The Bucks were motivated by last year’s failure as they headed into Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinals, writes Jamal Collier of ESPN. Favored to reach the title game in the league’s first in-season tournament last December, Milwaukee was surprised by an upstart Indiana team, and the players were determined not to let that happen again.

“We probably looked a little sharper this time around,” said Damian Lillard, who contributed 25 points and seven assists in Saturday’s win over Atlanta. “This time we came into it remembering our last experience. We came correct. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy playing against a good team, but we prepared, and it just felt familiar.”

Milwaukee appears to have fully turned around its season following a disastrous 2-8 start that led to speculation that major changes might be ahead. Saturday’s win was their third in a row, and their 14-11 record has them just two games out of third place in the East. According to Collier, coach Doc Rivers has been telling his team for weeks that it is capable of winning the NBA Cup.

“It’s a competition, man, and you want your team to be competitive,” Rivers said. “You want them to accept the challenge, that’s all I’ve been talking about. … That’s what I’m proud of for our guys.”

There’s more on the Bucks:

• Last year’s defeat helped seal the fate of first-year coach Adrian Griffin, who was ultimately fired at mid-season, notes Sam Amick of The Athletic. Bobby Portis delivered a fiery post-game speech that challenged his teammates and Griffin to become more focused and stop letting winnable games slip away. Portis recalled those remarks after Saturday’s game. “It went viral, man. It was everywhere,” he said. “But everything I do is for the good. I’ve been a leader my whole life. Just because you make it to the NBA and there’s guys (on your team) who are top 75 on your team doesn’t stop you from being a leader. The message was, ‘We need to get better at late-game execution. We need to get better down the stretch. We need to know what the f–k we’re doing down the stretch, have guys in the right spots, so we can get a good shot. The last five, six minutes is winning time.’”
• Giannis Antetokounmpo slipped out of the MVP conversation amid the team’s slow start, Amick adds, but the star forward offered more evidence on Saturday that he’s a serious candidate to pick up his third award. Antetokounmpo may be in the midst of his best season, Amick states, and he delivered 32 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists in the win over Atlanta, capping the performance with a spectacular block of Clint Capela late in the fourth quarter (Twitter video link).
• Antetokounmpo talked to Amick about his partnership with Lillard, which seems to be running much more smoothly in their second season together. Lillard has improved his shooting from the field and from three-point range, and he looks more like the dangerous scorer he was in Portland. “It takes time,” Antetokounmpo said. “You know, I feel like a lot of people had such high expectations from us on day one to be the best duo to ever play this game. But it takes time. Now it’s our second year playing together. We are more comfortable with one another, know one another’s spots better. And as you see, our chemistry has been getting way, way better. Down the stretch … we feel very, very comfortable we can both get to our spots and be more effective when we play that two-man game this year.”