‘Frustrated’ Giannis Antetokounmpo says Bucks ‘didn’t compete’ in blowout loss to Knicks

Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t hide his frustration after Friday night’s blowout loss to the Knicks dropped his Milwaukee Bucks’ record to 2-7.

“As a leader of this team, your head cannot be down,” Antetokounmpo said after the 116-94 defeat at Madison Square Garden.

“You can be frustrated at times, for sure. I’m frustrated. If you’re not frustrated with losing, get the f–k out of here. Simple as that. But at the end of the day, we have another one in two days. We’ve got to be ready.”

Antetokounmpo’s candid comments followed a game in which the Knicks corralled 14 offensive rebounds — including seven in the first quarter — and outrebounded Milwaukee, 48-41, overall.

The Knicks had 35 assists to Milwaukee’s 20. The Knicks made 14 3-pointers to the Bucks’ seven.

It added up to the second-most-lopsided loss of the young season for the Bucks, who had snapped a six-game losing streak with a win against the Utah Jazz on Thursday night.

“If you’re gonna go out there and you’re not going to compete, you’re not going to win the game,” Antetokounmpo said.

“Sometimes you compete your ass off and you don’t win the game, but at least you give yourself a chance. We played great last night. We came to New York, we lost by 30. We didn’t compete. Are we OK with not competing? I don’t know. I’m not OK with that s–t.”

Antetokounmpo scored a team-high 24 points on 11-of-21 shooting, and Damian Lillard added 19 points on 6-of-15 field goals.

But only one other Buck scored in double-figures: rookie Tyler Smith, who scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter after the game was already out of reach.

“A lot of the games that we’ve struggled in, teams are just getting to loose balls more than us,” Lillard said. “They’re getting to the glass more than us. They’re playing at a little bit faster pace than we are. That’s giving them an advantage and putting us behind in these games, and we’ve just got to be much better about that.”

It’s been a challenging start to the season for the Bucks, who traded for Lillard before the 2023-24 campaign to form a star-powered tandem with Antetokounmpo.

They entered Friday night’s game in a similar situation as the Knicks, who, at 3-4 to begin the night, also got off to a slow start to the season amid sky-high hype.

Karl-Anthony Towns, whom the Knicks acquired less than three weeks before the season, led all scorers with 32 points on Friday, while fellow new addition Mikal Bridges finished second on the team with 17.

Asked about his impression of the new-look Knicks, Lillard replied, “They’re a good team. I mean, it ain’t like we went in there and played against the Heat when LeBron [James] went there. They made some changes. They were a good team last year. They’re a good team this year.”

Antetokounmpo, a two-time NBA MVP who led Milwaukee to a championship in 2021, said the Bucks competed hard in a pair of recent close losses to the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers.

But Friday, he said, was a different story.

Their next game is set to take place Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee against the defending champion Boston Celtics.

“There’s a lot of things that we can clean up and do better,” Antetokounmpo said. “It starts with competing. We’ve got to compete. Teams won’t feel bad [for] us. They’ll want us to keep on losing. They’re not going to be [like], ‘Oh yeah, they’re five games below .500. Let’s get them back on track so they can make the playoffs.’ It’s not gonna work that way. Got to go out there and earn it and don’t take it for granted.”