New York (AFP)
Released prematurely in 2019 and 2020, Milwaukee has reinvented itself this season, thanks to a finally complementary cast, and can become NBA champion on Tuesday on its ground.
In mid-May, before the start of the play-offs, the bookmakers still preferred five teams in the title race.
Champion in 1971 with Milwaukee, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did not see the Bucks pass the Brooklyn Nets and their offensive armada.
After their success on Saturday, the "deer" are yet a victory of a coronation in this final they now lead 3-2 against the Phoenix Suns, with the advantage of playing at home on Tuesday.
And their journey has been anything but quiet to get there.
Led 2-0 against the Nets, beaten at home by the Atlanta Hawks in the next round, the Bucks have, each time, returned compromised situations.
Milwaukee could even become the fifth team in history to win a final after falling 2-0.
- Team upset -
On paper, the star is the same as in the team which collapsed twice in a row in the play-offs in 2019 and 2020. His lieutenant and coach too.
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But for the rest, almost everything has changed.
The Milwaukee of past years, dominant in the regular season, systematically found his limits in the play-offs, forced by his opponents to caricature.
Star Giannis Antetokounmpo was being pushed out of the racket, where he is most effective, and the Bucks stalled as soon as their three-point shots failed to come in.
In defense, Mike Budenholzer's players displayed the same imbalance, too soft with shooters in a league that swears only by long-range missiles.
"What we've been through the last two or three years has prepared us for this moment, to play and be effective on both sides of the pitch," said the coach after the match on Saturday.
Until last season, "when we were facing real adversity, in the play-offs, we could not overcome it," admitted shooter Pat Connaughton on Saturday.
Besides the experience, the difference was also made this season on the casting.
Exit Eric Bledsoe, too individualistic leader, replaced by Jrue Holiday.
The arrival of the 30-year-old veteran "changed the whole construction of the Bucks attack", explained in April the former glory of Milwaukee Marques Johnson.
Compact, powerful, the former Sixers and Pelicans became the third arrow in the offensive trident that Milwaukee had sought for several seasons.
He is not a pure shooter but a puncher, at ease in contact, who shares with Khris Middleton, loyal lieutenant of Giannis Antetokounmpo, the taste for physical games, as play-offs often are.
Holiday helped rebalance the attack and put Antetokounmpo back close to the basket and inject the pace and circulation that were so lacking in previous seasons.
- A little vice -
Better still: ultra-dependent on his Greek demigod in recent years, Milwaukee even knows how to win without him.
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"The best thing that happened to the Bucks was Giannis' injury" in the Eastern Conference final, announced former player Charles Barkley a few days ago on TNT.
Their genius back in its bottle, the Greens and Whites have, in fact, chained two authoritative victories over Atlanta to qualify for the final.
Saturday, it is with the 2019 and 2020 MVP on the bench that the Bucks returned to the game, as a symbol.
Excellent on the man, Jrue Holiday also energized the outside defense of the Bucks.
In the final, he did a lot of work on point guard Chris Paul and gave his team an away victory with a decisive interception in Game 5.
During the season, Milwaukee also recruited another top defenseman, cubic winger PJ Tucker.
Holiday, Tucker and replacement pivot Bobby Portis, fan of angry howls, brought these Bucks a little vice, nastiness, which they probably lacked to get out of the pack in the play-offs.
This season, "when we are led, we still find ways to win matches," Antetokounmpo explained on Saturday.
Very badly started (-16 after 9 minutes), Game 5 was the perfect illustration of this new Milwaukee, able to turn back and then get out of the rut.
"We were already behind", hammered the "Greek Freak", "and we did not react as if it was the end of the world".
For Pat Connaughton, "this is basketball winning titles."
© 2021 AFP