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Tim BontempsESPN
BOSTON – Giannis Antetokounmpo had 18 points in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s season opener between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
But for the two-time NBA MVP, all he thought about after the game was the point he didn’t score, as the missed free throw with 0.4 seconds left was the difference in Boston’s thrilling 122-121 victory.
“I’m upset,” Antetokounmpo said after finishing with 35 points and 13 rebounds in 36 minutes in his first game since signing a five-year deal with Milwaukee earlier this month. “But you can’t change it. So it’s done.
“Let’s hope that when I’m in the same position, I can do the next one. That’s the mentality you have to have. But obviously there’s a bit of weight on your shoulders. [in those situations] because if you miss it, this is for your team.
“I’m a winner and I want to do everything necessary for my team to win. But, you know, you learn from every situation that puts you in basketball.”
There aren’t many situations like the Bucks and Celtics at the end of this game, where the last 0.4 seconds took what felt like more lives to finally drain – and, as a result, they were accompanied by a roller coaster of emotions on both sides.
The strange thing began when, with Boston taking possession with 8.9 seconds left, the ball finally ended up in the hands of Jayson Tatum on the left wing.
With him looking at Antetokounmpo, the League’s Defensive Player of the Year, Tatum was content with a difficult 3-point triple – one that was well defended by Antetokounmpo – and which, when he let go of Tatum’s hand, seemed quite far away – the line.
“I’m not sure we could have defended Tatum much better than we did,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said.
But then, in an early Christmas miracle for the Celtics, the shot came out of the panel and fell directly through the circle, triggering a mischievous Celtic holiday, as Milwaukee called the timeout.
“No, I’m not trying to do that,” Tatum said of his throw on the glass. “The angle I had and knowing how high it is, once I left it, I knew it would touch the picture.
“But I didn’t necessarily try. I didn’t try to do that.”
Whether he did or not, the result was the same. However, despite those holidays, there was 0.4 seconds left in time – enough time for Milwaukee to get one last shot at the basket. And, after initially getting Antetokounmpo to introduce the ball – who later said he hoped to throw a lob in the center of Brook Lopez – Budenholzer called the timeout and, this time, Jrue Holiday took the ball out.
On his way to the field, Antetokounmpo said he received a simple message for Milwaukee’s new star goalkeeper: Throw the ball up and give him a chance to win a jump ball.
“I told Jrue, ‘Throw the ball up. Throw it up and I’ll try to get it,'” Antetokounmpo said.
Holiday, who finished with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in his Bucks debut, did just that – and Antetokounmpo was fouled by Celtic man Tristan Thompson as a result.
That gave him two free throws that, if they did both, would tie the game. But after making the first clean, Antetokounmpo’s second attempt came very short. The ball bounced back to him, deflected a player and rolled harmlessly, allowing the clock to expire and the Celtics to escape with a victory.
“I like being there, playing on the line, opening up, going to the free throw line,” Budenholzer said. “He’s been working on it. He knows how important it is. I think it’s, again, of course we’d like to win, you want to get out, you want to be successful, but there are so many good things that have happened. “Giannis goes to the free throw line with the game on the line. You can’t duplicate that in practice and it will get better and better as we go along.”
Antetokounmpo only shot 13-for-20 from the free throw line in clutch situations last season for Milwaukee, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, and his career percentage in these situations – 68.2% – is below his percentage free throw in the career as a whole.
But despite his struggles in these historic situations, Antetokounmpo said he is delighted to have the ball in his hand with the game on the line and is already looking forward to the next time he is in a similar situation.
“It’s fun, because you learn from it,” Antetokounmpo said. “The more you are in such situations, the more you can succeed.
“I want to be in those moments. I want to [have the ball] on the stretch. I want to take the last two free throws, I want to take the last shot, because if you think about it, if you do that a thousand times, how many times will it happen. Sometimes, I’ll be the hero.
“And sometimes you will miss it. But you learn from that. ”