THE wise pick is Phoenix over Milwaukee. Surprised? Not me.
Even days before the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals could begin on Wednesday, Milwaukee wasn’t 100 percent healthy. That’s because its top gun, the two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, wasn’t totally fit himself.
But then, even with Antetokounmpo absent in Games Five and Six due to a knee injury, the Bucks bounced off the Atlanta Hawks both times to win the Eastern Conference crown, 4-2.
Khris Middleton more than made up for Antetokounmpo’s absence as he consistently produced double figures in sparking the Bucks’ historic return to the Finals in nearly half a century.
Middleton, 29, capped his two-game heroics by banging home 32 points in the Bucks’ Game Six, 118-107 series-clincher on Sunday.
The Olympics-bound Middleton punctuated his points-producing prowess by firing 23 third-quarter points to practically contain single-handedly a late Hawks surge.
So suddenly prolific was Middleton that he averaged 29.8 points per game in Milwaukee’s final 2 games of the Bucks’ last two series against Brooklyn and Atlanta, respectively, after Milwaukee first ousted Miami.
Calm, cool and collected was how Bucks forward Pat Connaughton describes Middleton, who is expected to continue spearheading Milwaukee’s aborted championship dream in 1974.
Even if Antetokounmpo plays today, the Greek Freak’s condition is suspect and he might not be at his best in a series that demands durable brutality.
If there’s one big thing going for the Bucks, it is that they’ve been NBA champs once—in 1971, when they dealt the Baltimore Bullets a 4-0 swamping behind the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor.
The Bucks were in the Finals again in 1974, but they lost to the Boston Celtics in seven grueling games after Jabbar’s buzzer-beating skyhook in Game Six sent the series to a deciding Game Seven.
Still, the odds favor the Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns, who beat the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers on their way to the Finals—all because of Chris Paul.
Paul is the master of the pick-and-roll and owns the league’s highest shooting percentage from the perimeter.
In the Suns’ series-clinching win over the Lakers, Paul made 41 points, eight assists and had zero turnovers, making 122 assists in 14 playoff games thus far this year.
The Suns are hungrier than the Bucks as they have yet to win a crown, losing to the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals.
For being the NBA’s most consistent playmaker, both in the regular season and the playoffs, Paul has been renamed from “Point Guard” to “Point God.”
Thus, your 180-peso bet for the Suns will win 100 pesos if the Suns swipe the title, and your 100-peso bet for the Bucks will earn you 145 pesos if the Bucks prevail.
Place your bets.
THAT’S IT Advance birthday greetings (9 July) to Malaya M. Sadiwa, the famed content writer/filmmaker/book author and dearest Nanay to MayaSoh and Ikap and kindly wife to computer tekkie Ricky. Cheers!