The Dallas Mavericks faced the Milwaukee Bucks without their MVP candidate Luka Doncic, who is sidelined after suffering a right ankle sprain over the weekend.
He will miss the four games. After the Mavericks fell to the Miami Heat 122-118, Kristaps Porzingis jokingly shared that he is not ready for Giannis Antetokounmpo when asked by Fanatics View about facing the league’s reigning MVP on Monday.
“Uh, no,” said Porzingis. We are going to have to try and stop him. Great team, great player, a great challenge for us. So, we are excited,” shared Porzingis.
Antetokounmpo is averaging 31.0 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game for the Bucks in 26 games. He also has led the Bucks to a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the best record in the NBA at 24-3. Los Angeles is currently on an 18 game winning streak and look to extend it on Monday against the Dallas Mavericks.
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Pistons Blake Griffin and Dwane Casey on ‘The Greek Freak’
A couple of weeks ago, Detroit Pistons forward Blake Griffin stated that he loves the challenge of trying to shut players like Giannis down.
“I love it these types of games playing against those types of players. He is the MVP for a reason, but tonight with him shooting threes, he really hurt us. But, that is something you have to deal with when facing a team like this,” said Griffin.
Things got a little chippy between the Pistons and Bucks during their matchup on December 5, 2019. After the game, Antetokounmpo shared that the Pistons want to play physical and dirty.
“They’re just a great defensive team and just play really physical,” Antetokounmpo said, according to The Associated Press. “They want to be physical, they want to be dirty. They want you to get out of your game, and whenever you come in Detroit, you expect that.”
“There’s going to be a lot of teams that are going to come out and try to be physical with me — try to hit me, knock me down to the floor,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “I just got to keep my composure.”
Pistons head coach Dwane Casey took exception with Antetokounmpo’s comments that they play dirty. He wants his team to play physical and clean, they are not trying to be the 80’s Bad Boy Pistons.
“We want to play physical, we want to play clean, hard-nosed, physical basketball,” according to Dana Gauruder of the Detroit Free Press. “We’re not trying to be the Bad Boys. There’s only one Bad Boy group, but I cringe when people say that our guys were playing dirty the other night against Antetokounmpo. Nowhere even close.
“One play, I don’t know who flopped worse, he or the guy who hit him. You’ve got to be physical. Guys are knocking us down, and we don’t accuse them of being dirty. We want to play defense from a physical standpoint, not a dirty standpoint.”
The Bucks and Mavericks play at 8 p.m. EST and can be seen on NBA TV on Monday night.
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Mavericks’ Kristaps Porzingis Sounds off on Giannis Antetokounmpo