After a shocking Game 1 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Milwaukee Bucks got off to a hot start in Game 2 and never looked back, leading the series by 32 in a 125–91 blowout win.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday paved the way for the Bucks to combine 47 points in the win. Holiday and Brooke Lopez dominated the defensive end as well, suppressing the Hawks with on-the-ball pressure and rim protection. Trae Young led Atlanta with 15 points, but made nine turnovers and failed to advance his team aggressively.
Have the Bucks found a defensive solution for Young? Can the Hawks do anything to Giannis in a restricted area? Here are four things we got from Game 2.
What wasn't surprising about Trae Young's instant-classic shimmy in Game 1 was that the Hawks' showy star busted it while putting up a historic stat line in a competitive conference finals game. It was that the Bucks player, defending Young, was passed so gracefully that the move made him a spectator.
That kind of defensive insult — a play or an entire night — just doesn't happen at the Holiday.
And it apparently doesn't happen without the harsh payoff that first-team all-defensive selection was certainly given in Game 2.
Young was as bad in Friday's defeat as he was breathtaking during his 48-point, 11-assist feat in the series opener. He finished with more turnovers (nine) than buckets (six), while holding on for 15 points and three assists in blowouts.
The holiday had a lot to do with Young's horrifyingly closed night. Young was 3-of-11 with six turnovers when Holiday was their primary defender during Game 2, according to ESPN Stats and Information Research.
Don't count on Young's swagger to be shaken by a terrific performance against one of the league's best perimeter defenders. His confidence is not conditional, as evidenced by the 29-foot dagger he hit in Game 7 against the top seed 76 after missing 18 of his last 22 shots.
Holiday, however, sent Young a message with his response to Young Star's Game 1 show: The Eastern Conference Finals won't be all shami and giggles.
Since video-game controllers added the circle button, there isn't a moment as big of a spin move as Antetokounmpo's first half.
While waiting for the Hawks' defenders near the basket, Antetokounmpo decided to neither go through nor shoot at them, instead turning around them, finishing gracefully in the process. The strategy neutralized Atlanta's attempts to build a wall around the rim against Antetokounmpo, who made nine of his 10 attempts in the restricted area as Milwaukee shot 26 of 23 as a team.
Antetokounmpo's first spin move was his most impressive. Matched against Solomon Hill four minutes into the game, Antetokounmpo spun back-middle to face Hawks big man Clint Capela who was defending the rim. Rather than risk a blocked dunk, Antetokounmpo swung the ball into one of his hands and ended up on the other side of the basket—his long-length version of Michael Jordan's "fantastic move" on a layup in the 1991 NBA Finals hand. was changing.
In the second quarter, Antetokounmpo drove in the other direction towards the baseline while driving against Danilo Gallinari, creating a tight angle for his arm to be fully extended. He then did a full pirate against Capella, continuing to his left for a reverse finish before spinning mid first.
If Giannis can make his way to the rim on a regular basis, nothing can stop the two-time MVP in this playoff run.
In possession of the broken Hawks to start the second half, Trai Young went on a high screen-and-roll with his most reliable escape hatch - his center, Capella. No young guard in the league is more dangerous than going downhill against a backpedaling big man, and Young suffered a substantial loss against Lopez in Game 1.
But in the opening minute of the third quarter of Game 2, Lopez remained within arms' reach as Young drove from his left. With the shot clocked off, Lopez closed the edge of the paint and forced Young into the left corner. Hands high and feet happy, Lopez did not relent until Atlanta was whistled for a 24-second violation.
It was a welcome sight when Young cut the Bucks' drop coverage in Game 1. Lopez spent most of that Bucks loss in retreat, powerless against Young's diet of floaters and forward lob passes to Capella and John Collins.
In a league in which being small is now the norm as much as a novelty, Lopez is the portrait of the big man in trouble. He is both one of Milwaukee's most skilled defenders and, in this series, it's weakest. Put him on the floor, and the Bucks have prime rim protection - but someone Young can also pick in a pick-and-roll matchup. Bench him to a short-ball unit with Antetokounmpo on 5, and the Bucks get maximum flexibility defensively, but leave themselves exposed on the glass, as they did in Game 1.
In Game 2, Lopez played a step or two up, driving Young off those high screens, the rest of the defense helping Lopez push Young off the middle of the floor.
According to Second Spectrum, the Hawks averaged 0.47 points per direct pick when Young was a ball handler and Lopez was on the court. In Game 1, that efficiency was 1.40.
Repeatedly on Friday nights, Young found himself locked in an alley by Milwaukee's tall defenders. In doing so, the Bucks were able to avoid that difficult choice between size and flexibility.
Antetokounmpo hit 6 of 8 free throws in Game 1 of the series, including two high-pressure makes with five seconds left. But when reports of the final two minutes for Game 1 surfaced on Friday, it said Antetokounmpo had violated the rules on two late free throws, according to an official NBA review. This was probably the first time a 10-second foul line had been breached in the last two minutes of a playoff report.
On Friday night Antetokounmpo made 3 of 4 free throws in the Game 2 blowout. Two games in the series, he's at 75%. Small sample, sure, but the playoff series swings on small samples. It was a proven problem, after Antetokounmpo earned just 48% off the line in the first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets. Now, we are on the verge of a reverse trend.
Everything he did in the three days between the end of the second round and the final of the conference is working.
Milwaukee seemed to have a more difficult time against Atlanta in the middle than Brooklyn's undersized interior, but that didn't happen in the early stages. The Bucks racked up 70 points in the paint in Game 1, which was why they were late in the game, while shooting a pathetic 8-of-36 on 3s.
In Game 2, the Bucks demolished the Hawks on basket strikes, stunning 24 of 28 shots in the paint in the first three quarters. Antetokounmpo defeated them 9-of-10 in restricted area in Game 2. He is now 21-in-27 in the series.
This is unsettling for the Hawks, and the way to slow it down is to foul him. But what if Antetokounmpo is warming up there too?
Hawks fans better practice their speed calculations for Game 3.