NBA Playoffs 2021: Giannis Antetokounmpo implores Milwaukee Bucks to take care of business at home

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The Milwaukee Bucks entered Game 2 as the favourite, but the Brooklyn Nets had other ideas, cruising to 125-86 win, despite missing James Harden. 

The 39-point defeat is the second-largest in Bucks franchise playoff history, per ESPN Stats & Info, and their lowest points total of the season, leaving them in a precarious situation as they head home for Game 3. 

"At the end of the day we gotta take care of business, take it a game at a time," Giannis Antetokounmpo said post-game after recording 18 points and 11 rebounds.  

"I really do not want to hear 'we've got to win two at home,' we've got to win one at home, we've got to win the first game. We've got to get to Game 3 and try to give it everything we can."

The odds of climbing out of an 0-2 hole aren't in their favour, with only 28 of the 430 teams in NBA playoff history to be down 0-2 finding a way to pull off a comeback.

“We didn’t play very well overall,” head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “First quarter, the whole game. Yeah, so, I think we gotta play better from start to end.

“They’ve won two games at home, now it’s our turn to go play there. We have all seen a thousand times, you guys have heard it, we’ve got to go protect our home court just like they protected theirs. If you’ve been in the league a long time you’ve seen this before. We gotta go home and play better.”

For the second-straight game, the Bucks' offence was off the pace as their 3-point shooting again fell flat, going 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) in Game 2 and over the first two games of the series, they've hit just 14-of-57 (24.5 percent).

“You gotta give them credit – defensively they’ve been good," Budenholzer said of the Nets. "So it’s always a little bit of both. We can be I think better offensively and execute better offensively hopefully reduce the turnovers.”

With the series on the line in Game 3, Antetokounmpo says there's no room for excuses as they return to Milwaukee hoping they can hit back on their home floor. 

"[I] gotta be more aggressive, gotta get to my spots more, that's pretty much it.

 "It's an opportunity."

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Benyam Kidane is a senior NBA editor for The Sporting News.