John Wall says Wizards were not pleased with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks running up score

If anyone was looking for any sort of reason for Markieff Morris‘ shove on Giannis Antetokounmpo during the fourth quarter of Monday's game between the Washington Wizards and the Milwaukee Bucks, this would be why.

The Wizards reportedly weren't too pleased with the Bucks leaving their starters in after leading by a considerable amount during Friday's 123-96 loss in the opener of a home-and-home encounter.

“We felt like they whooped us badly but also you're just up 20 or 30 points, keeping your star player in trying to get his numbers we kind of didn't like that,” point guard John Wall told CSN's J. Michael. “We took that personal.”

Antetokounmpo scored a career-high 39 points, including seven of those points in the fourth quarter, a frame the Bucks entered with a 22-point lead with most of the Wizards' starters on the bench. The Greek star said after the game:

“We didn't say too much. It was a lot more chippy, a lot more trash-talking than it was in the past. As long as we got the win, we're fine.”

While Wall didn't associate Friday's game with the shove on Antetokounmpo, there's sure to be some ill will left from Friday's game for the Wizards players. Wall put up a season-high 16 assists on Monday.

“You never want to do anything dirty to the players,” Wall said.

“(Antetokounmpo is) a great player and he dominated us last game and all you could do was respect it. We just wanted to be more physical and not let him get easy lanes to the basket and be able to do what he wanted to. We just wanted to make sure guys were feeling him.”