BOSTON — It felt like it had been forever since the Celtics had strung together a few stops in a row. The Celtics had been trying to go on a run to close the gap in the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t take off.
So after Al Horford forced a Jrue Holiday miss, the moment looked like it was finally there as Giannis Antetokounmpo kept trying to drive through Grant Williams and kept bouncing off a brick wall.
Williams had been fighting him relentlessly throughout the afternoon, but you can never completely shut down Antetokounmpo. You can only hold him before he eventually breaks through.
So as Williams kept taking blow after blow and standing tall, Antetokounmpo had to go deep into his bag. He faked like he was going to a fadeaway, got Williams out of position, and then somehow slipped right under the Celtics big. He was out of control and too far from the basket to pull off one of his extend-o Monstar slams. It looked like the play was over, so Jayson Tatum just watched the ball fly off the backboard and waited for it to fall into his hands.
Like the Greek Freak would ever let that happen.
Giannis goes off the backboard for the emphatic slam!#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel on ABC pic.twitter.com/vyn50aa2Au
— NBA (@NBA) May 1, 2022
“He made a hell of a play,” Tatum said after Milwaukee took Game 1 with a 101-89 win. “We’ve gotta be more solid, stay down on their fakes, stay between the guy and the basket, and don’t give them a wide-open lane and things like that.”
What was so bizarre about this moment was that it seemed to shock the Celtics out of their daze. Williams got a few stops in a row on Antetokounmpo and Boston started getting in transition and swinging the ball for open 3s. But as Milwaukee’s defense was swarming them and covering the backside of every play even as the Celtics started to score, Boston just had lost that edge.
They were taking Antetokounmpo out of it just long enough to try to chip away, but they couldn’t make anything out of the opportunity before he once again seized the moment with force.
This time, Williams didn’t even protest as Antetokounmpo yanked him from behind. They knew what it was. Milwaukee had beaten them to the punch over and over. This was a TKO.
Udoka had seen enough, clearing out the bench as the fans emptied the arena with two minutes left. After watching last year’s Finals MVP tear through whatever his league-leading defense threw at him, Udoka could see the defending champs ruled the day. There was no need to drag it out any further. That’s what Antetokounmpo does to you. He makes you feel like there’s nothing to be done once he’s had his way.
When Antetokounmpo would drag a defender out to the corners on a post-up, Boston would usually send help one pass away. That worked against Brooklyn as Kevin Durant had more trouble grinding in the post and he was kicking out to short shooters. But Antetokounmpo can hold his own long enough to make the pass as the help is running away from the shooter or when he has lured the double completely out of position. Then he’s kicking out to bigger shooters in Grayson Allen, Pat Connaughton, and Bobby Portis.
“When you pass them the ball, they’re not hesitating,” Antetokounmpo said. “I know if I whip a pass to Grayson right in the pocket, the ball is going up.”
In the first half, Antetokounmpo was mostly playing facing up from the high post against Horford and sometimes Rob Williams. This afforded the Bucks star more options to drive or pass and get speed as he hit the first defender. So Boston had to play a bit of a 2-3 zone with the way they would sink a help defender off the shooter one pass away.
One counter to this that worked well was to have Portis loop through the lane to try to force that loose double team and make the Celtics blow a switch. Jaylen Brown misses Jayson Tatum passing Portis off to him, Portis gets open under the rim and Rob Williams has to abandon Connaughton in the corner to stop Portis.
When Horford was left on an island in the first half, Antetokounmpo would get one step on him, spin back through the lane and reach the rim with ease. Nothing was really working consistently against the player who pushes your buttons more than anyone in the game.
“First half, our rotations weren’t as sharp as they needed to be. We were a little slow as far as that,” Udoka said. “Sometimes we’re going to go after him. Sometimes, based on who’s defending him and what position, we want to let those guys guard straight up, especially when he’s looking right at you kind of try to bait you, pass out of that double team. We went too quick at times. He’s looking at us and our rotations weren’t sharp.”
It was clear Antetokounmpo was never fazed by what Boston threw at him, a far cry from Kevin Durant in the last round. A big difference between Milwaukee and Brooklyn is Antetokounmpo is kicking out to much taller shooters. Allen is perhaps his shortest kick-out option, and Allen wasn’t phased by any closeout that came his way.
Milwaukee was 6-for-11 on catch-and-shoot 3s in the first half. Antetokounmpo scored or assisted on 55 of the 87 Bucks points scored while he was on the floor. Even when Horford or Grant Williams stopped him in single coverage, he’d pull up for a jumper or hit the Dirk Nowitzki fade. He always had the right answer.
“Those great players that command the double team, you want to pick your poison at times,” Udoka said. “I think we helped unnecessarily at times when we had some good matchups on him. If he’s going to shoot a fadeaway jump shot, we’ll live with that shot. I think we rotated there, and our rotations weren’t sharp.”
The question is how Boston can tighten up the game plan for Tuesday. The off-ball walling and chipping that threw Durant off in round one did little to Milwaukee. It’s too exhausting to do it against Antetokounmpo all night.
The loose doubles did little to deter him from driving, as he could go to step through moves to beat the defenders to the spot and avoid a trap. Then he could elevate and pass over the top of the defense.
Boston would try to hard double him toward the baseline, but they had to either send help from the near shooter or from the weak side corner. He was finding those shooters reliably to the point that Udoka had to abandon it.
It’s rare to see the Celtics coach unable to solve the puzzle in one night, but they’ve gone from facing a team last week who admitted they were trying to figure themselves out to a team whose identity is engraved on the Larry O’Brien trophy.
“It’s the playoffs. It’s really not the time to be surprised,” Brown said. “They’re the defending champs and we got to come out and play basketball. Gotta be ready to go, no matter what the injuries, or whatever it is that we’re dealing with. You got to have everybody connected and be mentally locked in and be ready to leave it all on the floor. That’s what it comes down to. Who’s gonna leave it all out there? We’re gonna be that harder-playing team, we just got to stay focused.”
That focus has to last the entire night. The Bucks’ second efforts carried through crunch time as Boston was still just trying to find a way to stop Antetokounmpo. Maybe their last shot to get back into the game came when Marcus Smart fed Antetokoummpo into a Horford- Grant Williams trap, then Williams closed back out to Portis to stop him from taking the 3. But after Grant Williams ran Portis off the line, nobody came to follow up, Portis missed anyway and Brown couldn’t hold the box out on Allen.
Tatum’s proceeding frustration foul summed it all up. They got so far into that play executing it well, but the Bucks ran through the finish line. Now they have to leave this behind them. They’ve been controlling games with their physicality and effort for months now and became one of the best teams in the league because of it. They learned how to move on from repeated failure and have a short memory. Can they keep those habits from returning once they finally face a worthy opponent?
“It’s just one game. You can move forward,” Brown said. “Definitely got to watch the film, understand what we did wrong and come out and be better from it. But one game does not win you a series. And we know that being up a game, and we know now being down a game. Can’t lose our faith, can’t lose our resiliency or our confidence. Now come out and play Celtic basketball.”
(Photo: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)