The Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics have had two very different starts to the season, as the defending champs have picked up where they left off with another strong beginning to their repeat bid, while the Bucks have been one of the NBA’s worst teams despite having a healthy Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It has not been the kind of start Milwaukee envisioned, and they were hoping to kickstart a turnaround on Sunday when they played host to the Celtics with a chance to alleviate some of the panic about the team’s start by beating one of the league’s best. As they’ve done on a few occasions this season, the Bucks came out hot, scoring 40 in the first quarter to take a double-digit lead, but couldn’t maintain that offensive output, scoring just 38 in the entire second half to see the Celtics pull ahead and pull away for a 113-107 win.
During the game, Giannis and Jaylen Brown had an interesting exchange, as Antetokounmpo elbowed Brown in the head on a post move and then hit Brown with a fake handshake as they went back down the court, which Brown didn’t seem to appreciate.
After the game, Brown gave some brief, but unfiltered thoughts on the exchange. “Giannis is a child,” Brown dead-panned. “I’m just focused on helping my team get a win, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Giannis certainly wasn’t the chief culprit for the Bucks struggles on Sunday, as he had 43 points and 13 rebounds, but this kind of silly exchange doesn’t quite land as well with fans when the team is falling to 2-8 on the season, with the only team worse than them in the East being the Embiid-less Sixers.
