{"id":56069,"date":"2025-11-30T04:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T04:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/56069\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T04:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T04:04:07","slug":"nets-thrashed-by-bucks-as-they-get-a-giannis-antetokounmpo-reminder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/56069\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets thrashed by Bucks as they get a Giannis Antetokounmpo reminder"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, the Nets assiduously collected assets to pursue Giannis Antetokounmpo in case he ever became available.<\/p>\n

But the superstar decided he\u2019s staying in Milwaukee for now, and that if he did leave he\u2019d reportedly prefer to contend in Manhattan than build in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Saturday was a reminder of just how far away the Nets were from landing Antetokounmpo, or are from having a contender that could lure him.<\/p>\n

The Nets suffered a 116-99 thrashing at the hands of Antetokounmpo and his Bucks before 16,396 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. <\/p>\n

\"MilwaukeeGiannis Antetokounmpo goes up for a layup during the Nets\u2019 116-99 blowout road loss to the Bucks\u2019 Nov. 29, 2025. Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It was a one-sided beating befitting the gap between a tanking Brooklyn team playing without Michael Porter Jr., Cam Thomas and Egor D\u00ebmin and a seasoned Milwaukee squad.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo was utterly dominant as he bullied the Nets all night, with 29 points on 12-for-15 shooting and eight rebounds in just 18:59 in only his second game back from a strained groin. <\/p>\n

His return came Friday against the Knicks, the only team he considered leaving the Bucks for this past summer, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n

\"GiannisGiannis Antetokounmpo drives to the basket during the Nets\u2019 blowout road loss to the Bucks. AP<\/p>\n

After the Nets\u2019 hopes to use Mikal Bridges as a running mate for a star proved in vain, they traded him to the Knicks for five first-round picks, signaling a rebuild. <\/p>\n

Ironically that move not only shut the door on Brooklyn\u2019s contention for years, but left the Knicks without picks to use in a deal for Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

There had been questions about whether the Greek star would prefer to join a ready-made contender or the freedom to paint a blank canvas of a team. <\/p>\n

His reported interest in the Knicks made that answer obvious \u2014 and the Nets\u2019 commitment to a rebuild all the more straightforward.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn made a record five first-round picks in June, led by lottery pick D\u00ebmin. <\/p>\n

He sat out Saturday after a 23-point, nine-rebound, five-assist night in Friday\u2019s loss to the 76ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Saturday marked a second straight strong effort by a Brooklyn rookie. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

After D\u00ebmin had poured in all his points in the second half against Philadelphia, he sat out in Milwaukee to manage his plantar fascia injury. <\/p>\n

But Danny Wolf stepped up with a career-high 22 points, including 17 in the first half.<\/p>\n

Wolf\u2019s free throw made it 42-40 with 7:58 left in the second quarter, but the Nets gave up a 20-4 run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some of our rotations offensively could be better,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI think there were times in the game when we were playing as a unit and playing super hard and together, and then other times we were kind of not with that same intensity. And there\u2019s no excuses for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Antetokounmpo and-one padded the lead to 62-44 with 3:39 in the first half. It swelled to 32 in the second.<\/p>\n

The Nets fell to 3-16, pulling even with Atlanta (holders of New Orleans\u2019 pick) for the second-worst record in the NBA, and thus the second-best odds in the lottery. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re half a game behind Washington for the best odds, and half a game ahead of fourth-place Indiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, the Nets assiduously collected assets to pursue Giannis Antetokounmpo in case he ever became available. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,1268,21,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-56069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}