MILWAUKEE – Facts Giannis Antetokounmpo–Jayson Tatum The competition is here. It is defining the present of the Eastern Conference and may extend into the future.
Antetokounmpo is uploading Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal’s number. Tatum is breaking the all-retirement record for its 75-year-old franchise with 17 championships.
And Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks Haven’t even played Game 7 yet.
This is a series of black and blue films, ice packs, and the number of Advil increases with the game. But Antetokounmpo and Tatum made art in Game 6 on Friday night, the Bucks star taking down the Celtics with his two feet and the Celtics star responding with highly curved dagger jumps that extended each punch into the crowd. East Bucks was brutally devastated.
Celtics win 108-95 even the series, winning for the second time at Milwaukee in the past week. The laning teams are 4-2, illustrating how close these teams are.
Antetokounmpo had 44 points, 20 rebounds and six assists, making him just the third player in history to have a 40/20/5 playoff game in the playoffs, the other two being Chamberlain and O’Neal. He has three 40-point, 10 bounce-back games in this series.
He is the third player ever to have three 40-point matches against the Celtics in the knockout stages. The other two are Jerry West in the historic Finals in 1969, when he won the MVP though Los Angeles Lakers lose, and LeBron Jameswho did so in 2018 in one of the most prolific streaks of his career.
And Tatum was right there with Antetokounmpo. After outscoring, outrebound, out-support, out and outshooting brooklyn network star Kevin Durant in the first round, Tatum is going right to the current Finals MVP in this series.
Tatum had 46 points on Friday, the second most points for the Celtics in a knockout game in team history behind only Hall of Famer Sam Jones. He’s got two 45-point games in this playoff – something Larry Bird, John HavlicekPaul Pierce or Bob Cousy never worked for the Celtics.
When the Bucks dropped their 18-point lead to five with just six minutes to play – flashbacks from the Celtics’ 14-point lead in the fourth quarter two days earlier that had come to mind two days earlier – Tatum hit a terrible 3 long pointer breaks momentum in perhaps the biggest moment of the night.
“This is our season, and you know it, you leave it all on the floor,” Tatum said. “That’s my mindset, the mindset we all have. I wouldn’t leave anything out there and have any regrets.”
According to research by ESPN Stats & Information, he made 14 postseason shots, much to the dismay of the Bucks and their crowd. They all come to the Fiserv Forum expecting to see the Bucks win – and why not? This title-winning team has won eight chances in close quarters before.
After one defeat in Game 3, in which he played his worst game in the post-season, shooting 4/19, Tatum vowed to be better. Over the past three games, Tatum has averaged 37 points and 9.3 rebounds. Setting an early tune for the Celtics, he scored 18 points in the first half to give the Celtics a 10-point lead after halftime.
The big shots in the fourth half, in which Tatum scored 16, were even more valuable. That’s exactly the effort of a superstar in knockout matches.
“That’s why he gets paid huge sums for such moments,” said Smart Marcus, who scored 21 points. “I told him the whole game, ‘Just be you, man.’ He was.”
Antetokounmpo, play without getting hurt Kris Middleton, boosted its already elusive production. He’s averaged 35.3 points, 13.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists in this streak. On Friday night, he went 14 of 15 at the foul line.
Tatum and Antetokounmpo, although both are blessed with the basketball trio of height, flexibility and skill, are completely different players. Antetokounmpo grew up admiring Magic Johnson and Kevin Garnett. Tatum grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant. You can see it in their games. It was not the most natural match.
But that does not matter. There’s no way to see what they’ve been up to in the last two weeks and don’t want to see more.
Making claims and predictions about how many times this duo can do this again is stupid. Nothing is reassuring. But Antetokounmpo is 27 years old, Tatum is 24 years old.
They will play again this year. The winner will feel as though he’s won a prize war, and the loser will be devastated – and lying in wait for another chance. What more could a basketball fan ask for?
“I’m excited to play Game 6,” Tatum said. “This is an important moment for myself and the whole team. We believe, we really believe, we can come here and win, and it showed.”
