Giannis Antetokonmo and the Milwaukee Bucks introduced an exclamation point in the first game of the series against the Boston Celtics. Can the champion crush the best defense in the NBA without his second top scorer?
Rudely looked at, 9 out of 25 from the field doesn’t seem like a particularly good game, especially for someone who’s consistently put more than 50 percent of their throws into the basket for years. That’s still the case even if we adjust it to 9/24, after all, one of those official errors was a pass, to itself, over the board, logically.
There is no name for this play, so it’s officially a false combination/offensive recovery/hit, and informally just a ‘T-Mac’ or ‘How the hell did he do that on purpose?!’. Be that as it may: the price wasn’t very good, we can agree on that.
The 14 points in the area were rather modest considering Giannis had three games of 20+ against the Bulls. The Celtics had a solid defensive game plan, always working with two, often three defenders and helping a lot, especially in the person of Robert Williams, who made a number of difficult first-row shots, or with Marcus Smart.
Giannis hit 6/14 in the area and only had 4 fastbreak points, two factors that Boston could pocket on the back after the first game because they are both consistent providers of Giannis points. In short, it wasn’t just “running, jumping and dipping,” which, in the words of James Harden, was Giannis’ main skill.
Instead, it was a game for the best player in the world, which perhaps only one person could have mastered in this fashion, on both ends of the field. Because, just to be clear, it was an impressively dominant performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo. An idea that could scare off the Celtics, who have been pretty hot lately.
Giannis Anticonmo: The solution is …
Giannis threw the Celtics’ fearsome defense into a dilemma in Game 1, demonstrating the evolution he’s made over the past few years. It wasn’t long ago that a wall like the one built by Boston would lose its balance. In the meantime, he can read the game better and find other solutions, and does not have to hit his head against the wall.
In Game 1, the solution was often called: Game Maker! Time and time again Giannis made good decisions against Celtics doubles or triples, capitalized on the intense interest and demonstrated what is probably one of the best assists of his career (he’s grown hugely here this season!).
Especially in the transition period, it was remarkable how he always found the bowlers and took advantage of the fact that Boston, afraid to score Giannis, first tried to protect the ring.
In the half as well, he mostly kept his cool – he lost five balls, which isn’t too bad given the high usage – and barely forced a shot, but also found an open teammate out of necessity, like the best in this eg Jrue Holiday launched.
Giannis vs. Boston: Choose Your Poison…
Milwaukee would post Giannis a few times and put only the best shooter (mostly Grayson Allen) on his side, helping to put the eventual poison. Help and risk free triple? Or staying with the guy and letting Giannis work in solitude? There are no good options. Especially since Antetokounmpo always realized what the defense had given him.
It wasn’t just the assists, Giannis played the pass before the pass several times making the Celtics spin first. Milwaukee moved the ball quickly afterward and often found an open option, and the Bucks seemed prepared for the amount of attention Antetokounmpo was getting from the opposition defense.
It also makes sense: you can defend Giannis only as a team. If you get stuck in a single player, as here with Al Horford sacrificing himself, Giannis usually scores two points or goes to the streak. Allen’s triple set better be open, right? Welcome to the world of any coach looking to win a move against this soldier.
Dollars: a crime with plenty of room for improvement
In the first inning, the Bucks’ plan also worked because the shooters hit half of their three-pointers (10/20). That wasn’t the case at all in the second half (2/14), and offense became increasingly dependent on the two superstars, but it never seemed to get serious.
On the one hand, this was due to Holiday and Giannis’ big plays. The base guard was himself and Khris Middleton in a personal union, he defended provocatively and repeatedly threw throws, especially from middle distance. Antetokounmpo sank two mid-range jumps, but did more damage near the basket.
His penultimate hit was a ‘T-Mac’, and the final hit was also one he was thinking of a little faster than his opponents and made his way through, engulfing a rebound. Plus, he was incredibly active as a movie and kept the Celtics defense busy even when he wasn’t pursuing a degree himself.