Milwaukee Bucks: 3 reasons the Bucks will make it to the Finals
By Robby Cowles
The best player in the East
With Pat Connaughton leading the Bucks, there’s no way they don’t make it to the Finals.
Seriously, though, the Bucks have this player named Giannis Antetokounmpo. You might have heard of him, and if not, you should definitely check him out.
I’ve already touched a little bit on how dominant the Bucks with Giannis have been against Eastern Conference competition, but I’ll reiterate it again.
The Bucks with Giannis are 37-7 against the East. Giannis has won Eastern Conference Player of the Month every month except January. He has been, without a doubt, the most dominant and best player in the conference all season. (Sorry, Joel.)
No other player in the conference averages more points than Giannis does against Eastern competition (28.4), and Giannis is also third in rebounds (12.3), ninth in assists (6.1) and sixth in blocks (1.8).
Giannis is the conference’s best scorer and simultaneously one of its best rebounders, facilitators and defenders.
If you want to get into some advanced stats, I’ve got those for you too.
Among players in the East who have played at least 20 games, Giannis’s NETRTG of 14.0 is second only to his teammate, Malcolm Brogdon.
But the Bucks won’t be playing the entire Eastern Conference, they’ll only be playing three East teams at the most. How does he do against playoff teams?
It’s just more domination, really. Against the Pistons, Giannis is averaging a pedestrian (for him) 20.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.0 blocks in the three games they played. Giannis’ net rating, though, against Detroit is the best against any playoff team, 17.5.
Which goes to show that even if teams are able to manage Giannis’ scoring, he can still kill you in multiple different ways on offense and defense.
Against the Celtics, he’s averaging 31 points per game, against the Pacers, it’s 25 points, the Raptors are at 27 points, and he’s been absolutely murdering the 76ers, averaging 43 points per game. Sheesh.
It’s safe to say that no other playoff team has had much success against Giannis or any viable plan for how to stop him.
Assuming the Bucks get past the Pistons, it truly doesn’t matter who the Bucks play in the conference semi-finals or finals, the Bucks will have the unquestioned best player in the series.
That’s an impressive accomplishment for the Bucks, and Giannis, in a conference filled with star players like Embiid, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard and Blake Griffin.
Giannis has run the East all year, expect him to continue that in the playoffs.