Giannis Antetokounmpo Upset With Himself For Being Too Passive Early On In Loss To Heat

Giannis has had a rollercoaster of a 2025-26 season. Everything from an underperforming roster to him continually being sidelined due to a calf strain, the ‘Greek Freak’ is having a season to forget. Tonight’s game vs the Heat was a perfect example of the sheer amount of frustration that’s been building within him.

The Bucks lost 112-105 vs the Heat in Miami and looking at the box score, some would say Giannis had a good game: 31 points on 12-24 shooting from the field in less than 30 minutes is solid. However, GA did take to his post-game availability to rib on himself for being too passive.

“I’m kind of upset with myself because I didn’t shoot,” said Antetokounmpo. “If I had a shot, maybe one or two early in the first half when I was wide open, I just kept on passing it to get a better shot for my teammates. I wasn’t trusting myself.”

This explanation came after a reporter brought up his late-game 3-point attempt to try to tie the game that led to the ball front-rimming and bouncing off. He claims he doesn’t regret that shot.

“I felt like they were backing up and I could get my feet set for a three and I shot it. Most of the time I do the right thing, take good shots. I just didn’t make it.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo, on his attempt to tie the game with a pull-up 3 with under a minute left in Miami: https://t.co/F6be8mQxbA pic.twitter.com/9q4i5bP82K

— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) March 13, 2026

Giannis did unfortunately end the game with 3 assists so the passive nature of his play in the first half didn’t really yield all too many positive results for the Bucks in the long run.

As for the rest of the team perhaps making adjustments after Bam Adebayo’s historic 83-point performance, well, there weren’t that many. Doc Rivers explicitly stated they didn’t try anything different.

“No. We literally didn’t do one thing different. We got size. We weren’t that concerned. That was an outlier game and a amazing outlier game,” said Rivers.

The Bucks ideally should’ve made adjustments with Bam clearly exhausted and them needing to focus on ancillary players. Instead, Pelle Larsson had 28-6-6, consistently beating Milwaukee off the dribble.

The Bucks are 6 games back from the 10^th seed and will likely not sneak into the play-in. It’s unclear what Giannis will do this summer after being involved in trade discussions this past trade deadline. He has a player option for 2027-28 but could very easily force his way out in a few months.