Recovered from his scary injury, Giannis Antetokounmpo is dominating the Suns

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

MILWAUKEE — Not even two weeks ago, Giannis Antetokounmpo thought his postseason was done. 

Remember that? He’d lept to contest a pass and, upon landing, his left knee had snapped backward. He crumpled to the ground, grimaced in pain and grabbed his leg. He needed help walking off the floor. 

The injury looked like Kevin Durant’s ruptured Achilles from the 2019 Finals. It looked gruesome. Antetokounmpo looked to be done. So did the Bucks.

"I thought, ‘I’m going to be out for a year,’" Antetokounmpo would later say. 

His knee swelled. "Double in size," he said. Yet, somehow, Antetokounmpo avoided a serious injury; he was diagnosed with a hyperextended knee. He missed just two games and, miraculously, returned for the start of the Finals. 

Even more astounding is that three games into the most important and pressurized series of his career, he’s proven himself to be the best player on the floor. Actually, let’s restate that, but with the proper context: Three games into the most important and pressurized series of his career, and despite playing on a balky knee, Antetokounmpo has proven himself to be a force unlike any other in the league.

"I don’t even know how he’s doing it," Bucks big man Bobby Portis said Sunday night after Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee to a 120-100 Game 3 victory over the Phoenix Suns in front of a raucous home crowd. "Most of the time when guys do that, they come back and ease into it, or they come back and they're kind of timid and whatnot. He's still just going out there and playing the same way like he never did that. I just think whoever gave him the nickname the Greek Freak did a great job with that."

In a game populated by giants, Antetokounmpo has spent the postseason making every Suns player look small. This was the case once again Sunday night, as he bullied the Suns on the block, pulverized them in the paint and trampled them in transition. His box-score line – 41 points on 14-for-23 shooting, 13 rebounds, six assists – was the type you recite to your grandkids in the future, but, somehow, also undersells the imprint he left on the game. 

Little about this Bucks postseason run has been pretty. They’ve fallen behind a bunch. Their offense has been stuck in the mud. Their secondary stars and role players have all been consistently inconsistent.

Yet throughout it all the Bucks have persevered. How? By mirroring their star. They’ve rebounded 29.3% of their misses during this postseason run, a mark that would have led the league during the regular season. The number of their offensive possessions that have started with a fast break, and the rate at which they create a fast break off of live rebounds, are both top-five marks, according to Cleaning the Glass. They’ve also shot 69.9% at the rim, a mark that would also have led the league during the regular season.

In other words: The Bucks have won through brute force and effort, by pounding the offensive glass, by bulldozing their way to the rim, by blanketing opposing ball-handlers, by walling off the paint, by wearing opponents down, by playing the long game.

They're also doing it by assuming that over the course of four quarters and one series, opponents will relent to both the math of head coach Mike Budenholzer’s schemes – take all the contested midrange shots you want, and, sure, Jae Crowder, Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges, you and the rest of the supporting cast take all the contested triples you’d like – and the force of Antetokounmpo. There’s a reason the Bucks are now 10-2 this postseason in Games 3-7. 

That, of course, has been the blueprint in the past, but the difference this postseason – aside from the injuries that have helped clear the Bucks’ path – has been the way Antetokounmpo is seeing and manipulating the action on the court. It might not look as balletic as Chris Paul dancing around a screen or as artful as Devin Booker rising up with his elbow perfectly tucked, but Antetokounmpo’s skills are just as rare and – thanks to his size and strength – even more impactful. 

"He's a great playmaker, screener, passer and he does so many great things," Budenholzer said after Sunday night’s win, a game in which Antetokounmpo put the whole package on display and upped his playoff averages to 28.5 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. He’d ram a defender into the paint, but then on the next possession field a pass in traffic and kick it to an open shooter on the wing, something in years past he often struggled with. 

"I feel like the low man was always there coming, but at the same time, it creates a lot of attention," Antetokounmpo said. "Like if the low man comes, the corner is wide open; and if the corner is shooting the wing, he's wide open. I feel like it's not the first action; it's the second action, it's the third action, right." 

So here are the Bucks, again on the verge of climbing out of a 2-0 hole, and here’s Antetokounmpo, again wearing an opponent down. The Suns are the deeper team. They’re the better team. But having no answer for Antetokounmpo – did you know that the Bucks outscored the Suns in both Games 1 and 2 in the minutes he was on the floor? – has become a problem. 

That doesn’t make the Suns unique. But they’re going to need to be in order to hold on. 

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.