NBA fans were hoping that a showdown between the Brooklyn Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks would turn into a classic playoff series. What happened is that it became a classic 2021 series.
This messy, fluid, injury-riddled, unpredictable and dramatic season has its pet: a seven-game saga after the Bucks fought back to win Game 6 over the Nets 104-89 on Thursday night.
There have been more MRIs than road wins in this series. Teams won by scoring 125 points, teams won by scoring 86. There was one all-time game, Game 5 of Kevin Durant, and games that felt like they took years.
This has been a season of quantity over quality – doing what needs to be done to achieve it and hoping for the best. Here’s how this series has played out, with game plans scrambled or merely scrapped in what feels like a mix of demon fighting and a war of attrition.
Brooklyn’s rotation changed every game. Milwaukee’s loyalty to his game plan also changed.
“This series is a bit unique,” said the Bucks coach, Mike budenholzer. “For them, it’s been a different team night after night. We have to be prepared for whoever plays in Game 7. It could be a different game.”
Khris middleton Y Giannis Antetokounmpo They played Thursday like they’re in an elimination game for Milwaukee, showing an approach you’d rather see every time they take the floor in a playoff game. They combined for 68 points, 27 rebounds and 8 assists. Middleton had five steals and two four-point plays. Antetokounmpo finally stopped biting the bait on jump shots as he attacked the rim with 11 of his 12 field shots from within the paint.
Durant and James hardenMeanwhile, they played like two guys who weren’t so desperate and were tired of their emotional victory in Game 5. They scored a few points, Durant 32 and Harden 16, but their combined 11 turnovers spoke more of their team’s performance. . The Nets were outscored by 25 points when Durant was on the floor.
You’d like to think the Nets were saving energy for Game 7, but considering that both Harden and Durant played 40 minutes each, that’s not really true. They are just trying to do the best they can.
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Middleton hits two 3-point shots in a row to add to the Bucks’ score.
“Our guys were a little fatigued; we weren’t at our best pace,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “We were just facing too many things that were going against us, in the big picture.”
Is that what you want to hear about a closing game in what some believed, at least two weeks ago, to be this year’s de facto Finals? No. But it’s sincere. This is your 2020-21 NBA season!
Lebron James He caused a sensation this week when he berated the NBA for the run-down season and regretted not being listened to when he warned it would cause injury. The league office felt threatened enough to issue a narrative to the contrary, claiming injury rates were the same as in previous years.
That doesn’t hit the point. Kicking off this season at Christmas and racking up 72 games, an All-Star weekend, a play-in tournament and a regular-length postseason was never a debate about health. In reality, no one did not believe that James was right about the risks.
It was always about making the best of a bad situation, both economically and competitively.
True to form, that’s what the Bucks and Nets will do. They will show up for Game 7 and play for the right to participate in the Eastern Conference finals. What you see is what you will get. But they will give everything they have.
“It’s the playoffs,” said the Bucks forward, PJ Tucker. “We dream of this all our lives. We are going to fight for everything. We compete and we fight and we are going to fight again in Game 7.”
Maybe it’s cool, maybe it’s mundane. But it will be as serious as possible. After all, it is a Game 7.