After leading the Milwaukee Bucks to defeat the Phoenix Suns in 6 games, Giannis Antetokounmpo won the first NBA championship in his life. Despite playing against some top opponents in the playoffs, Antetokounmpo's performance is one of the best players in the world. This means that he defeated some superstars on the road to his first championship, and his basketball ability is beyond doubt.
's dominance in the playoffs is being compared with other outstanding performances of players such as , Dirk Nowitzki . The German big driver also experienced a series of superstar opponents during his first NBA championship in 2011, and captured the hearts of NBA fans with his heart and skills on the court. Similar to Antetokounmpo’s winning the championship this year, the 2011 driver was the undisputed best player in the playoffs and finals MVP.
But which player performed better in the playoffs? Is the 50-point performance in Game 6 enough to usurp Dirk’s desire for the best player in the world in all playoffs? Below is a breakdown of Antetokounmpo’s 2021 playoffs and Dirk Nowitzki’s 2011 playoffs.
Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks
2011 NBA playoffs
4-2 vs. Portland Trail Blazers (first round in the West)
2011 playoffs In the first round, the No. 3 seeded Mavericks (57-25) played against the No. 6 Portland Trail Blazers (48-34) led by LaMarcus Aldridge. Former superstar Brandon Roy is no longer a healthy and good player, so the Mavericks have an advantage in the superstar battle.Instead, the Mavericks had to face Aldridge (he will become his first All-Star team next season) and two-way swingman Gerald Wallace.
In the first round, everything is about the driver. The driver led all scorers with 45.2% field goal percentage and 44.4% three-point shooting percentage with 27.3 points. He performed well in the game against Aldridge, who averaged 46.1% from the field and 20.8 points per game. Dirk helped Jason Terry (17.3 points per game), and Gerard Wallace contributed 15.2 points as the assistant of Aldridge .
The Mavericks started the series with a 2-0 lead, but due to the classic performance of Aldridge and Brandon Roy in Game 4 (24 points), Portland made the series into the series. Five games. But Dirk will lose 25 points and 33 points in a row, ending Portland's season in 6 games.
4-0 against the Los Angeles Lakers (Western semifinals)
In the second round, the driver will compete with Kobe Bryant and the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. Thanks to the 32-year-old Kobe Bryant and 30-year-old Paul Gasol in the All-Star Game, the Lakers will rank second in the Western Conference. The Lakers are looking for a three-game winning streak, but looked beyond their depth in the game against the Mavericks. More specifically, the Mavericks dropped a three-pointer to the Lakers without much defensive resistance.
Although Kobe scored 36 points in the first game, Dallas still won a close game 96-94, and then was defeated by 12 points in the second game. Nowitzki and Jason Terry scored 32 points in the next two games to end the Lakers' three-game winning streak.The loss in Game 4 was particularly embarrassing for the Los Angeles Lakers, who lost the game by 36 points.
The driver led the Mavericks with 25.3 points and 9.3 rebounds, while Kobe led the Mavericks with 23.3 points. The Mavericks were just better and beat the Lakers on both ends of the court. Even if they are two-time NBA champions.
4-1 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (Western Finals)
In the Western Conference finals, the driver once again dominated. In fact, he will have his best series because he is completely unstoppable. Despite confronting Serge Ibaka (average 2.4 blocks per game in the regular season), the driver will still hit him with his one-leg backward shot. Nowitzki was in his bag for the entire series, averaging 32.2 points, 55.7% shooting, and 36.4% three-pointers.
Nowitzki is also automatic at the free throw line, attempting 61 free throws and hit 59 times in the series. The driver's every move in his arsenal forced Oklahoma City to attack on fire, and they did this in the second game after losing the first game. Although the driver scored 29 points, the Thunder took care of the business and got a huge push from their sixth man, James, to substitute Harden for 23 points.
But the Mavericks won the next two games convincingly, ending the Thunder's great season. Kevin Durant (28.0 points per game) and Russell Westbrook (23.6 points per game) are superstar players themselves, but they lack maturity, and Dirk tears them apart with their sparkling offensive performance heart of. The driver reached the NBA Finals for the second time in his career.
4-2 against the Miami Heat (NBA Finals)
Nowitzki once again faced the Miami Heat in the finals.The Driver and the Mavericks played against Dwyane Wade and the Heat in 2006 and lost the series due to Wade’s performance in one of the most dominant Finals in NBA history. It's time for Dirk to get his revenge, although Wade, with the help of MVP LeBron James and All-Star Chris Bosh, will be more helpful than the elderly Shaquille O'Neal .
But the driver doesn't care who his opponent is, he just wants to win his first championship. Entering the series, everyone liked the Miami Heat because they had the best Big Three in NBA history at the time. Fortunately for the driver, LeBron James will play the worst playoff series of his career, averaging only 17.8 points per game. On the other side, the driver is unbelievable. The German big man averaged 26.0 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, shooting 97.8% from the field, even though his shooting percentage was 41.6%. Fortunately, Nowitzki allowed Jason Terry to make up for this shortcoming with a 49.4% shooting rate of 18.0 PPG. With Terry surpassing LeBron in scoring in the series, it's time for the Mavericks to complete the deal.
The Heat and Mavericks will split the first four games, but Dirk and Terry will score 29 and 27 points respectively to end the series. This is also a series where Dwyane Wade and LeBron James laugh at the sick Dirk Nowitzki with flu-like symptoms, but the Germans will raise the NBA trophy at their expense and laugh to the end. . By defeating the most talented team in the NBA, Dirk completed an epic playoff journey.
Famous players defeated by Dirk Nowitzki: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kevin Duran Special , Russell Westbrook , James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul Gasol
Mavericks starting lineup: Jason-Key German , Deshaun Stevenson, Sean Marion , Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler
Famous substitute player: Jason- Terry, Peja Stojakovic
Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks
2021 NBA playoffs
4-0 against the Miami Heat First round)
Antetokounmpo and the Bucks have a great opportunity to avenge the Miami Heat,The team defeated them in last year's game. The Heat allowed the Bucks, especially Antetokounmpo, to build a wall under the basket and prevent Giannis from scoring easily, which made the Bucks look stupid. With Giannis being exposed as a bad shooter, Miami entered the NBA Finals.
This year, this is a different story. The Heat are led by Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayor, but no other players provide much help, including Jimmy Butler (only 14.5 points per game) . This allows Antetokounmpo and Chris Middleton to respond quickly to the Heat, ruling them awkwardly. At the end of the first game, the Bucks won the Milwaukee victory by 2 points, but the Bucks defeated the Heat by 34 points, 29 points and 17 points in the past three games.
Antetokounmpo leads all scorers with 23.5 points, 15.0 rebounds and 7.8 assists, while Middleton scores with 21.5 points and 6.8 rebounds. The Heat have no answer to the rampant Bucks. As a team, their field goal percentage is 46.8% while limiting the Heat’s shooting percentage to 39.5%. With the series coming to the fore in any other series in the playoffs, the Bucks rested well in seven exhausting duels with the Brooklyn Nets.
4-3 vs. Brooklyn Nets (Eastern Semifinals)
If James Harden and Kyrie Irving are fully healthy in this series, it is clear that this series will take a different path. Irving was injured in Game 4 against the Bucks, excluding him from the series. James Harden played only 43 seconds in the first game before missing the next three games. Harden will return in Game 5, but it looks like a shell of his own.
This means that the most talented super team in NBA history (maybe the Heat in 2011) has only Kevin Durant on the court against Giannis Antetokounmpo.Durant played a historic series, averaging 35.4 PPG and 10.6 rebounds per game, shooting 49.7% from the field. A faltering Harden averaged only 10.8 points per game in the series, which put Durant with a heavy burden in the series.
Antetokounmpo will have an amazing series of 31.9 points and 12.9 rebounds per game, and Middleton will contribute his 24.3 points per game like an All-Star. Although Durant didn't have another All-Star player by his side, Giannis and Middleton lost the first two games of the series (Kyrie Irving is healthy) but pushed Brooklyn to the seventh game. In Game 7, Durant made one of the greatest three-pointers in NBA history. The Bucks led by 2 points and looked like the winner of a game, but his toes were on the line, The game entered overtime.
With the Bucks returning to the Eastern Conference Finals, the tired Durant and the faltering Harden were unable to complete their tasks in front of Giannis and the key Chris Middleton.
4-2 vs. Atlanta Hawks (Eastern Finals)
Treyang and the Hawks have been surprisingly good all season, ranking fifth in the Eastern Conference. The Eagles played excellent team basketball, and Tre Young will officially become the superstar in the game. But the Bucks are too big for the Hawks, and too athletic.
Giannis Antetokounmpo will have another monster series averaging 26.5 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, but will miss the last two games of the series due to injury, with a 2-2 record. Brook Lopez and Chris Middleton will strengthen, dropping 33 and 32 points respectively to end the series.
The fact that the Bucks can beat the Eagles without Giannis shows their team chemistry and mutual belief,They will soon welcome their MVP in the finals against the Phoenix Suns.
4-2 against the Phoenix Suns (NBA Finals)
This story is about Chris Paul at the beginning of the NBA Finals. After all, Paul is 36 years old, and this is his first time in the NBA Finals. He has an All-Star player Devin Booker and a great Deandre Ayton next to him. He was crazy in the playoffs. But despite the fact that Phoenix is so good, they are not Giannis and Bucks opponents.
The Bucks will once again fall into a 0-2 disadvantage. Everyone is predicting the victory of the Phoenix Suns, because Chris Paul should win the championship, but Giannis will get rid of the injury and come back to life. In this series, Giannis ended with 35.2 PPG and 13.2 RPG, and there were also some iconic moments.
His block shot against Ayton in the 4th game is one of the best defensive performances in the history of the Finals, and his 50-point masterpiece in the 6th game of the final stage will always be Is his greatest game. Although Giannis has been struggling at the free throw line all year, he still won his first NBA championship for the Bucks with a 17-19 free throw percentage, which the Bucks have not had since 1971. Won a championship.
Famous players defeated by Giannis: Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, Jimmy Butler, Bam Ad Bayeux, Tre Young
Bucks starter: Zhu Holiday, Chris Middleton, PJ-Tucker, Giannis Adto Kumbo, Brook Lopez
Famous substitute players: Bobby Portis , Pat Connaughton
h121 Which is better?The two superstars are the MVPs of their teams,Also the best player in the playoffs. But I think the better performance was done by Dirk Nowitzki in 2011, thanks to the obvious difficulty of bypassing some dominant teams.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has played against top stars such as Kevin Durant, Devon Booker, Chris Paul and Tre Young; but the quality of the team cannot be compared with what the driver has experienced. Think about it: Dirk Nowitzki defeated Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and LeBron James in the same playoffs. This is almost unprecedented.
Antetokounmpo Giannis faced a Miami Heat team that had a chance to make the finals last year, a Brooklyn Nets without James Harden and Kyrie Irving, and an inexperienced Sun Team. In contrast, the driver had to deal with the two-time defending Lakers and Heat's Big Three LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
In fact, Antetokounmpo faced a weaker team and let Chris Middleton finish the game for him, and the Greek freak was injured in the Eastern Conference finals, which did not help him. At the end of the sixth game, Antetokounmpo's single-game performance surpassed the driver, but in terms of all-around performance in the playoffs, the advantage belonged to Dirk Nowitzki, who successfully defeated the greatest of our games 3 players.
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