December 14, 2023 - BY Admin

Giannis Antetokounmpo scores career-high 64 but real drama comes postgame over game ball

We should be talking about Giannis Antetokounmpo's historic night. Milwaukee is the franchise of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Marques Johnson, Ray Allen and Michael Redd — Antetokounmpo has now scored more in a game than any of them. Antetokounmpo scored a career-high and franchise-record 64 points as the Bucks got a measure of revenge on the Pacers for eliminating Milwaukee from the In-Season Tournament with a 140-126 win. However, all the talk is about what happened postgame. Antetokounmpo wanted the game ball from his historic night. The Pacers had taken the game ball because their two-way rookie Oscar Tshiebwe had scored his first NBA point and those players traditionally get a game ball. After an animated discussion with the Pacers Tyrese Haliburton, Antetokounmpo raced back to the locker rooms after the ball. Antetokounmpo and other Bucks players went to the Pacers' hallway and some sort of confrontation occurred, according to Pacers coach Rick Carlise, who called the entire thing an "unfortunate situation." He said that Pacers GM Chad Buchanan was elbowed in the ribs during the altercation. A Bucks' official had grabbed the game ball at the buzzer and gave it to him later, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. However, at his postgame press conference, Antetokounmpo said he didn't know whether that was the actual game ball. Carlisle said there were a couple of game balls and his team would have taken either one. It was a lot of drama for a night that will ultimately be remembered for Antetokounmpo dropping 64 on Indiana.