MIAMI (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo has never had a better offensive start to a season. He's also never had a worse overall start to a season.
That's how badly things are going on the defensive end for the Miami Heat right now.
Antetokounmpo scored 36 points on Friday night, giving him 71 through the first two games — matching the most he's ever scored in the first two games of any season. That's the good news.
Here's the bad news: Miami is 0-2, after giving up a franchise-worst 259 points in the first two games. It's also the first time that Antetokounmpo has appeared in the first two games of a season and his team hasn't gotten a win. (Milwaukee started 0-2 in 2015-16, the lone such start of his era there, but he appeared in only one of those two games.)
“We wanted it to go well, not only for him, but for us," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He really cares. He wants this to work. His teammates really want this to work. We’re going to get there. It’s just not on our timeline right now, not exactly how we wanted to start the season.”
No player in Heat history has gotten off to a faster two-game offensive start than Antetokounmpo; LeBron James scored 63 points in the first two games of the 2011-12 season, when Miami went on to win the NBA title.
Antetokounmpo said he didn't expect it to be easy, especially with two good teams — Minnesota and Detroit — as Miami's first two opponents.
“Sometimes when things don’t go your way you get discouraged, your defense is not as good," Antetokounmpo said. “But at the end of the day, I feel like once we are locked in and we trust one another in all levels, offense becomes easier, defense becomes easier. And right now, it’s not where it should be, but we’ve got to keep on taking good things from the game.”
Antetokounmpo said sometimes teams need a shock — “we were definitely shocked,” he said — and that can raise the level of urgency.
And Spoelstra, as always, insists that the Heat won't run from adversity. He said training camp and preseason were good starts to the team-building process, but that tough times like these are what truly bring a team together.
“Here we are,” Spoelstra said. “We’re getting to know each other right at the beginning of the season.”
___
