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Skip Bayless recently compared Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James based on their performances against the Atlanta Hawks this season. With the Milwaukee Bucks forward notching only seven points in a recent game against the Hawks, Bayless questioned why Giannis was considered the best player in the world.
Wednesday night's game saw a bit of an oddity for the Milwaukee Bucks. Coming up against the Atlanta Hawks on the road, the Bucks managed to notch a win after a 114-105 showdown.
While winning against Atlanta isn't out of the ordinary for a team ranked third in the East, the Bucks saw a strange stat line on their stat sheet.
Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo recorded a double-double. Again, this is not out of the realm of the ordinary for anyone familiar with his game. However, Antetokounmpo notched a double-double while scoring only seven points in the game.
Giannis notched a stat line of seven points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists to help Milwaukee through to the win. While his rebounding and assists numbers remain fairly commonplace, the Bucks superstar fell far short of his season average on the scoring front.
Antetokounmpo's lack of scoring hasn't garnered much media backlash as he impacted the game in a way that helped Milwaukee through to a win. However, as someone who is considered one of the best players in the league, scoring below double-digits is extremely questionable.
Needless to say, Skip Bayless saw the opportunity to take a shot at Antetokounmpo for his strange performance following the game. Voicing his opinion on Twitter, Bayless wrote:
"Wait, LeBron scored 47 at Atlanta on Dec. 30th ... and tonight Giannis scored 7??? Yes, he had 19 rebounds and 10 assists but - again no Capella, no real post presence for Hawks - and Giannis managed only 7 pts??? Somebody I know says Giannis is the Best Player on the Planet."
While Bayless has developed a reputation for being overly critical of some players, he raised some solid points.
LA Lakers superstar LeBron James hung 47 points on the Hawks on his 38th birthday. Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo, albeit in a one-off, is merely "impacting" the game against the same team.
Giannis had several avenues to dominate when coming up against an Atlanta team without a solid inside presence, such as Clint Capela. While the Bucks walked away with a win, Giannis Antetokounmpo may have to face some severe criticism for this performance.
Giannis Antetokounmpo struggles against Atlanta
Giannis Antetokounmpo has established himself as one of the best players in the league. While being a perennial MVP and DPOY candidate, Antetokounmpo consistently threatens to be one of the league's leading scorers.
Ranking third in scoring this season, Giannis has a lot of expectations to live up to as the leader of the Milwaukee Bucks. In this regard, his performance against the Atlanta Hawks did leave a bad taste.
The Bucks still managed to walk away with a win. With Jrue Holiday and Brooke Lopez stepping up as the scoring leaders, Milwaukee came out on top with some degree of comfort.
By distributing the ball after drawing attention to himself, Giannis Antetokounmpo did a commendable job of impacting the game. However, as Skip Bayless mentioned, with no real inside force in the Hawks' defense, Giannis should have been the dominant force.
