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Aaron Gash

MILWAUKEE — Giannis Antetokounmpo lived up to his “Greek Freak” moniker Saturday.

It started on the court, where the Milwaukee Bucks superstar hit one of the few milestones he had yet to reach with the first 40-point triple-double of his career. With 42 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/11/30/wizards-bucks-bilal-coulibaly/" target=_blank>powered the Bucks past the Washington Wizards</a> for their sixth straight win and put the Eastern Conference hopefuls back over .500 for the first time since after the season opener.

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Afterward, Antetokounmpo retreated into the depths of Fiserv Forum for an extensive routine that included a shower concert during which he belted along to Rihanna’s “Diamonds” and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”

He emerged to speak with the media about the Bucks, who have gone 9-3 after they won just one of their first seven games. His coach, Doc Rivers, told reporters postgame that the win over fledgling Washington was a game Milwaukee would have lost earlier this year. The superstar concurred.

“No matter if it looks pretty, if we’re playing well, we can figure out ways to win the game,” Antetokounmpo said.

He also expanded on his burgeoning chemistry with Damian Lillard and a role player’s emergence and, of course, delivered some <a href="https://youtu.be/DCN5E48s9yI?si=8YK8WoEXO95VCtKV&t=139" target=_blank>thinly veiled innuendo</a>.

All jokes — raunchy or otherwise — aside, Antetokounmpo’s play and the Bucks’ resurgence could<b> </b>hold far-reaching implications.

The Bucks haven’t been back to the Eastern Conference finals in the three seasons following their 2021 championship. Two seasons after the title, Milwaukee jettisoned two pieces of its core, coach Mike Budenholzer and guard Jrue Holiday, and replaced them with Adrian Griffin and Lillard.

Griffin was fired midway through last season, the Lillard-Antetokounmpo partnership didn’t click, and the third-seeded Bucks, with Antetokounmpo injured, were upset in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year. Milwaukee entered this season with the ever-looming threat of a trade request from Lillard or, in the doomsday scenario for every Wisconsin resident, Antetokounmpo.

That made the slow start a potential accelerant to the end of the Greek Freak era. This winning streak, at least temporarily, quenches it.

It starts with the synergy between the two stars. In their first season together, Lillard and Antetokounmpo found success but never fully coalesced on and off the court.

Lillard, speaking on the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSOCkyCLuAs" target=_blank>Knuckleheads” </a>podcast in late October, said the duo — both of whom had been the unquestioned leaders of their teams before their union — had to figure out how to hold each other accountable.

“I think now that we together, we both got to look over and say, ‘This a top-75 player, too,’” he said. “And I got to trust him to carry this with me. I think we both got to do that. … I got to be able to say something to you. And you got to be able to say something to me at all times. … After that, we got a shot. We got a shot.”

They seemingly found that trust — and, with it, that shot at the ultimate goal that Lillard, who scored 25 points against Washington, has yet to claim. Rivers said both players now know where the other is on the court at all times and are running a more fluid two-man game.

“The more time you spend with … a player, the more you understand him,” Antetokounmpo said after Saturday’s game. “The more you understand when he wants to go [isolation], when he wants space, when he wants to hit you in the pocket.”

Third in scoring against the Wizards was Brook Lopez, a longtime defensive anchor and member of the title team who had 18 points. Fourth, with 13 points, was the unheralded AJ Green.

An undrafted free agent, Green signed a two-way deal with the Bucks in 2022 and played 91 NBA games across his first two seasons. He didn’t average more than 11 minutes per game and entered this season on the outskirts of Rivers’s rotation. Green played just 7.1 minutes per game in October.

He has since become a key piece, averaging 25.1 minutes per game in November as a prototypical three-and-D wing. Green is shooting 47.8 percent from deep, including a 3-for-6 outing against Washington.

The Bucks’ net rating (point differential per 100 possessions) is 6.2 points per game better with Green on the court, according to <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/" target=_blank>Cleaning the Glass</a>, an analytics site that filters out garbage time and end-of-quarter heaves. Milwaukee allows 5.6 fewer points per 100 possessions with Green on the court, per the site, a mark in the 78th percentile among all players.

“He’s tough,” Antetokounmpo said of Green. “... I love his defense. He’s not scared. He’s not backing down from nobody.”

Even better for the Bucks, one of the four teams in the NBA’s dreaded second apron: Green is under contract for next season for a measly $2.3 million, according to <a href="https://www.spotrac.com/nba/player/_/id/78250/aj-green" target=_blank>Spotrac</a>.

Milwaukee’s stretch of good tidings could continue.

Rivers <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nba/bucks/2024/11/29/milwaukee-bucks-injury-update-giannis-antetokounmpo-khris-middleton/76658653007/" target=_blank>told reporters</a> Friday that he hopes Khris Middleton, a three-time all-star and a key piece in the title run, will return soon after offseason arthroscopic surgeries on both ankles. The 33-year-old’s future availability remains uncertain — Middleton has played only 88 games across the past two seasons — but he could be another additive piece.

Regardless, weathering their early struggles relieves some of the pressure on the Bucks and potentially leaves them better prepared for the tribulations to come. Rivers doesn’t love adversity — “I’d rather just run through the season,” he said before Saturday’s game — but acknowledged its benefits.

“Sometimes adversity breaks you,” he said. “But if you get through it, I think — for any team or any person, any unit — it makes you better, stronger.

“... I still would like it the other way, though.”

University of Maryland

Varun Shankar is The Post's Washington Wizards beat reporter.

Varun Shankar

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