Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo can’t forget ‒ and won’t forget ‒ his first NBA playoff series against Chicago, in 2015.
“I learned what it felt like to be in a playoff atmosphere,” Antetokounmpo told USA TODAY Sports. “I learned how it was to get ejected in the playoffs. I learned how it felt to be emotional in the playoffs. I felt how it was to have a great game in the playoffs.”
He remembers his first playoff series victory against Detroit, in 2019.
“I felt something new that I’ve never felt before,” he said. “It was an incredible feeling. I always remember the way I felt at the time.”
Antetokounmpo takes all those experiences, including an NBA championship and Finals MVP in 2021, into this season’s playoffs.
Antetokounmpo and the fifth-seeded Bucks open the Eastern Conference playoffs against the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers in Game 1 on Saturday (1 p.m. ET, ESPN).
“I love competing,” he said. “I love the feeling of being nervous before the game, the feeling of your team depending on you, the feeling of an organization and the city that you represent depending on you – that weight that you feel on your shoulders because the moment that you win, you feel incredible.
“And for me, playing in the playoffs is always (a) win-win situation. That’s how I view it because even when I lose, I always try to look back and see things that I could do better, try to improve in the offseason and come back and be stronger. So, I always have a great perspective in both ways.”
That perspective has served Antetokounmpo, who is the face of a new playoff ad campaign from Castrol as part of brand ambassador partnership, well because he knows how difficult it is to win a series let alone a championship.
“You can never get too high or never get too low in the playoffs,” he said. “Teams know exactly your strengths, and they will prepare to the best of their ability to stop you. And you just got to go out there and do things harder.
‘When I mean do things harder, you’ve got to be more vocal. You’ve got to be more physical, you’ve got to play with more intensity. You’ve just got to be more mentally prepared than them. You’ve just got to do all the dirty work that some people are not willing to do.”
The Bucks enter the playoffs as the lower seed for the first time since 2018 when they were the seventh seed. Milwaukee was 48-34 this season – two games behind the Pacers and three games behind the third-seeded New York Knicks ‒ and finished on an eight-game win streak.
A team with Antetokounmpo, a two-time regular-season MVP, is always dangerous and capable of making a deep run. Antetokounmpo had a tremendous season, too. While the MVP race is considered a two-man contest between Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Antetokounmpo’s performance should not be a footnote.
His statistics measure favorably compared to his MVP seasons. He averaged 30.4 points and shot 60.1% from the field – both numbers the second-highest of his career. He matched a career-high in assists at 6.5 per game and averaged 11.9 rebounds. And he had a career-high 11 triple-doubles.
He is a lock for his ninth All-NBA selection.
Now, he will try to help the Bucks advance past the Pacers, who eliminated them in the second round of last season’s playoffs. And it won’t be easy.
The Bucks likely will be without star guard Damian Lillard, who was diagnosed with a blood clot in his right calf on March 25.
The Bucks won the season series, 3-1 against the Pacers, but Lillard was available for those games. Antetokounmpo will need help from younger players, like Ryan Rollins and Kevin Porter Jr., who have played well in Lillard’s absence but have never been in a playoff game.
“We’re playing good basketball. We’re competing,” he said. “I feel like everybody’s approach towards the game is in the right place and hopefully we can keep it up. We know what it takes to win and we know obviously when we don’t show up and we don’t have the right approach to the game that we can lose. Any team can beat us, but we also believe that we can beat any team.”
Follow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt