Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks made an exclamation point in the series’ first game against the Boston Celtics. Can the champion crush the NBA’s best defense without his second-best scorer?
Soberly speaking, 9 out of 25 off the field does not sound like a particularly good match, especially for someone who has consistently put more than 50 percent of his throws in the basket for years. That’s still the case, even if we revise it down to 9/24, after all, one of the official misses was actually a pass, to himself, across the board, logical.
There is no name for such a play, so it’s officially a miss / offensive rebound / hit combination and unofficially just a “T-Mac” or “How the hell did he do that, was it on purpose ?!”. Either way: the price was not good, we can agree on that.
The 14 points in the zone were also pretty mediocre considering that Giannis had three games of 20+ against the Bulls. The Celtics had a solid defensive game plan, where they almost always worked with two, often three defenders and helped a lot, especially in the form of Robert Williams, who made a series of ringside shots difficult, or with Marcus Smart.
Giannis hit 6/14 in the zone and had only 4 fastbreak points, two factors Boston can pat on the back after game 1 as they are consistent scorers for Giannis. In short, it was not a “just run, jump and dunk” game, which, to paraphrase James Harden, is Giannis’ greatest skill.
Instead, it was a game for the best player in the world, which probably only one could have dominated in this form, at both ends of the field. For just so we are aware, it was an impressive dominant performance by Giannis Antetokounmpo. An idea that could scare the Celtics, who were so hot recently.
Giannis Antetokounmpo: The solution is …
Giannis threw the dreaded Celtics defense into a dilemma in Game 1, demonstrating the development he has made over the last few years. It is not so long ago that a wall like the one Boston built would have brought him out of balance. In the meantime, though, he can read the game much better and find other solutions, he should not bang his head against the wall.
In Game 1, the solution was often called: Playmaking! Again and again, Gianni’s made good decisions against the Celtics’ doubles or triples, took advantage of the extreme attention and showed what is probably one of the best passing matches of his career (he has developed massively here this season!).
Especially in the transition, it was unique how he always found the shooters and consistently took advantage of the fact that Boston, afraid of Giannis’ scoring, first tried to protect the ring.
Also in the half, he mostly kept quiet – he lost five balls, which is not so bad considering the high consumption – and almost never forced a shot, but also found the open teammate of necessity, as the best in this . example launched Jrue Holiday.
Giannis vs. Boston: Choose your poison …
Milwaukee posted Giannis several times, placing only the best shooter (often Grayson Allen) on his side, making it the ultimate pick-your-poison situation. Help and risk the free triangle? Or stay with the man and let Gianni work in isolation? These are not good opportunities either. Especially since Antetokounmpo almost always realized what the defense gave him.
It wasn’t just the assistants either, Giannis played the pass before the pass a number of times that made the Celtics rotate in the first half. Milwaukee moved the ball quickly after that and often found the open opportunity, and the Bucks seemed to be prepared for the amount of attention Antetokounmpo got from the opponents defense.
It is also logical: one can only defend Giannis as a team. If it got stuck in one player, like here with the self-sacrificing Al Horford, Giannis usually scores 2 points or goes to the line. Rather an open Allen triangle, right? Welcome to the world of any trainer who wants to win a streak against this freak.
Bucks: Offensive with plenty of room for improvement
In the first half, the Bucks’ plan also worked because the shooters hit half of their three-pointers (10/20). That was not the case at all in the second half (2/14), the offensive became more and more dependent on the two stars, but it never looked like it was going to be dangerous.
On the one hand, it was due to the great plays of Holiday and Giannis. The point guard was basically himself and Khris Middleton in a personal union, defending sensationally and lowering his throws over and over again, especially from the middle distance. Antetokounmpo sank two midrange jumpers but did more damage near the basket.
His penultimate hit was the aforementioned “T-Mac”, the latter was also one where he thought a little faster than his opponents and got his will, a putback dunk. In addition, he was incredibly active as a screener and kept the Celtics defense busy, even when he was not even looking for a degree.