‘Five dribbles, shoot it high’: Giannis Antetokounmpo explains his free throw ritual after missing his game-tying attempt against Celtics

2x NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo gives a revealing interview after missing a game-tying free-throw against the Celtics on opening night.

The Milwaukee Bucks faced off against the Boston Celtics to open up their season. It was a very close match, which eventually the Celtics ended up winning 122-121. Giannis displayed his usual brilliant self, scoring 35 points and securing 13 rebounds. The Milwaukee Bucks were up 120-119 against the Celtics with 8.9 seconds left in the game when Jayson Tatum called game with an impossible-looking 3 pointer.

Also Read: ‘He didn’t call glass, he called game!’: Jayson Tatum hits incredible stepback over Giannis, leads Celtics to 122-121 win over Bucks

After the heroic shot by Tatum, Giannis managed to find his way to the charity stripe, where he made the first one but ended up missing the second one. This free throw miss potentially caused the Bucks the game, as they could have tied the game, and had the inbounds pass with 0.4 seconds on the clock.

Giannis Antetokounmpo reacts to his free-throw miss

Giannis has had his fair share of woes while shooting the ball. While being a dominant figure in the paint, Giannis’ shooting isn’t particularly his strong suit. According to the 2x MVP, he tries to do a small ritual before shooting the free throw, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“One, two, three, four, five dribbles. Put the ball at your chin. Shoot it high. That’s what I say to myself over and over and over and over again.”

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo reacts to his costly missed free throw in last night’s loss to the Celtics: https://t.co/6R6u7c64Sr

— NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSBoston) December 24, 2020

Also Read: Giannis Antetokounmpo free throw percentage: Why Bucks star missed game-tying free throw against Celtics with 0.4s left?

Giannis says he would use yesterday’s miss as a learning and work on his free-throws as much as he can:

“You learn from it and the more you’re in a situation like that, the more you can succeed, the more you can get the best out of moments like that. So I want to be in those moments. I want to be down the stretch. I want to shoot the last two free throws. I want to shoot the last shot.”

The Bucks play next on Christmas when the Warriors come to town for their Christmas day matchup.