Title within reach for Bucks
Teammates step up to help Giannis for 3-2 series lead
Even as the Milwaukee Bucks were punching their way back into this Finals with a pair of home court wins, the cry was deafening: ‘Giannis needs more help.'
Giannis, of course, would be two-time MVP and Bucks leading scorer Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Khris Middleton answered some of those pleas with a 40-point night in Game 4, but there was still the matter of Jrue Holiday.
As good as he's been defensively hounding Chris Paul throughout the series, Holiday was brought in not just for his defence but to take some of the pressure off Antetokounmpo and even Middleton offensively.
Holiday, like Middleton the game prior, answered those pleas with a monster Game 5.
It didn't start out so well for Holiday, who picked up two early fouls and had to sit down early.
When the Phoenix Suns went on a run, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer rolled the dice and brought him back early.
The gamble paid off as Holiday's return restored a semblance of defence and Holiday, who had made his first two shots of the game, started to get rolling again.
He would score 14 in that second quarter on his way to a 27-point night to go along with his 12 assists.
It was more than enough support for Antetokounmp who had 32 when you combine it with the 29 the Bucks got from Middleton as the Bucks took a 3-2 series lead with a 123-119 win.
“Makes everything more balanced and makes life easier for everybody,” Middleton said of the Bucks finally getting all their big guns firing in the same game. “Knowing that we play together and we have everybody clicking on all cylinders, we're tough to guard.
“Obviously on defence, we can click. We can switch and we know how to have each other's back. But when we are all playing well, we're one of the best teams, for sure.”
But that offensive support wasn't even Holiday's biggest contribution to the night.
That came with just 16.7 seconds remaining with the Suns seemingly on the verge of stealing this one back from the Bucks.
The Suns had clawed their way back from a 14-point deficit to get to within a point of the lead.
Antetokounmpo was at the line and despite a decent night there badly missed both sending the Suns the other way with a chance to take the lead. Even with a timeout remaining, the Suns advanced the ball.
Devin Booker got into the paint where he met a mass of bodies. When he turned to retreat and find another route, Holiday was there and stripped Booker of the ball cleanly.
“A great play by Jrue,” Suns head coach Monty Williams said. “I don't have any other words for that one. I just watched it and he just makes a great play.”
But even that wasn't the extent of his brilliance as he brought the ball up court and hit a hard-charging Antetokounmpo for the lob on the run rather than dribble it out and force them to foul him.
It was a gutsy play, but it turned out to be a worthwhile gamble.
Antetokounmpo converted the lob and was fouled in the process. While he didn't make the free throw, the Bucks corralled the rebound forcing the Suns to foul again, this time getting Middleton.
Middleton missed the first but made the second putting the Suns in a four-point deficit they would not escape.
Holiday was the Bucks No. 1 off-season target and that acquisition paid off in the biggest possible way at the most important possible time.
Booker would end up with yet another 40-point night in Game 5 but it wasn't enough as the Bucks big three were just too much.
“We knew this wasn't going to be easy,” Suns point guard Chris Paul said afterwards. “We didn't expect it to be. It's hard. Coach said it all year long, everything we want is on the other side of hard and it don't get no harder than this. So, we got to regroup, learn from this game, but it's over, we got to get ready for Game 6.”
Both teams had their shot at taking control of this one early on.
In the first half it was all Suns as they built a 16-point lead by the end of the quarter as they got Holiday off the floor with some early foul trouble and then roasted the Bucks defence, led by Booker's 11 points.
When Booker wasn't hitting, natural hype-machine Jae Crowder was doing the job hitting from the outside as his steady contributions from behind the three-point arc continued with two more in an eight-point quarter for him.
Ironically it wasn't until Antetokounmpo sat down for a rest in the second quarter that the Bucks caught fire.
With the Greek Freak on the bench for the first six minutes the Bucks went on a 25-12 run to get right back on even terms.
When Antetokounmpo returned the barrage continued as the Bucks turned that 16point deficit into a three point lead by halftime.
They are just the second time in NBA Finals history to turn a deficit of 15 or more into a lead by the half. The last and only other time it happened came in the 1957 Finals when the Boston Celtics came back on the St. Louis Hawks.
The saying in sports is a series hasn't really begun until a team wins a road game. Consider this series underway.
The Bucks head home with a chance to win the title Tuesday night.