Giannis Antetokounmpo is the most demoralizing man in the NBA



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Photo: Michael Dwyer (AP)

The Boston Celtics look dead, netting, breaded and fully cooked, and their weak attempts to catch up on a series of late deficits last night strongly suggested, despite a recent example of a 3-1 lead, a broken basketball team mentally. with only one game between them and the beach. It's far from their keen refusal to die in the playoffs of last season even though their stars were injured. The difference this year is Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Since Al Horford stammered in Milwaukee in the first game, Antetokounmpo has strengthened as the series has evolved, improving their percentage points, rebounds and goals for each successive match. Horford has limited it to 22 and eight out of 33 percent in the first match; during last night's win, the second consecutive Boston Bucks, he had effectively doubled his production, rising to 39, 18 and 68%.

This irreversible improvement says a lot about its perseverance. Giannis never settles, never shivers, hardly ever gets up again. Instead, he continues to go to the edge at every opportunity, and he is too tall and athletic to be defended by a Celtic defender. Possession after possession in the fourth quarter time, Antetokounmpo screamed in the hallway and humiliated someone with a dunk or lay-in, to the point that the Celtics were tired of helping him. This is the effect Giannis Antetokounmpo: he divides the teams in rehearsal. Just look at all the sad faces after this dunk game-icing.

Horford is an excellent defenseman, with a disconcerting list of top league players, but Antetokounmpo has never stopped attacking his chest and the Bucks have added some strange new wrinkles to free him. The Antetokounmpo-Brook Lopez pick-and-roll and Khris Middleton's decisive team play force both Boston to choose between switching to Antetokounmpo or playing the spin game against the talented Milwaukee shooters. Antetokounmpo loses no other defender and passes in front of everyone, without stopping as long as it has not arrived in the rack.

It must be so disheartening to have to deal with this every game of every game. The psychic effect of Giannis' constant dynamics resembles, by his insistence and threat, the way Steph Curry's 35-meter reach disrupted defenses to a higher level. It was not only that it was difficult to defend, it was also job. You can not plan a guy coming out of the half-court, and you can not always plan to stop a 7-foot world-class athlete who is completely determined to dip your head when he can. The emotional fracture provoked by Peak-Curry was deeper than that of Giannis, but the way Boston was bent under his pressure was a revelation. In the first playoff series without LeBron since 2005, Giannis showed he was ready and able to take over as the best player in the East. At least.

To be clear, the Bucks are not just Giannis and some other scrubs. The decisive run of match 4 was the work of a heroic unit of bench dudes, who resumed the match once Giannis sat down. It's a full team and once Malcolm Brogdon returns – with some extra rest, thanks to his teammates who won both games in Boston – they will become an even more complete team.

But most non-stop shots work thanks to Antetokounmpo (not to mention its excellent defense), and it's so much fun to watch a superstar who wants to deeply destroy the guys at the rim, especially with respect to excellence the identical shot of James Harden. Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard. I hope that Giannis will put everyone to the water for the rest of the series.

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