NBA followers have been anticipating a Brooklyn Nets-Milwaukee Bucks matchup to show right into a traditional playoff collection. What has occurred is it has became a traditional 2023 collection.
This messy, flowless, injury-riddled, unpredictable and dramatic season has its mascot: a seven-game saga after the Bucks struck again to take Recreation 6 from the Nets, 104-89 on Thursday night time.
There have been extra MRIs than street wins on this collection. Groups have received scoring 125 factors, groups have received scoring 86. There’s been a recreation for the ages, Kevin Durant’s Recreation 5, and video games that felt like they took ages.
This has very a lot been a quantity-over-quality season: Do what have to be achieved to get it in and hope for one of the best. That’s how this collection has performed out, recreation plans getting jumbled or flat-out tossed in what looks like a mix of battling demons and a struggle of attrition.
Brooklyn’s rotation has modified each recreation. Milwaukee’s constancy to its recreation plan has too.
“This collection is somewhat bit distinctive,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer stated. “For them, it’s been a revolving staff from night time to nighttime. Now we have to be prepared for whoever performs in Recreation 7. It could possibly be a distinct recreation.”
Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo performed like they have been in an elimination recreation for Milwaukee, exhibiting an edge and focus you’d want to see each time they take the ground in a playoff recreation. They mixed for 68 factors, 27 rebounds and eight assists. Middleton had 5 steals and two four-point performs. Antetokounmpo lastly stopped taking the bait on taking pictures jumpers, as he attacked the rim with 11 of his 12 made area targets coming from contained in the paint.
Durant and James Harden, in the meantime, performed like two guys who weren’t as determined and have been drained from their emotional Recreation 5 win. They scored some factors, Durant 32 and Harden 16, however their mixed 11 turnovers spoke extra to their staff’s efficiency. The Nets have been outscored by 25 factors when Durant was on the ground.
You’d prefer to counsel the Nets have been saving power for Recreation 7, however contemplating each Harden and Durant performed 40 minutes every, that’s not likely true. They’re simply attempting to do one of the best they will.
“Our guys have been somewhat fatigued, we didn’t have our greatest stuff,” Nets coach Steve Nash stated. “We have been simply dealing with a number of too many issues that have been going towards us, within the large image.”
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Giannis Antetokounmpo depends on Khris Middleton to empty back-to-back 3-pointers to pad the Bucks’ lead.
Is that what you need to hear a couple of closeout recreation in what some believed, no less than two weeks in the past, was the de facto Finals this yr? No. However it’s candid. That is your 2023-21 NBA season!
LeBron James made waves this week when he chided the NBA for jamming this season in and lamented he wasn’t listened to when he warned it could result in accidents. The league workplace felt threatened sufficient to difficulty a counter-narrative, claiming harm charges have been the identical as earlier years.
This misses the purpose. Beginning this season at Christmas and cramming in 72 video games, an All-Star Weekend, a play-in match plus a regular-length postseason was by no means a debate about well being. Nobody actually didn’t imagine James was proper concerning the dangers.
It was all the time about making one of the best of a foul state of affairs, financially and competitively.
True to type, that’s what the Bucks and Nets will do. They may report for Recreation 7 and they’re going to play for the correct to take part within the Jap Convention finals. What you see is what you’ll get. However they’ll give what they’ve.
“It’s the playoffs, man,” Bucks ahead P.J. Tucker stated. “We dream about this our complete lives. I’m not backing down from nothing, I’m preventing for each inch. We compete and we battle and we’re going to battle once more in Recreation 7.”
Perhaps it is going to be nice, possibly it is going to be mundane. However it is going to be as earnest as potential. In any case, it’s a Recreation 7.
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