Giannis Antetokounmpo says he will not “look to the referees for protection” if the Pistons “play dirty” in the first round of the playoffs.
Andre Drummond was ejected in Game 1 Sunday night for shoving Antetokounmpo to the ground.
The Greek Freak led the Milwaukee Bucks with 24 points and 17 rebounds in a convincing 121-86 romp.
Per The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal:
“I’m (expletive) unstoppable!” Antetokounmpo growled. At that point, the score was only 10-2, but the rout was on.
With the Bucks already up by 41 with 4 minutes and 7 seconds left in the third quarter, Antetokounmpo rebounded a miss by D.J. Wilson. He set his feet to rise up for a putback when Drummond aggressively shoved him to the ground, never going for the ball.
The foul was reviewed and deemed to be a flagrant-2, leading to Drummond’s ejection and thunderous cheer from the sellout crowd. To add insult to injury, Griffin, who was on the sideline in a suit, was assessed a technical foul after sharing his thoughts with the officials following the review.
“As a team we talked about it, to try to keep our composure whenever the opposing team tries to foul us hard or try to hit us or play dirty,” Antetokounmpo said. “We said we’ve got to keep our composure, we’ve got to do our job and our job is to win games. Obviously, I’m not going to look to the referees for protection, I’ve just got to play smart and try to avoid the situation.”
