Pat Connaughton is going to need to be at his very best for the Milwaukee Bucks
Outside of Antetokounmpo and Holiday, Pat Connaughton might be the most important swing player for the Bucks in this series at both ends.
He’s going to get plenty of looks as the Celtics try to shut off Antetokounmpo’s drives to the rim and he’s become a good enough shooter that he can make them pay for doing that.
He didn’t have his best shooting series against the Bulls, but he finished with six 3s in Game 5 which gives some hope that it will roll over into this series. Wouldn’t it be nice if we got the shooting performance we saw from Connaughton in the Finals?
Defensively, Connaughton is always important for when the Bucks use Antetokounmpo at center, but now without Middleton, there’s an even bigger reliance on what he can do in terms of defending guys bigger than him.
We probably won’t see those lineups a ton because they just don’t have the size for anyone to play at the four and a group of Antetokounmpo-Connaughton-Matthews-Allen-Holiday is very small but even without those lineups as much, Connaughton will get more time against Tatum and Brown.
They combined to go 4-of-8 from the field with no turnovers or fouls drawn. He had more success against the smaller Brown but he’ll get thrown on both throughout the series. If Connaughton can hold up well enough on them and make enough open 3s, it will go a long way to the Bucks winning this series.
It won’t be easy without their three-time All-Star and best tough shot maker, but any team with Giannis Antetokounmpo has a decent shot at winning any series.
That series starts this Sunday for the Milwaukee Bucks on the road at noon CT.