NBA Bucks confident after tying Finals with Suns

MILWAUKEE — As remarkable as Giannis Antetokounmpo has been in delivering Mvp-caliber performances during the NBA Finals while playing with an injured knee, there have been games in which he was good but not great.

Good hadn’t been good enough for a Milwaukee Bucks win — until Game 4.

And while Antetokounmpo will likely need to be great again, his teammates must prove they can deliver on the road the way they have at home. The Bucks and Phoenix Suns are tied 2-2 as the series returns to Phoenix for Game 5 on Saturday.

The Bucks need to maintain what they found in Milwaukee to rally from a nine-point, fourth-quarter deficit in a 109-103 Game 4 victory Wednesday night.

“Going down the stretch, we kept believing in ourselves,” Antetokounmpo said after Game 4. “We kept executing, setting screens. We kept running, we kept rebounding the ball, we kept blocking shots. We wanted this bad, and the team showed it tonight. But we’ve got to keep getting better.”

Antetokounmpo has averaged 32.3 points, 14 rebounds and 5.5 assists in the Finals despite hyperextending his left knee in the Bucks’ previous series, causing him to miss the last two games of the Eastern Conference finals.

It was Khris Middleton — not Antetokounmpo — who scored 40 points to lead the Bucks to their come-from-behind victory in Game 4. Middleton reeled off eight straight points in the closing minutes.

“We need him to keep doing it,” Antetokounmpo said of Middleton. “We are within reach of our goals.”