Milwaukee Bucks progressed to the semi-finals of the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament after defeating the New York Knicks 146-122 at the Fiserv Forum on Tuesday night. The Bucks stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard again were the show-stealers, adding a total of 63 points in the win.
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Green Bay Packers players Dontayvion Wicks, Jayden Reed, and Malik Taylor attended the game in Milwaukee and shared their experience of watching the Bucks live on their Instagram stories. The Packers are based in Wisconsin, which explains their players supporting Milwaukee in the NBA.
The Packers players seemed extremely invested in the Bucks’ onslaught throughout the game. Reacting to the Greek Freak scoring easy buckets for Milwaukee, Dontayvion Wicks even joked about Giannis cheating to make it easy for himself. As reported by a Bucks fan page (thebuckszone) on Instagram, Wicks wrote in his story’s caption, “Dis mane Giannis cheatin'[laughing emojis]”
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On the other hand, Packers’ Defensive Tackle Devonte Wyatt seemed a bit disappointed with Damian Lillard missing a three-pointer in the game. Reacting to this play on his IG story, Wyatt wrote in his caption, “We need those Dame,” urging the star Bucks point guard to focus on his shooting.
Despite this small setback, Lillard had set the pace for the Bucks by scoring three step-back threes to give Milwaukee a 75-72 lead at halftime. This was by far the highest-scoring first half this season for the Bucks. However, while expressing his thoughts in the postgame conference, Dame thought the Bucks could have scored even more.
As reported by ESPN, in a postgame interview, Lillard said, “We missed free throws. We missed some shots in the paint. It could have easily been a 165-point game…That doesn’t mean that we can turn into a team that does that every night, but I do think that we have that type of explosiveness.”
The Bucks will next face the Indiana Pacers in the semi-finals of the In-Season Tournament on December 7.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was surprised to win $100,000 after progressing past the In-Season tournament’s quarterfinals
The In-Season tournament comes with added incentives, such as guaranteed prize money for players of teams making it past the knockout stages. Playing in the quarterfinals guaranteed players $50,000 while making it to the semi-finals assured players a $100,000 paycheck. Giannis Antetokounmpo was surprised to learn he earned some easy money after qualifying for the semi-finals.
“Are we getting money now? We got some money? The rich get richer,” said the 2020 Defensive Player of the Year, who seems to have great plans to celebrate his 29th birthday in Vegas.
The Greek Freak exclaimed, “I only bet 34 Red (in Roulette). 34 Red. No Black.” As the Bucks are headed towards Las Vegas for the semi-finals, we might expect Antetokounmpo to spend quite some time at Vegas’ casinos.
Nevertheless, Giannis’ eyes are set on the In-Season tournament championship and grabbing the $500,000 per player cash prize for the winners.
