Giannis Antetokounmpo must keep his composure against the Magic

The reigning Most Valuable Player had his dominant seeding round performance marred by foul trouble, an ejection and a suspension.

These were Giannis Antetokounmpo’s statistics from his six seeding round games: 27.8 points, 11.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.3 blocks and 62.6 percent shooting (62-of-99) from the field. On paper, his numbers were fantastic and automatically inserted him into the bubble MVP conversation.

But those numbers alone didn’t provide the full context of Antetokounmpo’s experience. He was in foul trouble in three of his six games and received an ejection which resulted in a suspension for the last contest of the round.

Antetokounmpo was fortunate to only foul out once because he should’ve fouled out all three times this occurred. In the Milwaukee Bucks’ opener against the Boston Celtics, the 6-foot-11 power forward should’ve been penalized for shoving Daniel Theis while fighting over a screen late in the fourth quarter, but the referees failed to follow through with the correct call. Antetokounmpo finished with 16 of his 36 points scored that period.

In a comeback victory over the Miami Heat, he picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter and was called for his fifth less than a minute after walking on the court in the final period. Although Antetokounmpo didn’t foul out, he played with five fouls for the remaining five minutes and 41 seconds.

Finally, in Tuesday’s win over the Washington Wizards, he was ejected early in the second quarter for headbutting Moritz Wagner (Wagner pushed Antetokounmpo while battling for a rebound and drew a charge on him beforehand). As a result, Antetokounmpo was suspended for Thursday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

This is the most important incident of the three instances because of his postgame comments. Antetokounmpo clarified that the ejection was due to built-up frustration.

“I think it was a whole build-up of dirty plays in my mind,” the Bucks star explained (via Lori Nickel). “Guys trip with me. Guys falling in front of my feet. Holding me, hitting me and all that. In my mind, all these games I’ve played, guys are hitting me, so I just lost it for a second.”

It’s no secret that Antetokounmpo receives the Shaquille O’Neal treatment: play him extremely physical and get under his skin as much as possible because the referees will only make the egregiously obvious calls. Everyone knows why — he is a 6-foot-11, 242-pound, athletic freak of nature who can dunk from the free-throw line. Additionally, Antetokounmpo only shot 62.7 percent (37-of-59) from the charity stripe in the seeding round as well.

Opposing teams are fully aware they can’t physically stop him from scoring points and grabbing boards. Therefore, their next best tactic is to mentally exhaust him: be extremely physical with him while either battling for a board or defending him in the low post. Talk trash to him even though they know he’s arguably the best player in the league. Teams will do anything they can to acquire an edge over Antetokounmpo.

The Orlando Magic will do the same thing. They literally have little to nothing to lose because nobody expects them to upset the Bucks. Steve Clifford will mix up the gameplan and toss different looks at Antetokounmpo whether it’s Khem Birch, Aaron Gordon or Nikola Vucevic guarding him one-on-one or building the infamous “wall.”

As soon as Antetokounmpo starts complaining to the referees or displaying any kind of frustration, teams know they’ll have won. The more frustrating aspect is he knows this as well. He’s aware opposing squads will get under his skin by any means possible. It’s just hard to maintain a calm demeanor over the course of an 82-game, regular-season schedule. Even Kawhi Leonard has had moments of losing his cool this season.

Speaking of the “wall,” Antetokounmpo fell victim to it at times during the seeding round. There were multiple instances of him either passing the ball or trying to plow through and get charged with an offensive foul. He committed 21 turnovers compared to 25 assists in six games as well.

This upcoming first-round series with the Magic is the perfect opportunity to lay his frustrations with both physicality and “the wall” to rest. The Bucks will most likely take care of business in four or five games, so Antetokounmpo should experiment by playing more of a traditional big man role. That means bringing the ball up as little as possible.

He needs to let his point guards take charge of ball-handling duties so he can start looking for space inside the arc. He can still run the offense from there by either overpowering his defenders for an easy bucket or using his vision to find the open man. The less Antetokounmpo dribbles the ball up the court or holds it above the free-throw line, the less likely it is for teams to set up the wall.

Although this won’t resolve the issue of guys hauling him down while battling for rebounds, it’ll help Antetokounmpo stop panicking whenever he sees the wall and get him in less foul trouble. Twenty-two fouls in a six-game span is never something an organization wants from their franchise player. Hopefully, Antetokounmpo cuts down on it for this NBA Finals run the Bucks are projected to make.