Newspaper & online reporters and analysts explore the cultural and news stories of the week, with photos frequently added by Esco20, and reveal their significance (with a slant towards Esco 20's opinions)
Giannis Antetokounmpo during the Bucks’ victory over the 76ers last month. They have a strong record against the best teams in the league. Photograph: Morry Gash/AP
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he Milwaukee Bucks are in the midst of a historic season. In fact, the Bucks are on pace to become one of just three 70-win teams in NBA history along with the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who won 73 regular-season games, and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who won 72. Yet you would be hard-pressed to find too many people comparing these Bucks with those historic teams. How have Milwaukee pulled this off and why have they flown under the radar?
A huge part of the reason for the Bucks’ success is that they have the reigning (and probable repeat) Most Valuable Player, Giannis Antetokounmpo. According to Player Efficiency Rating, which measures a player’s overall contribution, Antetokounmpo is on pace to have the best regular-season in NBA history. Terrifyingly, for opponents at least, he is still only 25.
Of course, one player, even the best player in the league, cannot win a title on his own. The Bucks currently have the top defensive rating in the NBA, which is only partly because of Antetokounmpo’s eye-popping length and versatile skills in thwarting opposing offenses. They have put up one of the most ferocious rim defenses the NBA has seen in years, with plenty of credit going to brothers Brook and Robin Lopez. Right now, the Bucks have the best player in the league and the best defense and, as a result, the best record.
In previous years, one could dismiss the Bucks’ record as being inflated by the fact that they play in the relatively weak Eastern Conference. Indeed, when the Bucks secured the top seed last season, it could be partially explained away by the fact that LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Los Angeles Lakers. This time around it doesn’t feel like their season deserves any such asterisk.
The East, this season, is top-heavy but competitive. The reigning champions, the Toronto Raptors, buoyed by the rapid rise of Pascal Siakam, haven’t been hurt by the departure of Kawhi Leonard. The Boston Celtics were expected to take a step back after Kyrie Irving bolted to the Brooklyn Nets, but Kemba Walker has been a better fit chemistry-wise. The Miami Heat have outperformed their preseason projections. The Philadelphia 76ers have struggled to find a way to get Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Al Horford on the same page, but they’re far too talented to completely dismiss.
And yet, the Bucks have shrugged them all off, securing a playoff spot well before any of the conference’s other contenders. They are nine games ahead of the second-place Raptors and are a near shoo-in for the best record in the NBA, barring crushing injuries or an inexplicable collapse. The Bucks haven’t assembled a super-team, although Khris Middleton has rightfully made the last two All-Star teams, but they are greater than the sum of their parts. That makes them not just heavy favorites to represent the East but a legitimate threat to defeat whoever ends up emerging from the West. In fact, they have put together a 9-3 record against the other seven best teams in the league.
Nate Silver(@NateSilver538)
Here's how those 8 teams have fared *against one another*. The strong record for Houston and the weak one for the Lakers stands out.
Still, it feels like the Bucks are being underestimated. When the Celtics played the Lakers in a thrilling contest last month, the press rushed to declare Celtics-Lakers as a dream finals matchup, completely ignoring the near-historic win pace that the Bucks are on. Part of this reason is, obviously, that the Bucks play in Milwaukee, not exactly the sexiest market. Media coverage is always slanted in favor of the teams who bring in the bigger ratings and it’s logical that many involved are salivating over the ratings bonanza that would be another installment in the famous Celtics-Lakers rivalry.
It’s also true that the Bucks won’t get the love they deserve until they actually prove themselves in the postseason. Last year they came into the playoffs as the top seed in the East, only to lose their last four games to the Raptors. While the loss felt like less of a disappointment in the wake of the Raptors’ surprising championship, there’s no doubt the Bucks missed a chance to convert the unbelievers.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how many wins they accumulate in the regular season. The main thing people remember about the 73-9 Warriors is that they blew a 3-1 lead to the Cavaliers in the finals. The Bucks have one advantage over the Warriors in that they will be operating under more modest expectations. It’s possible that no matter how impressive they are, they will still be underdogs if they make the finals.
The East is stronger than this year, but the Western Conference playoffs promise to be a grueling battle. The Lakers have a resurgent LeBron James and a never-better Anthony Davis plus, in the aftermath of Kobe Bryant’s death, they may be the sentimental favorites for the first time in franchise history. We all remember how Kawhi Leonard obliterated the competition in Toronto’s title run last year and his current team, the Clippers, are probably even better. The undersized Houston Rockets have James Harden and Russell Westbrook both motivated to overcome previous postseason failures. Whichever team emerges from this mix may well be the favorites no matter what the Bucks do between now and the finals. But they are also likely to be tired after beating some very good teams to get there in the first place.
Not that the Bucks should get ahead of themselves. The first step to win the respect of the skeptics is simply to make the finals. Should they fall short in the Eastern Conference finals – or earlier – this will be a lost opportunity.
Legacies are generally determined after the fact, written by others, imposed on the subjects without their input. For the last three years, LeBron James has endured daily revisions to his legacy, a chorus of critics framing his career based on a single game, a single series, the shots that swished and those that missed, never waiting for a fuller picture to emerge.
James at last seized control of his own narrative Thursday night, leaving nothing to chance and no more room for debate. He drove hard, shot brilliantly, scored every critical basket and finally pushed the Miami Heat past the San Antonio Spurs for a 95-88 victory in Game 7 of the N.B.A. finals.
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James came here three summers ago in pursuit of championship glory, to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in a superstar lineup for the ages, to start collecting championships — “Not one, not two, not three ... ” he infamously declared in July 2010. The banners are indeed starting to accumulate, with James earning this second title despite diminishing returns from his co-stars.
With Wade slowed by an injured right knee, James carried a greater burden this June than he did a year ago. And he faced a tougher, more seasoned opponent, a decorated Spurs team with three Hall of Fame talents in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
It took seven games, including a furious comeback and an overtime in Game 6, to earn this moment. And then it took everything James had in the final minutes of the final game. ... They did it by becoming only the fourth team to win Games 6 and 7 at home after facing a 3-2 deficit. It was the first time in this series that either team won two in a row.
“The toughest series we’ve ever been in,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said.
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It was a heartbreaking conclusion for the Spurs, who came within seconds of winning the championship in Game 6. Duncan was aiming for his fifth title, which would have placed him alongside Kobe Bryant for the most by any star in the post-Jordan era. This was his first defeat in the finals, and it hit hard.
Sitting on the postgame podium, Duncan looked inconsolable. He stared down at the table, his left hand on his head, and paused frequently between phrases. He bemoaned his “bad decisions” and missed shots, in particular two point-blank shots that could have tied the game at 90-90 with about a minute to play.
Still, Duncan was mostly brilliant, finishing with 24 points, 12 rebounds and 4 steals.
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This was just the fourth seven-game finals in the last 20 years, and it was as riveting as any of them, for the personalities it featured and for the way it unfolded.
The Spurs and the Heat alternated victories for six games, neither team able to shake the other...
Then came an epic Game 6 — the Spurs coming within seconds of the title, the security ropes set and the trophy waiting. Then a Ray Allen 3-pointer, an overtime, a Heat victory, a celebration postponed, a series pushed to the nail-biting brink.
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Outside the Heat’s locker room, Pat Riley, the man who persuaded James, Wade and Bosh to become teammates three years ago, was receiving congratulatory hugs, handshakes and pats on the back from everyone near him.
Everyone should understand by now that [LeBron] James is only clearing his throat, settling into the prime of his emotional maturity. In all basketball-related ways, he is no man-child anymore. The numbers alone — 37 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers in 45 minutes of owning the ball and the burden — fail to explain his dominance of Game 7.
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It was the sheer force of James’s all-court versatility and his Jordanesque obsession with exerting himself on every play that finally gave Miami separation from the Spurs. Dared to shoot the jumper, he made five 3-pointers. And after a leg-weary Tim Duncan missed a short jump hook ...that would have tied the score, James drained the Spurs of a pulse with a 19-footer from the right side that gave the Heat a 92-88 lead with 27.9 seconds left.
“I mean, I watched film, and my mind started to work and I said, O.K., this is how they’re going to play me for the whole series,” James said. “I looked at all my regular-season stats, all my playoff stats, and I was one of the best midrange shooters in the game. I shot a career high from the 3-point line. I just told myself: Don’t abandon what you’ve done all year. Don’t abandon now because they’re going under.”
The Spurs finally knuckled under when Manu Ginobili, on the baseline, tried to pass the ball behind him to Duncan. Stepping into the passing lane, James got the steal.
“LeBron was unbelievable,” Duncan said.
Duncan is best known as pro basketball’s most stoic superstar, and the world watched him suffer late Thursday in a way that was almost too painful to watch. After missing the jump hook — “a bunny” to him — and a tip-in, he slapped the floor in frustration while setting up on defense. He sank to his knees after Kawhi Leonard was late switching back on James for the clinching jumper...
He had so badly wanted to build on the four-title résumé of his 16 seasons with the Spurs and had come close enough to feel the trophy on his fingertips in the final minute of Game 6. ...“Game 7 is always going to haunt me,” Duncan said.
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James [is] a transcendent star out of the Magic-Michael mode. [His] critics are all quiet now. He had the last word.
