Giannis was a monster, but more of a slow moving endurance monster tonight. Bucks got out to a quick lead then went ice cold in the 2nd and the Suns were up at halftime. The Suns weren't even playing particularly well in the 2nd, the Bucks just sucked at attacking the basket for many, many possessions. (They reminded me of Game Four of Suns at Clippers: both teams went through a long stretch of where they just could not score, neither team could finish at all, it was weird, it was like the back alley fight scene from They Live) In the 3rd the Bucks grabbed the lead back but couldn't hold it and it was tied going into the 4th. Suns tied it at 82, Bucks outscored them 23-16 from then on. The Bucks attack was just more reliable, the Suns struggled to get good shots, Giannis was 17-19 from the line (*), the Suns had no answer for any of it.
Giannis (50pts, 16-25FG, 17-19 FTs, 14 boards, but with 2:6 a:t, uncharacteristic stat line in this Final for Giannis) was awesome again. Though even he was harried, he didn't exactly glide to his 50 tonight, he grinded through it better than anyone else could keep up with. Holiday was back to be good on D/bad on attack (**), Middleton was fine but not really reliable as a scorer, Lopez was good, Portis had moments (good and bad), Connaughton was making plays but just a wild card, Tucker did Tucker stuff. Not the most dialed-in performance but Giannis is Giannis and the world of low hanging fruit looks different to that guy.
The Suns just ran out of gas. Paul was brilliant for two games (1,2), okay for two (3,6) and was pretty bad in two (4, 5); if he'd been brilliant for 5 games, I think the Suns could've won, but he just does not have that in him. (***). Booker was great for the most part but also had a coupla clunker games (3,6), as well; I think Booker is a big time scorer and he is their carrier for the next few years, they need another one but they've got one. I was blown away by Ayton, I think he was transformed by CP (so I'm sure Ayton is rooting for CP to return), but I was impressed enough to think he's ready to step forward (with/without CP). I was impressed with Mykal Bridges and Cam Johnson throughout the post-season, those guys make a killer tandem, they're not Tatum and Brown, but they are fine 2-way cornerstone rotation guys. Cam Payne had some nice moments (meh, ups and downs), announced himself as potential 3rd PG for a playoff team (that's not bad actually). Jae Crowder still has miles in him, he still plays pretty good defense and he's even occasionally good for a big game knocking down 3's, too. Dario Saric is probably gonna be out all next year, right? I wasn't much of a fan of Frank Kaminsky, so determined to not make mistakes that he looked like he had his eyes closed most of the time, though he did give them pretty good minutes in a choppy Game Six.
The Bucks were the better team, Giannis the bigger better star, Bucks in 6 is the correct outcome. I originally said the Suns in 7, I thought this was a series where the home team takes every game. But after Game Four, the way the Bucks just casually snatched the game away from Paul/Booker at the end, suggested to me that CP was done and the Bucks now completely understood that they were the better team at both ends. The way the Bucks just suffocated the Suns in Game Five was the R-rated scene in this otherwise family friendly summer entertainment. Game Six was the opposite: in Game Five the Suns were good at everything and didn't come close to victory, whereas in Game Six they kinda sucked at everything but had chances to win in the 4th. The Sun had a great season, made a memorable run and were a fun team to watch while it lasted. But Game Five was the night Jrue Holiday showed up and wrecked shop, Game Six where Giannis just outlasted the field (dominated by default).
All right, so draft next week, then Summer League in August, get these Olympics (****) outta the way and then....right? The sports schedule is back to normal, no? NBA and NHL are back to normal pre-season, the World Series and MLS Championship gets off like clockwork, football is always just football, and then college basketball is back on track and the world of sports is back to reality....right?
(*) I know he missed his last FT, I believe his first one, too. If I'm not mistaken, he hit 17 straight throughout the meat of the game. Pretty good for a guy that sucks at FT's. Hey, man, Tim Duncan was a surprisingly bad FT% guy that became much more reliable in the playoffs, extra points, man, every extra point matters in the playoffs.
(**) In all six games Holiday was great on defense, he was A+ on D, he was fucking great, he was like Meryl Streep on defense. Offensively he was great in Game Five (man of the match, IMHO), but otherwise he was pretty terrible on offense. He would attack the basket, get there, then put up a lame shot, it's like he was doing 95% of the work but giving up on that last 5% and just getting horrible shots. In Game Five, he knocked down jumpers, then was able to confidently mix up his attack, but that was the only game where that worked. He knocked down 3's okay but his midrange stuff was not good and actually kinda awful. But defensively he was amazing and he had to be out there 45 minutes a night.
(***) Okay, I'm gonna do this. I really do admire Chris Paul but I'm here to bury him. This was the best possible chance of him winning a championship and it didn't happen. No Ad, no Jamal Murray, no Kawhi, don't have to play the Jazz or the Nets, up 2-0 in the Final, dude, I'm not saying it was on a platter, but hard to imagine a better platter in CP's future. I don't mean to denigrate this run, this is way better than I ever thought Chris Paul could do--he proved me wrong but getting as far as he did. But he's also shown that even under cosmically granted circumstances, it just isn't gonna happen. If the Suns didn't win it this year with CP, I don't see that running it back makes them better next year.
(****) Never much cared for the Olympics. As I get older I wish they'd just go away.
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