On Monday evening, the Milwaukee Bucks got back into the win column with a narrow road win over the Indiana Pacers thanks to a fallaway jumper from Giannis Antetokounmpo at the buzzer. While Antetokounmpo does most of his damage around the basket, he showed an impressive soft touch on this shot, lofting it over multiple defenders and into the net to give the Bucks a 5-2 record on the season.
Much has been made in recent years about the officiating treatment that Antetokounmpo gets. While the former league MVP is perennially among the players with the highest amount of free throw attempts in the league, and also frequently gets away with ten-second violations when he gets there, head coach Doc Rivers is still clamoring for the refs to give the star even more calls.
“One of the refs even said, ‘Well, yeah they're hitting his arms, but he's playing through it.' I said, Okay, it's still a foul.' … I just think the way [Giannis] gets officiated is not right,” said Rivers at a recent press conference.
With players like Antetokounmpo, Shaquille O'Neal, and other physically imposing forces, it's sometimes impossible for referees to accurately judge how much contact warrants a foul, given that it takes so much more to stop them as compared to smaller and less strong players.
A hot start for the Bucks
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks have been one of the surprise teams of the early NBA season, currently sitting at 5-2 after the first two weeks. Milwaukee was expected by most to be a play-in team this year considering the lack of talent surrounding Antetokounmpo on the roster; however, unexpected contributions from players like Ryan Rollins have helped the Bucks perform above expectations thus far.
Of course, Antetokounmpo is still the undisputed head of the snake, and he's had a better start to the season than anyone in the league this year, carrying Milwaukee on both ends of the floor.
The Bucks will next take the floor on Tuesday evening for their second road matchup against the Toronto Raptors of this early season.
