Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks made an exclamation point in Game 1 of the series against the Boston Celtics. Can the champion crush the NBA’s best defense without his second-best scorer?
Viewed soberly, 9 out of 25 from the field doesn’t sound like a particularly good game, 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 correct it down to 9/24, after all, one of those official misses was actually a pass, to itself, over the board, logically.
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 that on purpose?!”. Be that as it may: the rate wasn’t good, we can agree on that.
The 14 points in the zone were also rather mediocre considering Giannis had three games of 20+ against the Bulls. The Celtics had a solid defensive game plan, almost always working it with two, often three defenders and helping out a lot, especially in the person of Robert Williams, who made a number of ringside shots difficult, or with Marcus Smart.
Giannis hit 6/14 in the zone and only had 4 fastbreak points, two factors Boston can pat on the back after Game 1 as they are consistent point providers for Giannis. In short, it wasn’t a “just run, jump, and dunk” game, which, to paraphrase James Harden, is Giannis’ prime skill.
Instead, it was a game for the best player in the world, which probably only one could have dominated in this form, on both ends of the court. Because, just so we’re clear, it was an impressively dominant performance from 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 past few years. It wasn’t that long ago that a wall like the one Boston built would have thrown him off balance. In the meantime, however, he can read the game much better and find other solutions, he doesn’t have to bang his head against the wall.
In Game 1 the solution was often called: Playmaking! Again and again Giannis 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 games of his career (he has developed massively here this season!).
Especially in transition, it was outstanding how he always found the shooters and consistently exploited the fact that Boston, afraid of Giannis’ scoring, first tried to protect the ring.
In the half field, too, he mostly kept calm – he lost five balls, which isn’t so bad given the high usage – and hardly ever forced a shot, but also found the open teammate out of necessity, like the best in this example launched Jrue Holiday.
Giannis vs. Boston: Pick your Poison …
Milwaukee would post Giannis multiple times and only position the best shooter (often Grayson Allen) on his side, making helping out the ultimate pick-your-poison situation. Help out and risk the free threesome? Or stay with the man and let Giannis work in isolation? Neither are good options. Especially since Antetokounmpo almost always realized what the defense gave him.
It wasn’t just the assists either, Giannis played the pass before the pass a number of times that got the Celtics rotating in the first place. Milwaukee moved the ball quickly after that and often found the open option, and the Bucks looked prepared for the amount of attention Antetokounmpo was getting from opposing defense.
It’s also logical: you 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. Better an open Allen threesome, right? Welcome to the world of any coach looking to win a streak against this freak.
Bucks: Offense with a lot 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 no longer the case at all in the second half (2/14), the offense became increasingly dependent on the two stars, but it never seemed like it was going to get dangerous.
On the one hand, this was due to the big plays by Holiday and Giannis. The point guard was basically himself and Khris Middleton in a personal union, defended sensationally and sunk his throws again and again, especially from the middle distance. Antetokounmpo sank two midrange jumpers, but did more damage near the basket.
His penultimate hit was the said “T-Mac”, the last one was also one in which he thought a bit faster than his opponents and got his way, a putback dunk. In addition, he was incredibly active as a screener and kept the Celtics defense busy even when he wasn’t looking for a degree himself.