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Tim BontempsESPN
BOSTON – Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 18 points in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s season opener between his Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
But for the two-time NBA MVP, all he thought about after the game was the point he missed, as his failed free kick with 0.4 seconds left was the difference in Boston’s thrilling 122-121 victory.
“I’m upset about it,” said Antetokounmpo after finishing with 35 points and 13 rebounds in 36 minutes, in his first game since signing a five-year supermax contract with Milwaukee earlier this month. “But you can’t change that. So it’s done.
“I hope that when I’m in the same position, I can do the next one. That’s the mindset you need to have. But obviously, there’s a little weight on your shoulders. [in those situations] because, if you get it wrong, stay with your team.
“I’m a winner and I want to do whatever it takes to make my team win. But, you know, you learn from every situation that basketball puts you in.”
There aren’t many situations like the one the Bucks and the Celtics found themselves at the end of this game, in which the final 0.4 seconds took what felt like several lives to finally run out of time – and, as a result, were accompanied by a mountain- roller coaster of emotions on both sides.
The strangeness started when, with Boston having possession of the ball lost for one to 8.9 seconds from the end, the ball ended up in the hands of Jayson Tatum on the left flank.
With him looking at Antetokounmpo, the current Defensive Player of the Year in the league, Tatum settled for a difficult 3-point deflection – which was well defended by Antetokounmpo – and which, when it left Tatum’s hand, looked very distant-line.
“I’m not sure we could have defended Tatum much better than we did,” said Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer.
But then, in an early Christmas miracle for the Celtics, the shot dodged the table and fell straight into the ring, starting a strident Celtics celebration when Milwaukee called for a timeout.
“Nah, I’m not trying,” said Tatum about shooting from the glass. “The angle I had, and knowing how high he is, as soon as I let him go I knew I was going to hit the table.
“But I didn’t necessarily try. I didn’t try to do that.”
Whether he did or not, the result was the same. Still, despite these celebrations, 0.4 seconds remained on the clock – long enough for Milwaukee to have a final chance for the basket. And after initially having Antetokounmpo in with the ball – which he later said he hoped to bid for the center of Brook Lopez – Budenholzer asked for the time limit and this time Jrue Holiday took the ball.
On the way to the court, Antetokounmpo said he had a simple message for the new Milwaukee guard star: Throw the ball up and give him a chance to win a ball overhead.
“I said to Jrue: ‘Just throw the ball up. Just throw it up and I’ll try to catch it,'” said Antetokounmpo.
Holiday, who finished with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in his Bucks debut, did just that – and Antetokounmpo was knocked down by Celtics big shot Tristan Thompson.
This gave him two free throws that, if he hit both, would tie the game. But after doing the first one cleanly, Antetokounmpo’s second attempt was very short. The ball then bounced back to him, deflected from a player and rolled without causing damage, allowing the clock to expire and the Celtics to escape with a victory.
“I love that he’s there, playing at risk, opening night, going to the free throw line,” said Budenholzer. “He’s working on it. He knows how important it is. I think it is, again, of course we would love to win, you want to leave, you want to succeed, but there are so many good things that have happened, including Giannis going to the throw line free with the game in play. You can’t repeat this in practice and it will get better and better as we go. “
Antetokounmpo threw just 13 to 20 from the free throw line in clutch situations last season to Milwaukee, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, and his career percentage in these situations – 68.2% – is below his percentage of career free throw Overall.
But despite his struggles in these situations historically, Antetokounmpo said he is excited to have the ball in his hands with the game in play and is already looking forward to the next time he is in a similar situation.
“It’s fun, because you learn from it,” said Antetokounmpo. “The more you are in situations like this, the more you can succeed.
“I want to be in those moments. I want to [have the ball] down the stretch. I want to do the last two free throws, I want to do the last move, because if you think about it, if you do it a thousand times, sometimes you will enter. Sometimes, you’ll be the hero.
“And sometimes, you will lose. But you learn from it.”