It was only just a week ago that things were looking up for the Milwaukee Bucks. They had recently gotten Giannis Antetokounmpo back in the lineup after he missed almost four weeks with a calf strain, and their four wins in five games had pulled them closer to a play-in spot in the East. The Bucks’ situation is looking a lot less rosy now.
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They’ve entered an extremely difficult portion of their schedule, and though losing to the Warriors and Nuggets on the road while also winning at the Lakers isn’t the end of the road, their homecoming last night left a lot to be desired.
The Bucks got smashed at home by the Timberwolves 139-106, and with a 31-point halftime deficit, it could have been even worse. After the game, head coach Doc Rivers was asked about his team’s performance, and he pinned it on the Bucks being tired from their four-game road trip. Giannis, on the other hand, wasn’t having it.
“I thought we were playing with dead legs,” Rivers said. Not long after, Giannis refuted that from the locker room by saying, “Dead legs cannot be an excuse. We have to play better.”
Big difference in postgame quotes between Doc & Giannis
Doc: “I thought we were playing with dead legs.”
Giannis when asked if he thought it was dead legs: “I don’t think it’s dead legs. Come on… that cannot be an excuse. Dead legs cannot be an excuse. We have to be better.” pic.twitter.com/5yYiMHHnRL
— Nathan Marzion (@nathanmarzion) January 14, 2026
It’s never good when a head coach and his superstar player publicly disagree with each other just minutes apart, and that’s especially true when the future of said superstar player is very much in the balance.
Giannis came out recently and said that he will never ask the Bucks for a trade, but his long-term future in Milwaukee has been the subject of intense speculation for the past year. This disagreement doesn’t bode well.
Rivers and Giannis are the two leaders of the team, and this latest incident shows that they’re not at all on the same page. Giannis wants to hold the team accountable, while Rivers is making excuses. If the Bucks are going to have a hard time winning on the road and then lose when they get home over “dead legs,” when exactly are thex y supposed to win?
The Bucks are now 17-23 and closer to the tanking Brooklyn Nets than they are the 6-seeded Orlando Magic. That’s not good.
Giannis was clearly not down with Rivers’ comments after the game, but he also expressed some frustration while play was still going on. As the Bucks were getting crushed, the Fiserv Forum crowd actually booed the team, leading Giannis to boo them back and give them a double thumbs down.
That’s really not what you want to see from a fanbase and a star player who is uncertain about their future together.
After the game, Giannis said that he had never experienced being booed at home before, but he tried to spin it positively by saying, “I thrive through adversity. I thrive when people don’t believe in me … I like it, though. I love it.” That’s the competitor in him speaking, but deep down, it can’t feel great to have the fans turn on you like that.
With each passing day, it’s becoming more difficult to imagine Giannis staying in Milwaukee long term. If he ever does leave, we can probably point to everything that transpired last night as a big reason why.
