Was Giannis Antetokounmpo's Game 4 stop better than 'The Block' from LeBron?
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s spectacular defensive play against the Phoenix Suns is drawing comparisons to one of the best stops in NBA history: "The Block."
With less than two minutes to go in Wednesday’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Antetokounmpo made the most of the big moment, rising for an incredible block to deny Deandre Ayton’s alley-oop for Phoenix and maintain Milwaukee's two-point lead, which eventually turned into a series-tying 109-103 victory.
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The sports world couldn’t help but compare it to then-Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James‘ chase-down block of Andre Iguodala — arguably the best block in NBA history — as Iguodala attempted a go-ahead layup in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
In James' case, the Warriors didn’t score another point, and the Cavs went on to win 93-89 to secure Cleveland’s first NBA title. This time around, Antetokounmpo's block was the catalyst in Milwaukee's winning back-to-back games at home to tie the series 2-2.
In Wednesday’s postgame media conference, Bucks guard Pat Connaughton said Antetokounmpo's effort tops James', noting: "He was guarding the pick-and-roll. He had to judge where the pass was, where Ayton was catching it and trying to dunk it above the box. It’s about as impressive as you can get.
"Chase-down block, you got a little bit more of an ability to read," he added. "Book threw a great pass, he threw it high and away from any defender, and Giannis was able to recover. He's Defensive Player of the Year, two-time MVP for a reason, and I think it's those types of plays — to be able to read where Ayton is, where the ball is and to have the athleticism to get that high and get literally all of the basketball — is why I would give the edge to him."
On Thursday, NBA Analyst Chris Broussard joined "Undisputed" to discuss where Antetokounmpo falls in the discussion for best block of all time and said that he believes the Bucks' star is a close second behind James.
"Connaughton went a little too far," Broussard said. "It's the second-best block in NBA Finals history — of course after LeBron's. LeBron's I'm giving a 10. Giannis' I'm giving a 9. I think everything that makes Giannis great was on display on that play. … He's a hustler. He gets all types of hustle plays. … He didn't give up on the play when a lot of people would have."
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Chris Broussard joins Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe to rate Giannis Antetokounmpo's incredible block in Game 4.
According to Shannon Sharpe, though, Antetokounmpo's block was a perfect 10.
"That's as good of a play, given the circumstances, as you'll ever see from a defensive perspective," he said. "At first, I thought, ‘There's no way he blocked that clean and did not foul [Ayton].' … You look at what he did. He forced [Devin Booker] to give it up. Very few big guys can do that: Make him give it up and then recover enough to block a 7-footer at the rim.
"He said, ‘I’m gonna meet you on the top floor, and then I'ma press down and send you back to the floor.' … It was an unbelievable play … given the circumstances in that ball game, that's a 10 play for me."
On the other hand, Sharpe's cohost, Skip Bayless, wasn't nearly as impressed, rating it a 4.
"I'm highly entertained by both of you overreacting to what we saw last night," Bayless said. "I was gonna give it a 3, but just because it's so timely and, you can argue, so clutch that it did ‘save’ the game at least for a moment, who knows what would have happened the rest of the game, the way it was going, but I'll go up to a 4. On just pure execution, it's completely predictable. It's obvious.
"It's, for Giannis, a very easy block to pull off because of the way the play unfolded. … All the advantage belongs to Giannis. He's got a running start. He's as explosive a 6-foot-11-inch leaper as we have in the league, so it's a really easy block for him because he can outjump Deandre Ayton, who's stuck with an awkward lob pass.
"And the world is saying that's the greatest block ever? Stop it."
Check out the full video from "Undisputed" below:
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