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BOSTON -- The Milwaukee Bucks are confident that Jabari Parker can bounce back against the Boston Celtics after a rough playoff debut in Sunday's Game 1, when he was just 1-for-5 for two points in 15 minutes.
"I know Jabari's going to come out being more comfortable and definitely being more aggressive," Bucks All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo said. "We've got to do a better job too of finding him. He didn't have a great Game 1, but he's going to have a great Game 2 because that's what Jabari does."
Bucks point guard Eric Bledsoe said the older players on the team have tried to keep Parker's spirits up over the past two days.
"He's a talented player, we need him," Bledsoe said. "His emotions are going all over the place right now. [In] the gym a lot of fans [were] just screaming, the game's just moving fast, everything's just going 100 miles an hour for him.
"It's going to come to him, he's just got to slow down."
Parker disagreed with that notion that his first career playoff game moved too fast for him and he remains confident he will bounce back on Tuesday night.
"Just whatever time I get, I try to play the hardest I can," Parker said after Tuesday's shootaround. "That's all I can control."
Bucks swingman Khris Middleton knows that the playoff stage is an adjustment for Parker, but he believes the 23-year-old will rise to the challenge.
"It's his first playoff game," Middleton said. "His rookie year he got hurt the second half of the season, the same thing with last year. ... It's never easy. We don't want him to put a ton of pressure on himself, we just want him to go out there, relax, and be the Jabari we know he can be -- the Jabari that we've seen him be since he came back from injury."
Parker, who returned to the lineup on Feb. 2 after tearing the ACL in his left knee for the second time last season, is averaging 12.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game this year and says the message he has gotten from teammates is simple heading into Game 2.
"Just to control what I can control," Parker said.
(ESPN)
