The 2021 NBA Finals tips off late on Tuesday night as the Phoenix Suns host the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1. Join us live from 2am on Sky Sports Main Event and Arena
Tuesday 6 July 2021 16:44, UK
Giannis Antetokounmpo remains doubtful for Game 1 of the NBA Finals but the Milwaukee Bucks proved against the Atlanta Hawks that you must still fear the deer, even without their superstar.
Unlike the Phoenix Suns, who we covered in depth on Monday, the Bucks came into the season very much at the forefront of people's minds as a genuine championship contender.
Many were predicting them to come through a vastly improved Eastern Conference, even despite the Miami Heat reaching last year's NBA Finals, a retooled and reinvigorated Philadelphia 76ers and the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving superteam Brooklyn Nets.
For the bookmakers at the start of the season, they were the second most likely champion behind the Los Angeles Lakers.
That all changed when James Harden, the 2018 MVP and a nine-time All-Star, was traded to Brooklyn from the Houston Rockets, gifting the Nets three of the best scorers (not to mention playmakers) in basketball.
Things might have been different had injuries to Irving and Harden struck at crucial junctures in the Eastern Conference semi-finals, but the fact remains: the Bucks are here, the Nets aren't.
Milwaukee fought tooth and nail for seven games and edged the series, despite Durant's heroics, to get here. In fact, demons were conquered as early as the first round, as the Heat team that knocked them out of last year's playoffs were swept aside in four games.
Even the Atlanta Hawks, who were particularly thrilling throughout this delirious playoff bracket, were eliminated without Giannis' involvement, as the Bucks won two straight - Game 5 and Game 6 - by double digits without their talisman.
Trae Young, Atlanta's own, was out for 5 and didn't look fully healthy for 6, but that's the story of this postseason so far. Injuries have hit every team at different points. Certain rosters are better equipped to deal with it than others.
Milwaukee took Giannis' injury in their stride and reached the NBA Finals for the first time since 1974 anyway.
Season playoff averages: 17.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 8.4 assists, 42.3% 29.9% 3PT
They call Jrue Holiday the most underrated player in the league. Shaq, Chuck and Kenny will say so on Inside the NBA. So too will his fellow pros.
In fact, Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard have both stated in the past that Holiday is probably the best defender in the league at the guard position. Steph Curry has also name-checked him as one of his toughest match-ups.
I think, at this point, we can safely say Holiday is finally getting the respect he has long since deserved. A second All-Defensive First Team selection this season, and now the NBA Finals, is testament to that.
The Californian combo guard arrived in Milwaukee in late November as part of a mammoth four-team trade deal that saw the Bucks give up Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, three first-round picks (2020, 2025, 2027) and the rights to pick swaps in 2024 and 2026.
At the time it seemed like a gargantuan haul for a 30-year-old with only one All-Star appearance to his name. The following day, Holiday signed a four-year contract extension worth $160 million. Things started to look a little clearer.
For some, it seemed the Bucks had mortgaged their future to put together a 'big three' of Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Holiday who might not have been good enough to make it through the East, let alone to a championship. Well here they are, four wins from a title.
The point is that statement of intent from the Bucks front office kept Giannis in town (he signed a 5-year, $228 million extension, the largest in league history just a few weeks later) and as long as he is there in Milwaukee, they will have serious title ambitions season after season.
While Holiday's on-ball defense is heralded league-wide, his playmaking does remain underrated and will be absolutely vital to the Bucks while Giannis is out. His three-point shot has been streaky through the playoffs so far, deserting him in the Nets series (26.1 per cent from deep on 6.6 attempts per game) but Holiday seems to have rediscovered it at exactly at the right moment, draining 37 per cent of his 7.7 attempts in the six games against Atlanta.
Season playoff averages: 23.4 points, 8 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 43.4% FG, 33.8% 3PT
Khris Middleton has had an incredible postseason so far, starting on the opening night off the playoffs when he hit the buzzer-beater to snatch a Game 1 victory over the Miami Heat in the first round. That's been the story: when the Milwaukee Bucks have needed a bucket, he's been there to sink a pull-up jumper with ease.
He's about as Durant-like as you can get in this league, and while not quite matching KD's length and high release to the point where his shot is unguardable, he can still seemingly get it off at will thanks to an arsenal of shimmies and feints. His 20 points during the final quarter of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference finals were a masterclass, something even Durant himself would have been proud of.
But the point with Middleton is he's not just a scorer. He can rebound the ball, handle it, run the offense and defend multiple positions at an elite level, making him one of the most well-rounded players in the league and a perfect second star behind Giannis.
Holiday is similar, and both proved that even when the headline act sits, they can showcase star qualities of their own.
Season playoff averages: 4.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 35.9% FG, 29.4% 3PT
P.J. Tucker does not stuff the box score like Holiday or Middleton, nor is he even particularly noticeable on the court, despite the tattoos, often left lurking in the corners as his team-mates go to work to find a basket.
Off the court is a different story, as Tucker has every right to crown himself as the most fashionable man in the league due to his array of shirts, sunglasses and sneakers.
A mid-season acquisition from the Houston Rockets, where he often served as a small-ball center despite being 6'5" in the infamous 'Tuck-wagon' line-ups, Tucker was brought to this team for precisely what that implies about the player. His fight. His toughness. His hustle. You've probably seen the 'LeBron stopper' memes do the rounds but they're funny because there is an inherent truth there.
Ok, P.J. Tucker can't actually stop LeBron James and Kevin Durant from scoring because nobody can. But he'll make them work for every single basket, playing physical, in-your-face defense up and down the court. That's why he's here, to slow them down as much as humanly possible.
Who could forget his touching exchange with Wanda Durant, watching on from courtside, as he manhandled her son - a close friend since their Texas Longhorns days?
Tucker had to go the long way round to earn a career in the NBA, winning titles and MVP awards in Germany and Israel first before eventually impressing for - yep - the Phoenix Suns on their summer league team in 2012.
They gave him a shot in the big league and Tucker snatched it with both hands. Now he's going to do everything to snatch the title from them, too.
Season playoff averages: 28.2 points, 12.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 55.1% FG, 18.2% 3PT
And crucially, 53.7 per cent from the free-throw line. If he does play, expect Giannis Antetokounmpo's shaky free-throw shooting to be a major talking point throughout this NBA Finals, along with every shot he takes that isn't around the basket.
Those are his only flaws as a player: at the line and beyond the arc. Other than that, well, you could design some kind of Marvel Universe supersoldier in a laboratory to dominate the sport of basketball and you wouldn't be far off Giannis.
In fact, he has the comic book story to match, arriving from Greece as a skinny, raw, 18-year-old project and seemingly transforming into Steve Rogers overnight. The reality is that it took a lot of hard work and technical development to get Giannis to where he is today but good grief was it worth it. The Bucks have arguably the best basketball player on the planet in their hands, one who is quickly amassing an enviously long list of accomplishments at the age of only 26.
He's already a two-time MVP, a Defensive Player of the Year, a five-time All-Star and an All-Star MVP. And that's without mentioning his multitude of All-NBA and All-Defensive team selections.
Everyone, Suns fans omitted, wants to see Giannis in the NBA Finals. Whether that is in Game 1, 2 or 3 doesn't matter. He deserves to play a part and prove himself on the biggest stage of all. The big question remains just how much that hyperextended left knee will impact the performance of a player who, for the most part, dominates the game through his speed, his size, his strength and his stride.
Expect his involvement, or lack thereof, to swing this title one way or the other.
Season playoff averages: 13.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 57.2% FG, 35.3% 3PT
Nicknamed 'Splash Mountain' after proving himself as an effective three-point threat at the center position, Brook Lopez has had to adapt his game to suit the personnel around him, particularly Giannis. For the most part, it has worked.
Once a 20 points per game lost post scorer and All-Star in this league, Lopez is now more of a complementary piece, screening for his team-mates and either rolling to the basket or fading out for a jumper.
He spots up rather than banging down low and averaged only five rebounds per game during the regular season, the kind of behaviour once considered unthinkable for a seven footer in this league. For contrast, Holiday averaged 4.5 boards. Russell Westbrook averaged over 11.
However the reason for this is a simple one: it frees up Giannis to dominate the glass, rule the paint and attack the basket at will. Lopez can still get easy buckets - as proven by his 33-point throwback performance in Game 5 against the Hawks - and protect the rim when required. He's averaging 1.8 blocks per game through the postseason and had six in Game 3 against the Nets.
The trouble will come when he is forced to defend the pick and roll, as the likes of Chris Paul and Devin Booker rain down floaters and feast in the mid-range. At that point it's up to head coach Mike Budenholzer to make the right adjustments at the right time, something he hasn't managed to do consistently through the playoffs so far.
Season playoff averages: 6.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 45.6% FG, 36.1% 3PT
Pat Connaughton might not be a name known by too many causal observers but it's one that should hold some interest given three things. The first is that he has played professional baseball in the minor leagues, thrown a 96mph fast ball and been drafted by the Baltimore Orioles.
The second is that he reportedly cost himself over half a million dollars in a signing on fee due to playing for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in his senior year rather than quitting basketball. Had he done so, it was believed Connaughton would have been taken in the second round of the MLB draft rather than the fourth and earned a much larger cheque.
The third is that in the 2015 Draft Combine, for the NBA this time, he recorded the highest vertical, standing vertical, lane agility and 3/4 sprint. In other words, he was an absolute physical specimen.
The funny thing is, this is barely noticeable now given the kind of athletes running the floor with him in the NBA but Connaughton has proven himself a reliable, under-the-radar rotation option during his six years in the league. He scores in single digits and doesn't set the world alight with his shooting, but the fact he is playing the most minutes outside of the Bucks' starters demonstrates how important he is to this team.
Milwaukee lost guard Donte DiVincenzo only three games into the playoffs due to a torn ligament in his left ankle, leaving things a bit scarce on the bench and forcing Connaughton into more minutes as sixth man. Despite this, they do have options.
Bobby Portis has been excellent as a stand-in starter for Giannis, averaging 17 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists as the Bucks eliminated the Hawks with two consecutive wins. Should Antetokounmpo return any time soon he will continue to provide great size and scoring off the bench.
In terms of guard depth, Jeff Teague and Bryn Forbes have both blown hot and cold for Milwaukee. Forbes shone during the first-round series against the Heat, scoring 22 points in Games 2 and 4 thanks to some red-hot shooting from deep but has failed to replicate those performances since.
Teague, for the most part, has played only scarce minutes but did score 11 points to help eliminate the Hawks. Whether he'll be trusted against Chris Paul and Devin Booker is a different story.
Look out for Giannis Antetokounmpo's older brother Thanasis, too, who will rarely get on the court but give 100,000% effort and energy when he does.
Mike Budenholzer has won Coach of the Year twice, in 2015 and 2019. The first was with the Atlanta Hawks, compiling a league-best 60-22 record and leading to four of their starters (four!) being named as NBA All-Stars, including Teague and Kyle Korver for the only time in their careers.
They were swept by LeBron's Cleveland Cavaliers in the Conference Finals.
Milwaukee topped the league with the exact same record in 2019, coach Bud's first season in charge with the team, leading to Giannis' first MVP award. They too were defeated in the Conference Finals, this time by the Toronto Raptors in six games, who went on to win the 'chip.
Now finally over that hurdle, Mike Budenholzer will still feel he has something to prove in the NBA Finals. He won four championships as a San Antonio Spurs assistant under Gregg Popovich (exactly how his opposite number Monty Williams got a taste for coaching). Win his first as a head coach and those doubters - and there are plenty despite his accomplishments - will soon be silenced.
