These NBA Finals have been pretty entertaining, especially having taken such a wild swing in favor of the Milwaukee Bucks after they fell to 2-0 away from home to the Phoenix Suns. The Bucks are now just a single win away from winning their first NBA Championship since they won it with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 and it would take a monster effort from the Suns if they are to avoid defeat in the series.
With Game 6 set for this Tuesday at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, Game 7 would be hosted in the Phoenix Suns Arena in Arizona, should it come to that. The Bucks have done an outstanding job of guarding superstar veteran Chris Paul and their move to land Jrue Holiday has proven to be quite shrewd as he’s been tasked with marking the best player from all of the Bucks’ opponents in these playoffs, it is expected for the Arizona bookies to support their local team with odds of +300.
Late turnovers sealed Phoenix’s fate in Games 4 and 5 and it’s pretty hard to see them recovering from those heartbreaking losses.
“Well, headspace, mental stamina, all that stuff, like it boils down to getting it done,” said Suns head coach Monty Williams on what he wants from his team in the crucial upcoming contest. “We got to win one game to put them back on the plane. That’s it. And you have to have that determination that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to put them back on the plane. So, we can call it what we want to, mental toughness, all of that stuff. But it’s going to be needed and our guys are capable of doing it. This is our first time in this position and we can do it.”
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Speaking on the Bucks’ impressive shooting from distance, he said: “Well, I just think that the turnovers and the offensive rebounding, we corrected that but they shot 50 percent from 3(-point range). That was something that kind of gave them the edge. So, they didn’t get those points off of turnovers and offensive rebounding, but they got it from the 3-point line. We shot [68 percent from 3-point range], we just didn’t generate enough (19 attempts). The ball, when it moved tonight, it looked like Suns basketball. But we just didn’t generate enough threes. So, to your point, like we did what we were supposed to, as far as the offensive rebounding and turnovers, but we gave up too many threes tonight.”
Former Phoenix #Suns head coach Earl Watson is reportedly going to be back to coaching in the NBA.https://t.co/HdWeFYg5Vh
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Paul had promised to take better care of the basketball after his costly turnover in Game 4 but it was Holiday’s defensive play on Devin Booker in the dying embers that sealed the deal for Milwaukee after Giannis Antetokounmpo missed key foul shots.
Holiday stole the ball from Booker after the guard drove to the lane and looked to kick it out. The former New Orleans Pelicans man completed the play by tossing an alley-oop to Antetokounmpo for a thunderous dunk.
“A great play by Jrue,” Williams said. “I don’t have any other words for that one, I just watched it, and (he) just makes a great play.”We came out and did what we intended to do, get off to a great start, and we let it go,” Booker said after the game. “They stayed resilient and they kept playing through. Tough loss for us.”
The Suns had built up a 16-point lead after a hot start to the game but saw it evaporate in just four minutes and 12 seconds, with the Bucks tying at 42 before going on to build a 14-point lead of their own. Phoenix would cut the lead down to just one point prior to Holiday’s important steal and ensuing assist.
The Bucks hold a 3-2 lead in the series on the back of a 123-119 win away from home. They will have the opportunity to close it out this Tuesday but the Suns are hoping to even things up and take proceedings back to Arizona.
“Yeah, we got to move it around. We know what Book can do with the ball, but the one thing we talked about was getting to the paint, finding guys on the backside,” the coach added. “We feel like that’s a formula. There were some times tonight where it just stuck a little bit and against their defense, they don’t have to work against that. So we can score in iso-ball, but to make that defense work, we got to move it around and in order to beat this team, that’s what you got to do.”
Bookmakers have the Suns at 7/4 to take the series back home, with the Bucks favored to seal the deal at 10/21. The Suns haven’t won a game on the road so far in the finals but that will not matter should they win one with the last opportunity they have left. If it gets to a Game 7, just about anything can happen.
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