USA TODAY International Edition
Bucks are built for playoff moment
NEW YORK – Brook Lopez bellowed, doubling over his 7- foot frame to the Barclays Center floor for a slap heard over the echoes of Milwaukee fans being restrained in the concourse. Giannis Antetokounmpo double- fist pumped and exulted, a crunch to end all ab crunches, and forearm shivered head coach Mike Budenholzer.
Longtime friends P. J. Tucker and Kevin Durant hugged, then Tucker was wrapped up emphatically by co- owners Wes Edens and Marc Lasry on his way to the locker room after a 115- 111 overtime Game 7 victory Saturday in Brooklyn.
When Giannis Antetokounmpo summoned the archetype of all watchwords – “We’re built for this” – following Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, those scenes provided the illustrations.
Milwaukee’s best player has long steered clear of absolutes – the hope of victory always remains armored by effort. Effort can be controlled. Outside of that? All unknowable. He did it again Saturday, refusing to say if the outcome of this NBA playoffs will be any different from that of two years ago.
But what Antetokounmpo and the Bucks always knew was that the most incomprehensible, truly volatile element orbiting this series was a basketball celestial named Kevin Durant.
Yet when this series could have been over mentally for the Bucks after two, or practically after six games, with Durant manipulating nerve endings with harried magnificence, came an earnest declaration:
We’re built for this.
What understated audacity.
It was not a prediction that the Bucks would win Game 7, though.
“What I meant by that is that we’ve all worked extremely hard to be in these moments,” Antetokounmpo said Saturday night. “I’m not talking about basketball. I’m talking about life, you know? And just being able to be in a position on the road, Game 7, like you watch this growing up on television and see like the all- time greats going head- to- head in Game 7 and getting big wins…
“But at the end of the day we worked extremely hard our whole life for this moment, right? So I wanted everybody to, to, to live up this moment. To, to feel this moment, to cherish this moment. Because we are built for this. That’s why we are here. No matter the pressure, no matter what is going on, we are built for this, right? So, we believe in who we are. No matter what happens, win or lose we’re going ( to) stay together and just going to go out there and compete.”
These Bucks were built to do this, win a Game 7 on the road, because 72 regular- season games set them up for it. If you do not worry about earning the right to host the ultimate game of a series, you assuredly must figure out a way to earn a win somewhere else.
This is where a different effort and resilience entered because confidence and talent were never absent.
“Man, it don’t matter, win or lose we think we can beat anybody,” Khris Middleton said after Game 6. “Just like any team – it doesn’t matter who’s who. We’re all NBA players.”
What the Bucks absolutely had to learn this season, however, was how to get punched in the jaw. How to rally through a wobble and not buckle. Game 7 was all of that.
First, Durant. If ever a single individual could land an uppercut that could alter the course of the opposing organization’s future, it was his 23- footer over P. J. Tucker with 1.6 seconds left of regulation to tie the score, 109- 109.
The Bucks hit the mat, yes, but, “You know, they made a couple plays where you think they were going to win the game but we stayed with it,” Middleton said. “We stayed with it. We stayed resilient.”
Jrue Holiday had gotten up. He started the game 2- for- 17 and was tracking toward seventh game infamy until he went 3- for- 5 in the fourth quarter and scored nine points. Then he forced the last of Durant’s six missed shots in OT.
Brook Lopez had gotten up. He turned the ball over with 5.2 seconds left in regulation to set up Durant’s shooting star, only to block Durant’s gohead layup attempt with 59 seconds left in overtime.
Middleton had gotten up. He started the game 4- for- 16 but went 4- for- 7 in the fourth quarter, scoring 11 points. He then hit not only the game- winner in overtime but forced Durant into a late miss.
“It’s all about just staying with it,” Middleton said. “And just playing as hard as we can and being solid.”
Then there was Antetokounmpo, who weathered all the shots so his teammates could use the entirety of the 10 count. He scored 40 points and pulled
in 13 rebounds in 50 minutes. He scored 16 points in the third quarter. After the half he began switching onto the ball defensively, regardless of who it was.
No trophy was won in Brooklyn. They now wait for Philadelphia or Atlanta, perhaps Phoenix or Los Angeles after that.
But as it stands, the Bucks are built for this.