John Antetokounbo revealed his dialogue with Sasha Vezenkov before Kings – Bucks

He had the opportunity to discuss with Sasha on the margins of the Bucks’ encounter with the Kings in Sacramento. John Antetokounbo revealed what he discussed with Sasha Vezenkov, while analysing the causes of his team’s defeat. “I am happy for him. I wished him to recover soon and return healthy to help his team in every possible way. He is an amazing player, he knows how the game is played and he is an excellent guy to have on your team,” he said about his conversation with Bulgarian forward. At the same time, Giannis Antetokounbo also spoke of what went wrong in the heavy defeat of the Bucks to the Kings, while he said the slower pace best serves his team this year. “We have to cash the energy of opponents and find rhythm, especially at the beginning of the games. If you can’t do this, you’ll be in trouble. The beginning of a race shows the course. You know the Kings play fast and they’ll shoot a three-pointer while there’s 17 seconds left for their attack. If you’re not focused from the first second, you’ll have a problem and we weren’t focused. You need to find ways to manage the game. You must have rules for transition defense. Who will pass, who will do the screen. You have to put the shots on. There are 15 matches left to playoffs and I do not believe that rival teams will find such ways to gain advantage against us. I believe that the basketball we play is more physical and this slows the rhythm of opponents somewhat. There will also be times when teams try to run and exploit it against us, but I think we can make the game slower. It’s crazy, but it’s the first time in my career that the slowest game is our strength. But we need to improve and do a better job at giving the pace. We need to do better work on our defense returns to the transition, to keep the ball in front of us. It wasn’t just the surprise. They feel like the Kings were winning in the driples. When you don’t stay ahead of the opponent in defense, she may collapse and he may create something. They have excellent playmaker and players who can rust with flotters. They have an extraordinary tall man, Samson, who makes things difficult. So you have to limit the ball as much as you can and we didn’t do it to a good extent tonight. I understand why it’s happening. For example, when you’re against double-team every time you’re on the post, you want to play and influence the game, instead of being passive and just pass the ball. Sometimes you have to win the double-team, sometimes you have to create something. We need to work on this, because we’re gonna see it in the next match we’re gonna have with the Sixers or the next game we’re playing at the playoffs. We have to win the opponent from the post when they play double-team. You must find a way to be effective, no matter what the opposing defense does. Do I think the ball was stuck today? I believe it 100%. But we didn’t even use the shots. When you’re the team leader, what are you gonna do? When you’re Dame, what are you gonna do? When you’re John, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna keep giving the balls or are you gonna try to make something? That’s the difficulty when you’re the leader of a team. At the end of the day, the ball was stuck today. Maybe next time it’ll be better. It’s easy when the ball passes through everyone and everybody puts the shots. The Kings played extremely, with high pace and intensity. They all scored. Fox, Monk, Samson. Everyone touched the ball and scored today. It was a team victory for them,” said Giannis Antetokounbo.