Why Giannis Antetokounmpo wasn't phased by Bucks' travel struggles

01/24/2025 05:02 PM

As the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat on Thursday night, 125-96, it came after some unclarity if they would even make the game due to inclement weather coming out of New Orleans. While the Bucks are rumored to be in trade talks with the Heat, the team on the court went through many hurdles as star Giannis Antetokounmpo spoke about the travel struggles.

Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo downplays travel struggles

Antetokounmpo would finish the game with 25 points on shooting 10 of 18 from the field along with 12 rebounds, four assists, and three blocks. The team would literally fly into Milwaukee and drove straight to the arena to play Miami as even with the unusual experience, Antetokounmpo would downplay the events according to The Athletic.

“This is not the toughest conditions that I've played basketball," Antetokounmpo said. "The only difference is that we had to take a flight…At the end of the day, if you call this adversity, I think the team responded very well facing this 'adversity' — that we had to take a flight for two hours before the game. At the end of the day, we still woke up in a five-star hotel, had breakfast, sit down as a team, talked as a team while we were waiting for the bus.”

“We had a pretty nice bus ride. And we went to our plane, charter plane, private plane, everybody has their own seat,” Antetokounmpo continued. “You can order some food on the plane. Get some fruit if you want. They have drinks too. After that, your cars are warm right in front of the plane waiting for you. You get in your car and you get to the arena in like 15 minutes. And after that, you do your routine and you get ready for the game. For me, those conditions are not that bad. I've been in way, way worse conditions in my life.”

Damian Lillard on the Bucks “not making excuses”

The Bucks are on the rise as they have now won five straight including the impressive win over the Heat, even with overcoming the hurdles due to the weather conditions that stopped them in their tracks. Still, while Antetkounmpo doesn’t see it as a huge deal, he was proud of how his team responded to the “adversity.”

"But if you want to call this adversity, I'm very happy and proud of how the team responded,” Antetokounmpo said. “Even though we did all that, we were locked in and came in here to win."

Milwaukee would start the contest on the wrong foot, coming out to an early double-digit deficit, but quickly turned that around before the first half. Bucks star Damian Lillard scored six points in the last 1.1 seconds of the first half to go along with his 29 points as he spoke about the team’s mindset.

"We're not having excuses,” Lillard said via The Athletic. “I don't care about the flight. I don't care we've been in the hotel. You gotta take that away from the team as a leader and let them know, ain't gonna be no excuses tonight. We gotta go out here and jump on them, like we've been doing."

The team is now currently 25-17 which puts them fourth in the East as they next face the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night.

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