MILWAUKEE -- As Jason Kidd prepared his Milwaukee Bucks for their
much-awaited return to the Mecca on Thursday night, the future Hall of Famer was
asked how the smaller arena environment compared to the professional arenas in
which he spent a portion of his career playing."It's a little cozy," Kidd said before a 96-89 loss to the Boston Celtics. "It's 11,000 [capacity]. People say the Bucks had home-court advantage when we had players like Oscar [Roberston] and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] playing. But I think it's gotten a lot bigger, there's a lot more fans. But it just shows how the game has grown from then to today. But it's always good to go back and have the opportunity to play in the Mecca or into the Garden because that's where the game and the history started."
As the Bucks celebrated their past, playing on a new replica Mecca floor like the one artist Robert Indiana made so famous back in the day, they also had another chance to cherish their present and future. As the Bucks embark on their 50th anniversary season, there's a realization around the league that the team is beginning a new renaissance of its own with all-everything big man Giannis Antetokounmpoleading the way. At 22, he hasn't just become the face of the franchise already, he has the type of transformative talent that can change the game. With his 28 points Thursday, he has accumulated more points (175) in the first five games of a season than any other player in Bucks history, and that includes Abdul-Jabbar's total of 166 points in 1970-71, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
But in the midst of all the pomp and circumstance of Thursday's festivities at the now dubbed UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, the Celtics reminded Antetokounmpo and the Bucks that he wasn't going to be able to dominate every single night. Aside from the sellout crowd's proximity to the floor, what really got intimate was the Celtics' defenders in and around Antetokounmpo's airspace. After watching the Greek Freak throttle their team to the tune of 37 points and 13 rebounds a week ago in Boston, the Celtics were determined not to allow the young star to have his way again.
That's why veteran Al Horford followed Antetokounmpo all over the floor and the Celtics were always ready with another body wherever he went. For the first time all season, Antetokounmpo was held under 30 points.
"They're a very versatile team," Brogdon said of the Celtics. "They have [Jayson] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown, 6-7, 6-8 guys that can really guard any position on the floor so that allows them to switch a lot. If you're not aggressive on those switches then they can really stop your offense."
As the Bucks new multimillion dollar palace rounds into shape down the street, dreams of future glory with Antetokounmpo leading the way will hover in the minds of Milwaukee fans who were lucky enough to see Robertson and Abdul-Jabbar lift the franchise to prominence the first time around. But for as much joy came out of seeing a new era of players race up and down the remake of a beautiful old floor, it was also a reminder that the elusive championship days are still a long way off unless the Bucks can get their young star some more consistent help. In the meantime, Antetokounmpo laid out some pretty simple advice when asked what his teammates can do when defenders are collapsing down around him.
