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The Milwaukee Bucks will have a chance to win some hardware on Tuesday evening when they face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup Championship in Las Vegas. To get to this point however, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co. had to beat the Atlanta Hawks in the semifinals on Saturday, a team that got the better of them earlier in the month.
Before the 110-102 victory, The Greek Freak gave an epic NSFW speech to the Bucks that surely fired the squad up.
Via ESPN:
“Forty-eight f—ing minutes,” Giannis said. “Keep one another accountable. Somebody missed a shot, pick him up. Make him feel good about himself, so he can make the next one.
“We owe them one,” Antetokounmpo continued, referring to Milwaukee's opponent that afternoon, who had beaten the Bucks in Milwaukee a few weeks prior. “There's no tomorrow. We need this s— tonight. Build good habits from 0 to 48. Right now, let's go.”
The Bucks ultimately won 110-102 and Giannis certainly did his part. The big man balled out for 32 points, 14 rebounds, and nine assists while also swatting four shots. Antetokounmpo also made a couple of huge plays in the final period that were important to the outcome of this contest.
After a slow start to 2024-25, Milwaukee is now figuring it out. They've gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and have won three straight heading into the championship in Vegas. AJ Green shed light on how Giannis has stayed vocal since the Bucks started to turn things around:
“From the start of [the winning streak], he was really intentional with it,” Green told ESPN. “Using his voice in huddles, in the locker room and he's continued to do that throughout this stretch for us.
“We need it as a team. I think that's definitely part of the reason why we've went on to win some games.”
Giannis is a clear leader and he'll need to be at his best versus Oklahoma City if the Bucks are going to be the second In-Season Tournament champions.
