NEW YORK — Giannis Antetokounmpo isn't used to losing like this.
While Antetokounmpo's return to the court Friday night at Madison Square Garden saw him maintain the form he was displaying before he missed the past four games with a groin strain — putting up 30 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists in 28 minutes — it wasn't enough to prevent the Bucks from losing a seventh straight game, falling 118-109 to the New York Knicks.
Milwaukee hadn't lost seven in a row since March 2014 — Antetokounmpo's rookie year, when the team went 15-67. After the game, he made an impassioned plea for his team to get its «competitive spirit» back and begin to turn its season around.
«Nobody should have a personal agenda. Nobody should worry about what they want from themselves,» Antetokounmpo said, standing at his locker in the visiting room long after the game had ended. «Worry only about winning mentality. Winning mindset. The more we can win the games, the more everything takes care of itself.»
Antetokounmpo spoke at length on a variety of things he felt needed to change in order for Milwaukee (8-12), now sitting in 11th in the Eastern Conference and two full games out of a play-in spot to get itself back on track.
«Can I make an excuse that we've played a lot of games and guys are tired and it's a huge load on people? Yeah,» Antetokounmpo said. «Can I also make an excuse that's human nature when [Kevin Porter Jr.] goes down and myself goes down, it's human nature to think that you got to carry a load.… Maybe it's a scoring load, maybe you got to make plays, maybe you think it is your opportunity to get more shots.… But that's not how you win games. That's not how you build culture.
»At the end of the day, you got to come in, do your
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