Finals, the Suns missed a good game and took the lead into the final quarter. They were overturned by the Bucks, and the total score of the series came to 2-2. Although the Suns still held home advantage, the momentum has come to Milwaukee. On the other side, Antetokounmpo continued to play strongly, and Middleton had a passion with Booker when the team desperately needed fire support.
On the other hand, on the Suns side, Booker still scored 42 points in the whole game, including 38 points in the first three quarters. If not for foul trouble, he might have become another player after James in the finals. Players under 50+. But Booker's excellent performance still failed to save the team. The reason is that another engine of the team, Chris Paul, was completely lost. In this game, Paul made 5 of 13 shots, only scored 10 points and sent 7 assists. At the same time, had up to 5 turnovers, especially the one dropped the ball 30 seconds before the end, which completely ruined the game .
What happened to Paul? The Bucks' five-small lineup makes Paul uncomfortable. Maybe Paul is missing the person who pads him.
Paul, who averaged 27.5 points in the first two games of the finals, why only 29 points combined in these two games? A large part of the reason is that the Bucks basically abandoned and Lopez . In these two games, Lopez only played 40 minutes in total. In the second half of today's game, Lopez played 4 minutes, and the other A big Portis also played only 4 minutes in the second half. Bucks most of the time are Antetokounmpo, Tucker , Middleton, Connaughton, Holiday 's five small lineup , and Antetokounmpo's size is actually enough, he faces Ayton is the upper hand.
With a lineup like the Bucks, Paul is very restrictive. In the face of Holiday's constant interference, Paul is still at a point where there is no "soft persimmon" to pinch . Paul's large number of points in the first two games was obtained by the two big men in the military training Bucks after switching defenses through the pick-and-roll. But now after Paul and Ayton pick-and-roll, the person in front of him is an Antetokounmpo with long arms and equally agile feet. Although we can see that Paul could score on Antetokounmpo's head by leaning back with difficulty in the last game, this is obviously not a long-term solution, and today's Paul is inaccurate. And when Paul wanted to use the speed advantage to get into the inside line, he found that Antetokounmpo was still not leaving.
In this way, Paul and Ayton's pick-and-roll has lost a major threat, the Bucks can switch defenses calmly, no longer need to be like before, one delay, one squeezed through the pick-and-roll, the advantage of this is that Ayton's side can The easy ball he got has also been greatly reduced, and Ayton only made 3 of 9 shots in this game. 183's Paul is still constrained by his height, which restricts his ability to attack . This is a common question. Otherwise, in the "if theory" that fans used to talk about, there would be no "two-meter cannon". hypothetical.
And Now when Paul's own legs are getting slower and slower , the effect of using speed to punish opponents is getting worse and worse, except for Lopez and Portis, Paul is against the others of this Bucks , there is no way to do whatever you want. In the second battle of fire in 319, it was because Paul, who was plagued by injuries at the time, could not even train the opposite Looney , which led to a loophole in the Rockets' offensive system. The differences between Harden and Paul at that time , this is not irrelevant.Harden wants to stick to the same strategy as always, press speed, drop positions, tear defenses with singles, and create opportunities. After all, they dragged the Warriors into a corner last year, but Paul, who was overwhelmed with self-awareness, had some other ideas.
Did Paul knock out his FMVP? But does he really care about that?
Returning to the two teams on the same starting line will surely bring about a battle of Tianwang Mountain that is far more intense than the previous four games. After all, except for some critical moments in the first four games, during a lot of game time, everyone felt that this was not a final, and the intensity of the game could not keep up.
Who wins and who loses, it's hard to say now, it's all up to the two teams. However, for Paul, the poor performance of this game and the strong contrast with Booker's performance are likely to make him lose the opportunity to compete for the finals MVP. Even if the Suns finally succeed in winning the championship, Paul's performance this time It will greatly reduce his impression.
But, who cares? I think Paul himself only thinks about the championship right now. There won't be any players in who think "If you can't win the championship of the FMVP, don't worry about it", right? Paul is bound to get rid of all distractions and seize this chance that may only have once in his life.
