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MILWAUKEE – At the end of the third quarter of the fifth game between Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics, the crowd in the Fiserv Forum was getting more and more agitated. Bucks, their beloved, had control, but had not yet put the Celtics out of the way. The coup de grace came, however, but not as one might have expected.
After a little over two minutes of play, Eric Bledsoe slipped to the rim after a pick-and-roll, but missed his lay-up. It was a banal piece, but it triggered a remarkable chain of events. Bledsoe was able to recover his own rebound and, by the time the Bucks' possession was over 34 seconds later, Milwaukee had taken four offensive rebounds and made a mistake on the Celtics. They did not even score, but it did not matter; the game was over and everyone knew it.
The Bucks have fled the Celtics after this point, winning a 116-91 win, a 4-1 win and their first trip to the Eastern Conference finals since 2001. All the highlights of this season, the Bucks have delivered theirs not with a drummer buzzer or a dunk ridiculous, but with a wave of offensive rebounds. This was not conventional, but suited a Bucks team that overwhelmed the teams throughout the season.
"It's an unusual place for us to get four or five offensive rebounds, but I think that says a lot about some of the guys who have put everything in the spotlight and are doing everything they can." can to maintain and strengthen the head, "said Bucks coach Mike Bucks Budenholzer said. "The competitive spirit of the group was impressive – not just this possession, but all night long."
And at the risk of putting too many words in Budenholzer's mouth, all season too. The Bucks are a team in every sense of the word. They show up, they play hard, they do the little things and they do not let go. Even when stretches or games do not go as planned, they continue to cringe, believing that if they do things correctly and consistently, they will be rewarded. And as this series has shown, they were right.
"All they did in this series, they did it all year," said Celtics coach Brad Stevens before the game. "This is not a huge surprise.The substance with which they play, competitiveness, multiple efforts, tenacity, just go down the list – all the good adjectives." That's what a team of 60 wins looks like and you credit them for that, they've built that habit out of habit, you know you can not let go of the rope at any point in the game, and every time we're exposed, we're exposed. "
This does not mean that the Bucks are without talent. Giannis Antetokounmpo was the best player in the league this season and deserved to be named most valuable player, Khris Middleton was a star player and Eric Bledsoe had a rebound season where he was dynamite on the defensive side. But nobody would confuse them for a great team. For their talent, they derive much of their success by exhausting the teams, as they had done for this fateful possession at the end of the third quarter.
They did not play their best basketball Wednesday night, but it did not matter. Giannis continued to charge towards the edge, they continued firing a 3 while they were not falling at the usual pace and they continued to fly in defense. It may not have been beautiful, but the sum of their efforts was sufficient. And they were willing to make this effort because of all the equity they built with each other by playing exactly the same way throughout the season.
"The most important thing, and the advantage of this team, is that after the first game, Bledsoe, a guy from me, wrote," We have this guy. We will go out and win games "I said." And that's what happened. When your teammates are all on the same page and you know you have your back and they are, things like this are going to happen. "
Now, the Bucks are using their system, the constant and endless pressure they exert on their opponents – and of course Antetokounmpo – in the final phase of the Eastern Conference, where the franchise has not existed for almost two years. decades. There, they will face either the Toronto Raptors or the Philadelphia 76ers, with a stint at the NBA Finals.
It's a place they've won, but Antetokounmpo and Co. know that there will always be doubts about them and that they are ready to continue to prove that everyone is wrong.
"Many people will doubt us," said Antetokounmpo. "It's the world of basketball, there will be people with us and people against us, but at the end of the day we are really hungry to reach our goals, and that's all. which does not matter. "
With Antetokounmpo in the lead and a relentless approach to every game, they could well go all the way to achieving those goals.
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