Playoff Week In Review: Full.
“Still ALive. Still that N****. Still The One. Micheal Jackson’s Thriller.”- Jay-Z
Every Week(Proposedly) Of The NBA Playoff, Our Writers(Me, exclusively) Will recap The Happening Of The NBA Playoffs Series By Series, week To Week. Sharing, Our, My, Insight On what To Expect for The Games To Moving Forward.
It was All Fun In The Sun, Basking In the Breezes, Sweetened up In The summer. Well, actually it wasn’t.
On One End Of Play, There Stood a Team. Basking In The Moment, Elated In The Times, Having Fun. Running Up the score, Unquestionably Outranking Its Opponent, Little Regard Or Consciousness Of the Absence of a star in Their Starting Lineup, Because the star Present Burned Bright Enough For Two, Dozen.
Contrasting this, The Other Team, formally recognized in the city where they are Homed as “the Other team”. They were Scoring Participating Points, Sometimes Cold AS Ice from the field, Running Down the Clock, Crestfallen By The Thought Of Its Own Absentee Star. A team at Odds With One Of Life Most Daunting Foes, History.
Enter Segway here;
The State Of Arizona Is Experiencing Record Level Heat waves the Likes of Which have Those in the climate change claims cataloging And Contemplating The range Of This new Burning crisis. Millions of dollars are being Rolled Out As grand Level political figures Demand And Commission assessments and if possible counterpoise Policies to assuage any of the Implicit Damages. Unfortunately, Those Heatwaves Are Not confined to The Borders of the Grand Canyon State.
A Little Further West. The basketball team, Homed A Little Further West In The Los Angeles California, Case Code The Clippers Are Also suffering from Heat Waves of their own, On the court, on A Count Of The Phoenix Suns.
No Matter the Setting; Whether In The Texas Business Hub Of Dallas; The Iced Mountaintops In Utah; or Presently, At the Valley Of Death in Phoenix, Or Even At home in the Lights And glamour Of LA, The Clippers Are Merely The Afterthought.
The. Subject Of The Basketball World awaiting its Last Verb, An Object, and Then A Full Stop. Not An Underdog, Cheered And Celebrated In Theme of Others How to Have Overcome Odds, Instead, they Are An ignored, Everybody is Waiting To wave Goodbye To, Here, In These Moment Of The Western Conference Finals Because They Had To be Right. The Overlooked, Continuing To defy The Prognosis. With every Click On The Clock, The Doctor readies To Sign The Death Notice.
Out West The clippers Had Fallen Behind 2-0 Once Again, This Time Without Kahwi And To A Suns Starting Lineup about To Go supernova With Chris Paul Returning For Game Three and The Team Coming off Of An Exhilarating Finish To Game Two. Would This Be The End Of The Clippers, some writer Have Fabled, Many Of Whom never Expected Them Be here, Been Anticipating? But These The Clippers Of 2021, the resilient and These are the conditions They Have Survived Under, Thrive Under.
Meanwhile, Around The Association The Play, the Capper of Game 2, Had Coaches Around the Country Pooling Their collective Consciences About The Chords Of Late Clock Conundrum. The “Coaches Code” Derived From The Community of Coaches Who Design And Enterprise The Variety Of Motion, Spades, And Graphs That Play Out For Our View That Unfold into The “Miracle” Feats That Await Us Near The End Of Clock; Down to The final Moment. Coaches “Borrow” from Amongst Each Other And Lay Esteem When Success Is Ticketed.
This IS The Western Conference Finals Thus far.
The Suns And Clippers have Square Three Time It’s a Given that Neither Of These two Teams Has Had Even Marginal Conference Success, Much less Conference Finals Success. There is History made In Every Moment. Games 1 And 2 Chilled The Temperament Of Those Wondering How Bright The Suns could Burn Without Exhausting Themselves Minus The Gas Chris Paul Provided Them Through This Playoff Climate. Two SuccessFul Opening Nights Light Shows, One That Ran Down Into The Dawn, Set the deserted Out west ablaze and the Clippers Chances Of holding Back The blitz, Until Kawhi Rises, asunder.
For The Moment, We Thought, Maybe The water Keeping The Skippers(The Clippers Are titled By San Diego’s, the city that initially homed the franchise after its move out west, Association With Boats) A sail Had Evaporated. It Was Fun For The Suns The Clipper Find Themselves On A Firmilair Trek, The Very Trek that’s Landed them Into this Position. After The Valley oop, It’s Tempting To Ask Deanadree Ayton, How Is the Weather Up There, that, of course, was before he was gone with the wind in game three.
Game 1 Sunday Night “nobody Expected Us To be Here.” Said Everybody Involved. Suns Star Guard Devin Booker wanted to Prove To Any doubters Or Detractors Left, After Only A few nights Earlier Been Snubbed of An All-NBA Team Selection, That This Year Would Be Different. ''I'll let you guys do the rankings,'' Booker said. ''I'm just going out there to win every game possible”. That Would Require another Moment of History. Booker scored 40 points On 15 of 29 from the field, Grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds, and Distributed 11 assists for his first career triple-double As The Suns Notched A Game 1 win Over The Los angles Clippers In Phoenix . 29 Of Those 40 Points Came as The Games Passed The Mid-way Mark And The Contest Tightened Up Heading Into Fourth All Knotted Up at 93. The Suns As a Team finished with 31 assists, shot 55.1% from the field, scored 54 points in the paint, and connected on 13-of-32 shots from 3. Deandre Ayton, Who Will serve As The Pivot man For The Suns This Series, Had 20 Points In support Of Devin Booker. The Sun’s Guard was Extolled by Both sides At the End of The Game. The Clippers Offense Emerge In fourth-quarter To Made It a Game Late. Pushing Back against The Blaze Of The Suns. Lead By Paul George Who Has 34. The Clipper Mounted A Come Back To Squeeze Within 4 Late In The Fourth But Booker Who Had 11 In The Quarter Helped Seal The Separation And Prove To be More Than The Clippers Could Sustain. “They were making shots and we didn't,” Said Clippers Coach Ty Lue.
Come Game 2, The Game Of “The Valley Oop”, The Clippers Made Shots But The Suns Made The One That Made The Difference. The Value Of The Last Second Cannot Be Conceptualized In A Vacuum, Without Context. The Clippers took a 101-100 lead With less Than a minute Left In The Fourth. That One Point Lead a credit Of Paul George, Who Was still In Star Stand-Alone Mode In Kahwi’s Absence, He Finished A Layup, 2 of His 26 On the Night. George continues To Charge The Clippers Lead In The Fourth When added another 2 points, by way of a 22-footer on their next offensive Opportunity; a 103-102 lead.
UnCeremoniously, George Became The Will and the Woe Of The Clippers In The fourth. He Scored 10 In The Quarter But missed two free throws with 8.2 seconds remaining. The Sun was Give a sliver of Daylight And A Chance To Win Which was Almost Lost When Mikal Bridges missed a corner 3-pointer and the ball was deflected out of bounds. With 0.9 on The Clock, The Suns Employed A Play Designed To Put the Defense In a Crucible. Now Famously Entitled The “Valley Oop”.
What Is understood But Not Implicitly Known Is That An Inbounds Pass Directed Towards The Rim Is Legal. There Could Be No Offensive Goal Tending. If The Clippers Defense React And Followed Ayton, which They Didn’t But This Is Squarely Hypothetical. The Turn Of Events would Leave Devin Booker, The Screener Who freed Ayton To Finish At The Basket and Had 20 Points On THE Night, Free To Take A Potential Game Winner, wide Open From Mid-Range. Of Course, this was Not The case. Sun’s Forward Jay Crowder, Trusting The Echo of His Coach’s Instruction, Pass The Ball High Near The North star Of The Rim, Awaiting There, The 7 Foot Deandre Ayton, Freed Up By A Booker Screen To Finish The Out of Bounds Play And Secure The Sun’s Win.
Some Defensive Philosophy, My Own To Be Exact, would Have Taken a Chance Funneling The Ball In Booker and Hope For A Responsive Closeout. “When It Comes Down To Late Game Situation, You Can Get Away with A little Bit More” Devin Booker Said, In Reference To The Late Spectacularism. Hopefully, That Little Bit More Will Be Forceful Fighting Through Screens. The Referees Still Needed an Added Three Minute To Dispelled The Delirium on The Ensuing Finish. Suns Won 104-103. The Stratospherically Sensation Over Shadowed Cameron Payne’s Performance, He finished with a career-high 29 points. Ayton had 24 points and 14 rebounds, Booker added 20 points.(per.NBA.com)
Game 3, The Suns Went Critical, Just as The Flare of Chris Paul Entered The Series. The Afterthought. Game 1 Was Not About How The Clippers Failed To Execute On Defense Late In the Fourth Quarter Allowing An Incendiary Devin Booker To Score A Late Layup Uncontested. Which Only Served To Underscore The Star Guard’s Gaudy Stat Line. In Game 2, “Valley Oop” As Previously Discussed, Eclipsed All Narratives Including Paul George’s, A career 85% free Throw Shooters, Ineffectiveness At The Free Throw Line When He Missed not one But Two Clutch, Game Defining Free Throws. So far In This series With The Clippers Series Before, The Clips are Playing The Supporting Role, Featuring In Another Team’s Play.
Game, Friday Night. The Suns Got Chris Paul from Covid-19 Protocol, The Clippers, On The Other Hand, were Still without Kawhi. Paul George Didn’t let This Or The Weight Of His Failure Hold Him Down. Goerge Once Again Lead His Team Scoring 27 Point As The Clippers recover Some Loss Ground In The series 116-92. Those 92 points, A Credit To The Clippers Defense A Playoff Low For The Suns. Chris Paul Struggled In His return Scoring 15 points, recording 12 assists, but Only Muster 5 Field Goals On 19 shots from the field. Devin Booker Could Fair No Better. He Went 5-21 for 20 points. Deandre Ayton added to the Sun’s total with 18 points.
Despite The Sun’s Struggles The Clippers Offense Took To Quarter To Get In Gear. Averaging just under 50 points in The first half. In-Game 3 The Clippers Finished The First half with 46 points on 36.6 shooting. But Used A third Quarter Surge of 34 points to Create Separation That Lead To A double Digit Victory And A End To The Suns Home Game Winning Streak. . The Clippers Seized On The Moment With a 21-3 run that Pushed Their Lead To 71-56 in the third. Reggie Jackson had 23 points in support of Paul George. Jackson has Been Averaging 22 On Near 51 percent Form The Field. Since His Opening night, 40 Explosion Devin Booker Has Been Averaging 17 Points On 10 of 36 from the fields. He And Chris Paul will have To Regain Their Composure If The Hope Not To Become another victim of Another Late Series recovery Run By The Clippers. Clippers Forward Kahwi Leonard Remains Out IndefiniteLy.
TEXT
“watch ‘em Buck No Milwaukee….”
At The Beginning Of Every Playoff Week, Which, I Must Qualify, opens When I finish Posting the review Of The NBA Playoff week prior. No Matter Here We Are, Every Week, It’s Been Good So far, Our Writers(Me, exclusively), In The Midst Of, Entreated By, Against All Odds, Despite Detractors, Will recap The Happening Of The NBA Playoffs Series By Series, Of The week Past And Share Our, My, Insight On what To Expect for The Games To Moving Forward.
In The East:
The Atlanta Hawks, Fresh From Fleeing The Coupe, Gusting Out Of Freedom Town, Wings wide and weariless, Set For Greater things. The Dust HAD Not YET Fallen ON the defeated remnants of the Wells Fargo Center, When A Whirlwind had quickened, the sounds of those in twirled, Their ECHOS, Shrieking Through the corridors in the aftermath of the birds of bank head leaving yet another indelible mark on an Heighted East coast landmark. Then the Hawks Flew Off into The Night. The Latest Landmark On the Horizon, the Midwest. Where They would Find, Follow, And Fixated The Movements Of Their Prey, The Milwaukee Bucks. A Team Fierce Through the playoff terrain And On The Fast Break. They were fresh Of from Breaking through The Bushes In the Borough Of Brooklyn., peering over into fate A Glimpse beyond the Birds In the Sky. The Bucks Are Now Migrating towards The finals. The March To Moment Of The Mighty Moves Forward. These eastern Conference Finals Marks The Third Straight Series The Hawks Will Be Hitting The Road To Start The Affairs Of The Series. It Would Also Mark Another Feat Unmatched for The Hawks.
The Lower seeded team, in Perpetuity, on the eastern landscape. The Hawks Won’t Have Home Court advantage, At Any Point In These Playoffs no matter which ground The Face Of The Remaining Teams. This Means Weathering The heights Of Their Regular Season Record Superior, In The early game Matchup, Then also Holding Off any Would Be Invaders That Enter Their Cage In The ATL. if They succeed In this, the Hawks Dream to Secure The Title could be in their clutches But Thee Inst Much in History That Indicates This To Be The Case.
. This Gauntlet On Winds Of Sorts Hasn’t Been Achieved In two Decades. But You couldn’t Tell Hawks Guard Trae Young That. He has to Continue To Relish The role Of The Superstar and The Villain. ''I loved playing against an opposing crowd, an opposing team.” Said Trae Young. The Odds Have Done Little To Dampen The Hawks Enthusiasm. If They Muster The Mentality That Made Way for Them Against the Overwhelming favored Sixers; sustain this pace, This Wind, This Stride, all the Way Into The Finals. The 2021 Hawks Would Become The First Team To Reach the Mountain Top Of The NBA with no Home Court Advantage Since The 1999 Knicks(?), and the first of that vein to win it all( That’s If They win) since the Houston rockets in 1995.
The Hawks Themselves Haven’t Won A Title Since Moving To Atlanta In ’68 The Franchise Hasn’t touch League Gold Since Their ’58 title Run When The Franchise Was homed In St. Louis.
Unfortunate For The Hawks Their Adversity Meet Greater Depths This Round. Not Only Are the Long Winds Of Travel Oppose The Hawks but The Long Limbs, The Like Of Those Attach To Bucks Star Giannis Antetokounmpo, Will Be Waiting To Wave The Hawks Into Dear Territory, the Fiserv Forum. Antetokounmpo, And The Bucks Who Are Exiting A Victoriously From A Versus the Nets, That Ran 7 and Giannis Average 30 Points, 10 Rebounds And 3 assist And The Haws Have Fallen Prey to His Wiry Weapons Before. The 6-foot-11 forward Averaged 24.3 Points, 11.0 Rebounds, 4.7 Assist, 64.3% shooting three games against Atlanta this season. (per/NBA.com). The Bucks and Hawks Meet Three Times in The Regular Season, with The Bucks, Hold in Two Of Three By Season End. The Hawks Only Respite Being A Alte Victory As The Season Came Too Close.
Both The Bucks And the Hawks Enter The Eastern Finals On The Edge Of The Near Impossible task Of winning A Game 7 On The Road. The Hawks Are A-Team, As Guard Kevin Heuter alluded To, “playing With house Money”. Their First round victory Versus the Knick Was an Expected Outcome For The More Talented Fervent Hawks who Had the Winds Of Momentum At Their Wigs. But, The Second Round Overcoming the Eastern Title Top Team Sixers would Be Win enough For a Team that Had To Change of Direction Mid Season And A Late season Turnaround (The Hawks went from 14-20 to 27-11 plus 8-4 so far in the playoffs) Just Land Here. The Buck On The Other hand is a team Of Destiny. You Got The Idea They would Be Here Because They were Here Before. Only Two Year removed From Their Eastern Conference Finals Defeat at the Hands Of the Eventual champion Raptors. The Bucks Exercised Revenge, And Some Demons, after They Thoroughly Thrashed the Heat In The First Round before they Rose Above The Only Team Favored More The Bucks In The East the Brooklyn Nets In A Clash Of Titans In The East Semis. With The Hawks Short One Deandre Hunter(knee), Out for The Playoffs, there isn’t Another Player On Their Roster Remotely Capable Of Being Graphed Defensively opposing Giannis. For The Hawks Trae Young, Will Meet the well Vetted Jrue Holiday Opposing Him at all Points of The Game. Holiday Was Amongst Tops in The League In Minutes Logged defending All-stars. It May Matter Very Little to Trae Young Who is Coming of A Series where he was Defended By Two Of The Leagues Best Perimeter Defenders For The Sixers in Ben Simmons And Mathies Thybulle. Youngs still Average 29 Points and 11 Assists.
Game 1: Atlanta Hawks beat the Milwaukee Bucks 116-113 on Wednesday night to Inaugurate the Eastern Conference finals. The Hawks Were Lead By Trae Young Who Had Another Venerated Performance With 48 Points 11 Assist. At Half Time Of Game One, Trae Young Had 25 Points, 11-16 from The field Young on his way to Those 48 Points. The Bucks Duo Giannis Antetokounmpo And Jrue Holiday had 34 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists, And 33 points and 10 assists respectively. The Three-point difference On The Scoreboard Cam Late When bucks Guard/Forward Kris Middleton, Who Has served As the Compass Point for The Bucks Offense, missed A Game Tying Three Late To cap off His 6 for 23 Night And A Buck Lost. There is No Question That Bucks Are Giannis’ team. He is a forceful, Transformative Talent Soon To Enter the Echelon Of The League Best Player Conversation, if He Could Counter Those Shooting Woes, which Weren’t So Glaring This Game, He Two Clutch Free throws late With the game In hand. It’s Usual The Case That the Bucks Play To the Tune Of Their Most Versatile Offensive Weapon, Who is Kris Middleton, for 500 Points. He is been Consistently Shaky This Postseason. Darting Fanatically between All-Star Level Performances Like the 38 Points he Had Versus Brooklyn In Game 6, A Bucks Win, And the Oft Maligned Inefficient outings Like Game 5 against The Nets And Wednesday Nights Performance. Middleton had 15 points. The Hawks Had Little Trouble Getting Support From Their Co-stars, John Collins Had 23 points and 15 rebounds and Capela Added 12 points and 19 rebounds, And A Late Go-Ahead Put back to seal The Hawks Win.
In the Aftermath, The Hawks Call Foul on Giannis’ Free Throw Routine. In recent Week The Bucks Star Hs Become Infamous For superseding the Ten Second Allotment Given To Player After They Approach the Line And receive the Ball In Hand. The Nets Famously Taunted Antetokounmpo By Displaying A Timer On the Jumper Tron While The Buck forward Was Following the Motions Of His Free Throw ritual.
Given That The Hawks Narrowly Escaped The Bucks Late In Game 1 and Two Giannis Free throws Pulled The Bucks With waving Distance Of winning, It would be Justified They take a route Disruption To Edge A Little More room Off of The Bucks Tremendous Advantage. Fallen Nets Coach Steve Nash Made A Poignant Point on The Circumstances That Has Made a number Of Rounds through the NBA Blogosphere. During Nash’s bout with The Bucks, He Remarks Narrowly Focusing In On Giannis Time At The Line. “I’m Not Gonna worry if the League Is Going To Call Ten Seconds On A Free throw or Not.” Said Nash. Being The Head Coach of A-Team Derailed bY injuries, It’s Understandable HE Would Be too Preoccupied On His team Performance Rather Than An Immaterial Rule That Not Worth Its Weight In Points, Only Marginally Impacting The Scoreboard But Massively Meddling On The Mind. Nash Didn’t Think whether Or not he Made A Complaint Would Have Made A Difference In the Procedure Or The Scoreboard.
Giannis 6-8 Performance at the Line in Game 1 .
Game 2 As Customary Trae young And The Hawks Offered A Dud following A Their MasterPeice In Game 1. The Hawks went 34/82 From the Field For 41.5%, 9/36 25.% From Three. Credit The Bucks defense For Their Accentuate Awareness And Aggressiveness. Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 25 points, Jrue Holiday added 22 and the Bucks blew out the Atlanta Hawks 125-91 in Game 2. Young scored 15 points. On The tails of 62 Points in The Paint, 27 Points On The Fast And Leading by as Many As 41 points at One Point. The Bucks never trailed In This game Levied 20 straight points late in the second quarter and maintain a 30 Points Difference on The Scoreboard throughout The Game. A silver lining for The Hawks. Second Year Forward Cam Reddish Made His Series And logged his First In-Game Minutes Since February, Due To Achilles Soreness. Reddish is A 6’8-6’9 Guard With Excellent Instincts and Mobility Who could Be Employed Throughout The series Of Games As An Offensive Orchestrated as well as Another Body To Front Giannis.
The Bucks Should continue To Be the Odds-on Favorites to Win, Not Only This Series But the Playoffs In All. Even though Once More, Star B, Kris Middleton Is Off to a Slow Start. He is the Bucks Only Three-Dimensional Offensive Player, Who’s Struggling to render High-quality Performances from The field. So Far, he is 12 of 36 On field goal, 2 of 17 From Three. With Two Games Passed In Milwaukee, Where, In previous Series, Middleton has marked Much Of His Success this postseason. ''I've just got to be better,'' Middleton said After His Paltry game 1 Performance. Nothing More needed To be Said. Now that the series is Headed to Atlanta The Bucks Will Need Middleton at his best if they hope To Reclaim Home Court and the Series Dominance.
There Is this perception That the Buck works The Playoffs Like A Championship Round Boxing Match. The Superior Fighter Taking A Good Blow Or Powerful Punch, Getting A Feel For His opponent’s Approach Before Beguiling Opponents into Waves Of Overwhelming Power Blows. There is A Full Diagnostic Diagram On How To Guard Trae. Hedging Pick And Roll, Deterring His Floater, Smothering His Passing Lanes, Chase And Cover His Three-Point Shooting; “Effort” Is The Verb Jrue Holiday Brandished. He Underscored That Point three Times In His Quote. his tandem play with Giannis has become the most reliable framework for Milwaukee’s crunch-time offense. According To Trae Young, His Poor Game 2 Performance Was Not A Product Of The Bucks Defensive Allotment, ‘It didn’t feel Like The Bucks did any Different’, But Rather A Product Of An off Night. Of which, He Has Had Few Within His Successful Playoff Introduction… The Proper Philosophy To Proport.
Trae Young Finished Game 2 With Nine Turnover.
Hawks In Six
