &#8220;I always admire him. He&#39;s a player I know that well enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the loss, Wembanyama said he could sense a performance against a team competing for a championship this season could move San Antonio forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s promising,\u201d Wembanyama said.  \u201cThat\u2019s the first thing. [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] he told us when he returned to the locker room.  We had moments in the game where everything seemed to work.  And I could feel the crowd believing in us and going for it.  Some of that was satisfying tonight.  \u00bb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bucks&#8217; Giannis Antetokounmpo wowed after 1st battle with Spurs&#8217; Victor Wembanyama\u060c Andrew Lopez, ESPNJanuary 5, 2024, 5:44 a.m. SAN ANTONIO \u2013 As Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo forced his way to the rim in the final minute of Thursday night&#39;s game against the San Antonio Spurs, he tried to create space against rookie center Victor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4048,1761,433,1759,1760,1131,1125,1126,8737],"class_list":["post-18228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-1st","tag-antetokounmpo","tag-battle","tag-bucks","tag-giannis","tag-spurs","tag-victor","tag-wembanyama","tag-wowed"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18230,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18228\/revisions\/18230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}