The Milwaukee Bucks are coming off of a Game 4 victory in the NBA Finals, 109-103 over the Phoenix Suns to tie the series at 2 games apiece. The series now heads back to Phoenix for a crucial game 5 that could very well determine the outcome of this series. With both teams winning when they’ve been the home team, Phoenix has an advantage heading into this game, however, they’ve been on the losing end of the last two games with the momentum seemingly shifting in favor of Milwaukee. What are some of the key storylines that we are looking at heading into Saturday’s game and for the rest of the series? Let’s take a look.
Giannis Antetokounmpo so far has been phenomenal in this series. Giannis is averaging 32.3 PPG 14 RPG and 5.5 APG along with 1.8 SPG and 1.5 BPG. He’s been the best player on the court and what he is doing has been nothing short of spectacular. Giannis has heard the noise, he’s seen countless people saying that he has “no basketball skills.” He’s seen the chatter of people doubting him and criticizing him over his style of play and nit-picking him on every missed free throw and shot. Giannis has taken his game to another level even with a lingering knee injury that he is still dealing with, although according to coach Mike Budenholzer, Giannis’ knee is getting better day by day, but he still isn’t 100%. Giannis made an unbelievable play last night where with about 1:18 left in the game with the Bucks having a 2 point lead, Devin Booker was looking to set up a lob pass to Deandre Ayton for what seemed to be an easy 2 points to tie the game, but Giannis, with a superman like play, was able to react quickly and deny Ayton at the rim getting the Milwaukee crowd on their feet and they would not lose the lead for the rest of the game.
From my article where I previewed and predicted the outcome of this series, I listed out multiple different storylines that could determine the outcome of the series. I knew that the number one determining factor was going to be Giannis’ health and availability. I predicted the Suns would win the series in 5 games if Giannis wasn’t available or not close to 100%. Now I did still pick Phoenix to win the series in 7 games even if Giannis was close to 100% and playing from the start, which he is and has. But Giannis, as each game goes by, is starting to show that he is one of the game’s best players and that he very well could go down as one of the all-time greats if he wins this series. Phoenix has done what most teams consistently do to try and stop Giannis and that’s setting up a “wall” around the paint area which has been dubbed the Giannis Wall. It hasn’t worked much up to this point so if Giannis continues to dominate as he has been since game 1, then the Suns are going to have to hope that Giannis doesn’t get much help from his teammates if they want a chance to win this series.
Speaking of Giannis’ teammates. I’ve been pretty critical of Jrue Holiday’s playoff performance thus far….on the offensive end. He’s been inefficient from the field, shooting 33.3% from the field and has shot 27.3% from 3 point land. He did have a very good game 3 performance which was nice to see where he had his most efficient night of the finals scoring 21 points on 8/14 shooting and knocking down five 3 pointers. Then he followed it up with a dud the next game offensively with a 13 point game shooting 4/20 from the field and 0/5 from 3. But I think what has been a bright point is to see his defense, especially on Chris Paul. Paul in game 1 of this series was incredible. He looked like he picked up right where he left off in the previous series against the Clippers. Paul had 32 points and 9 assists with only 2 turnovers. Holiday had then become the primary defender against Paul in game 2 and although according to NBA.com Paul has scored 34 total points when matched up against Paul, he has forced Paul into 7 turnovers out of Paul’s 17 total turnovers in 4 games in this series, which is something that has been a big issue for Paul. According to CBS Sports, Paul, in his first 15 games of this postseason has seen him turn the ball over 22 times (0.68 TPG). In the last three games Paul has played, he has turned it over 15 times (3 TPG). Paul has to be better with ball security and while some of that has been because of Holiday’s pesky defense, it’s also come down to Paul needing to be smarter with the basketball which is something I didn’t see myself saying with how Paul has been an all-time great distributor and floor general, but here we are and the Bucks have done a great job in forcing Paul to turn the ball over. I suspect Monty Williams will make adjustments and Paul will get out of this slump, but for now, it’s something that he needs to get out of in a hurry.
It’s a scary sight for the Suns to see Khris Middleton finally having a big game. He’s been relatively quiet in the last 2 games scoring 11 points in game 2 and 18 respectively in game 3. But in game 4, we finally saw Middleton have a 40 point game which is something that I had been waiting for from him. I won’t get much into this but the consistency has been an issue for Middleton as we know. He doesn’t have to drop 40 a night from here on out, but if he can be a consistent 20 PPG scorer for Milwaukee, then that will bode well for the Bucks in the rest of this series.
Don’t count the Suns out just yet though. Phoenix has been a team where if the combination of Paul, Booker, and/or Ayton have had good games, they look unstoppable. However, in the last two games, this hasn’t been the case. Game 3 we saw Booker struggle, only scoring 10 points on 3/14 shooting and 1/7 from three while Paul and Ayton had not the worst of games, but they could’ve been better if they took more shots. Game 4, Booker had his best game of the series having a 42 point game on 17/28 shooting, even without making a single 3 pointer. Ayton and Paul only combined for 16 points. I don’t suspect that this is going to happen every game throughout the series. I think the Bucks have made their adjustments which is something that I listed as a key for the Bucks to win the series in my last article, now it’s time for Monty Williams to do the same. The Bucks have emphasized stopping the pick-and-roll offense of the Suns which has worked pretty well. Now if the Suns can focus on getting good looks and high probability shots for their guys from the perimeter and the mid-range, as long as they can hit those shots more consistently, then we wouldn’t be seeing some of these poor outings from the Suns’ stars. Basketball at the end of the day is a team sport so there just has to be a more consistent outing from the Suns as a whole. Milwaukee you could’ve said the same thing about them in game 2 where Giannis’ all-time great performance was all for nothing because his team didn’t step up for him. So really this could be said for both teams, but I wanted to highlight the Suns because I think we’ve seen that from them over the past couple of games. Simply put, they need to be better.
Game 5 I suspect to be one that we are going to look back on and say this is the game where some of these guys’ legacies were made. It’s so crucial considering the home teams have been the winners in every game so far in this series.
Can the Suns regain momentum with their crowd being as loud and as engaging as they’ve been all postseason and take a stronghold on this series? Or can Giannis and the Bucks come into Phoenix and quiet the crowd and head into Milwaukee for a chance to win the NBA championship in front of their fans? Time will tell and Saturday should be one for the books.