After the Indiana Pacers eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks from the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament on Thursday, Giannis Antetokounmpo stated that the squad just needs to improve. He criticized the Bucks’ lack of organization, claiming that at times they are “not organized at all.”

In the 128-119 loss at T-Mobile Arena, Antetokounmpo scored 37 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. “The talent level we have is incredible,” he remarked. “But we have to be more organized.”

We seem to be completely disorganized at times, in my opinion. We don’t always know what our offensive aims to accomplish, and on defense, we don’t always come running back. We don’t take many early 3-pointers. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to keep the ball safe. Knowing where the ball is is essential. They had numerous dunks, open threes, and early threes in a number of the scenarios we saw today. We must improve.

“You will not receive anything from anyone. Sometimes it seems like we expect someone to hand us the game simply because we have excellent players like Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner, or Aaron Nesmith. Like, never. We must improve. We need to step outside and accept it. In the end, I believe we are excellent players, but they won’t appreciate us if we don’t put in the effort to compete. They exerted every effort to hinder us.”

That was undoubtedly the case on Thursday night. Haliburton and the Pacers replied with a 9-2 run late in the fourth quarter to seal the game after the Bucks scored 43 points in the third quarter and went on a 27-9 run to start the half to regain control.

The Bucks coach Adrian Griffin took the fall, claiming responsibility for his team’s improved performance in the closing minutes.

“I’ve got to do a better job of getting them into some certain sets down, you know, late game,” he stated. “However, we made ourselves competitive. The first part was difficult. We’ve made some excellent adjustments, but we must finish well in the fourth quarter. We simply weren’t able to pull it off tonight.”

Antetokounmpo saw things differently. When asked if the players, coaches, or both were to blame for the team’s disorganization, he responded that it is the players’ responsibility to complete the task at hand, regardless of the coaches’ instructions.

Then he answered, “The players play the game.” “You know how we play the game? You hope that your coach does that for you, but they are free to say whatever they want and position us for success. However, you must create the plays, you understand? It’s not the coaches fault if you don’t sprint back when playing defense. It’s not the coaches’ fault if you can’t execute down the stretch and end up turning the ball over or passing it to your opponent. All you have to do is accept that.

Turner finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, while Haliburton recorded another impressive performance with 27 points, 15 assists, and no turnovers. Despite their exceptional performance, Antetokounmpo stated that Indiana’s bench triumphed in the game.

He stated that the Bucks must ultimately start fixing their mistakes after returning home on Friday and having the weekend to get ready for the Chicago Bulls on Monday.

“In the end, I thought their bench kicked our asses,” Antetokounmpo remarked. It’s easy. I looked at the statistical report. They do far better than we do, therefore even though I rarely look at the stat sheet, I do now.

“We need to deal with it. We have three days left till our home game against Chicago on Monday. We must enter the court. We need to enter the movie theater. As a team, we must communicate, and maybe we may quicken our chemistry. It is not the coach’s fault. We seem to need to improve. Now it’s our turn. We possess both skill and experience. We are responsible. We are aware that we are responsible.”