It’s deja vu throughout again for the Milwaukee Bucks — their convention semifinals are trying eerily much like final yr’s collection towards the Brooklyn Nets. To refresh your reminiscence, they have been saved from being despatched packing by none apart from Kevin Durant’s massive toe, juuuuust touchdown on that three-point line and sending the sport to extra time, permitting the Bucks to place it away and proceed on their path to their first finals victory in half a century.
However this time, they’re on the opposite facet of the aisle. If there’s any kind of sample to search out within the digital randomness and probability of sport, I’d say that this yr’s Bucks are, in a approach, final yr’s Nets. They’re the reigning champs with a brand new expectation to stay as much as, and although that wasn’t Brooklyn’s case final yr, they’d an all-star staff that was anticipated to simply maintain a small-market staff like Milwaukee. Khris Middleton’s absence is being deeply felt on the courtroom towards the Celtics, simply as James Harden’s and Kyrie Irving’s accidents have been final yr for Brooklyn within the first 4 and ultimate three video games of the collection, respectively.
And similar to KD did final yr, Giannis Antetokounmpo is being compelled to place the staff on his again — within the loss final night time, he put up 44 factors, whereas the remainder of the staff mixed contributed 51. That’s a ridiculous stat — and but, one extremely much like Durant’s Recreation 7 efficiency final yr, by which he scored 48 factors compared to the remainder of the roster’s 63 mixed. There’s solely a lot a famous person can do to get his staff to victory via sheer will, and KD and Giannis are testing these limits.
Friday night time’s Recreation 6, by which the Celtics overcame a do-or-die state of affairs with a powerful ending and a miraculous efficiency from Jayson Tatum, will pressure a Recreation 7, simply because the Bucks did final yr. To name Jayson Tatum a rising star can be a disservice — he has risen. He put up 46 factors final night time and, if he continues on within the playoffs, is actually making a case for himself for that newly minted Larry Hen Jap Convention Finals MVP trophy. Tatum, who confronted down Durant within the first spherical of this yr’s playoffs and led his staff to a full sweep of Brooklyn, has his sights set on Giannis as the subsequent famous person opponent to outplay — and he’s on his technique to doing it, each of them seemingly competing to interrupt as many data as they every can alongside the way in which.
On Sunday, the Bucks have the possibility to show the tables, to be the staff that steps up round their star, that doesn’t contact a toe to the three-point line in crunch time, to stay as much as the expectations set final yr and go onto the Jap Convention Finals. The Celtics are a much more profitable franchise than the Bucks when it comes to championship historical past, however it’s nonetheless been nicely over a decade since they final took the trophy dwelling. If the staff can step up round Giannis and assist him end this off, the Bucks have a stable probability to repeat, but when it turns right into a Tatum-Antetokounmpo showdown, there’s no telling who will come out on high.
