How are there people complaining about this year’s finals matchup? Just look at how the ball flies offensively, but also the great effort by the Bucks on defense to close out and contest.
At the end however Phoenix is able to penetrate inside and Ayton finishes with the and 1.
This is absolutely beautiful and great effort from both teams. And despite the 2-0 lead,
I have a feeling that the series is far from over. Let me explain. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
After getting burned on the pick and roll and those switches with Lopez in the first game, now you could see the adjustment by Milwaukee right from the start.
They fought hard to get over the screens and got a second defender to help out forcing CP3 and Booker into taking a more contested shot, or the second option- the Bucks basically said: We know that these 2 can beat us, so we wanna see if the others can make shots.
Thing is, they did make a lot of these kick out threes off of these kick outs.
The Suns made 20 out of 40 threes, 50% on that many makes, will pretty much get you the win every single game.
Booker was the only one to take and make a few of those hero shots, but the large majority of those threes were open shots like these off of the help.
But despite the loss, I’m intrigued by the adjustments that Milwaukee made, and they could have won this game.
First of all, they got to where they wanted and took good shots. The Bucks had 54 points in the paint as most of those were Giannis dominating every single defender, but also check out all these great looks that Jrue and Middleton are getting with Antetokounmpo as the screener.
These are automatic buckets, and just as Phoenix plays the pick and roll with Chris Paul over and over and over again looking for mismatches, Milwaukee needs to be way more frequent in featuring the Greek Freak in these 2 man actions.
The only reason I would say for why the series is not tied at the moment, is the horrific shooting night by Holiday and Middleton.
Khris had a few open shots that just rimmed out, and if I’m him I continue to be aggressive and forget about this one.
On the other hand, this is the second bad offensive game in a row for Jrue. I love how he gets inside and creates great looks for himself, but at the same time you can’t miss these. Not in the finals where every basket is invaluable.
He even missed this layup on a fast break opportunity.
And this sequence pretty much tells the story of the game for him. Gets all the way to the rim and misses the layup, but fights for the ball, and moments later look at how he finds himself completely wide open for the three. And misses that one as well.
I love this player, and what he gives them defensively every single game including this one is indispensable but at the same time, Giannis needs help for this team to win.
We saw that even by going nuclear with 42 points he cannot do it alone.
And that’s how we get to my point. I think that back home in Milwaukee, with their backs against the wall, all of these easy shots will start to fall. There will be no missed layups, the intensity is going to be even higher, and we all know that role players play way better at home.
So despite the 0-2 hole, I feel like they found an answer for the exploits from game 1 defensively, and now it’s only a matter of getting the offense right and executing.
And even tho I’d love the Suns and CP3 to win it all, at the same time, I’m in for a long and interesting series. We’ll see if they give that to us. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.