Giannis Antetokounmpo Rips Bucks' Defense vs. Rockets: 'There Was No Pride'

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo ripped into his team after Saturday's 112-108 loss to the Houston Rockets, saying they no one is taking "pride" in their effort on the defensive end.

"Offense is gonna be there some nights, and some nights, it's not going to be there," Antetokounmpo told reporters. "Your defensive effort, though, has got to be there. And defensively, our effort wasn't there. There was no pride.

"Guys were just driving the ball, straight line l drive, getting to the paint, overhelping, shooting threes, and offensive rebounds. There was nothing. This wasn't the Milwaukee Bucks. This is not who we are."

The Rockets didn't have a particularly strong offensive game, shooting 43.4 percent from the floor overall, but Antetokounmpo's frustration is boiling over as Milwaukee lost for the third time in four games.

Antetokounmpo's comments may be leftover agita from consecutive losses to the Pacers last week, which saw Indiana drop a whopping 264 points in those contests. The woes didn't exactly turn themselves around in a 125-121 win over the lowly San Antonio Spurs, who shot 48.4 percent as a team in the loss.

The Rockets' offensive output was actually the third-lowest scoring total for a Bucks opponent in Milwaukee's last 19 games. However, the game did feature the same sloppy rotations and miscommunication that have plagued the Bucks in recent weeks; Houston just missed shots.

"We have to be better. We have to play better, we have to defend better, we have to trust one another better, we have to be coached better," Antetokounmpo told reporters. "Every single thing, everybody has to be better. It starts from the equipment manager—he has to wash our clothes better. The bench has to be better, the leaders of the team have to be more vocal, we have to make more shots, we have to defend better, we have to have a better strategy, we have to be better. We have four months to get better, so we'll see."

Milwaukee is second in the Eastern Conference and has the NBA's third-best record at 25-11, so it's not as if the sky is falling. That said, this is a franchise that blew a prime chance at an NBA Finals berth a year ago with an embarrassing first-round exit to the No. 8 seed Miami Heat. The front office wasted no time making changes, firing coach Mike Budenholzer in favor of Adrian Griffin and landing a second superstar via trade in Damian Lillard.

The pressure to turn things around—and quickly—is astronomical.