Kevin Durant played all 48 minutes and led both teams in scoring (49 points), rebounds (17), and assists (10) as the Brooklyn Nets stormed back after trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half (and 16 points at halftime) to outscore the Milwaukee Bucks 71-49 in the second half en route to a stunning 114-108 game five win. Durant joined Oscar Robertson, Charles Barkley, and Luka Doncic on the short list of players who have produced at least 40 points, at least 15 rebounds, and at least 10 assists in a playoff game--and Durant is the first player to have at least 45 points while reaching those rebound and assist totals in a playoff game.
The Nets lead the series 3-2, and can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals with a game six victory in Milwaukee. The Nets were without the services of the injured Kyrie Irving, but Jeff Green poured in 27 points on blistering 8-11 field goal shooting--including 7-8 from three point range--and Blake Griffin chipped in 17 points on 7-11 field goal shooting. James Harden, making his first appearance since a 43 second cameo in game one, showed remarkable durability by playing 46 minutes, but he scored just five points on 1-10 field goal shooting, though he did contribute eight assists and six rebounds offset by four turnovers.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 34 points and 12 rebounds and he shot 14-22 from the field in 42 minutes. He did a lot, and yet it could be argued that he should have done more. For one thing, he never matched up with Durant on defense. For all of the talk about P.J. Tucker's heart and toughness and strength, it is obvious that Durant is wearing him out and that Tucker has no answers. Tucker is too short to consistently bother Durant's shot: Durant goes wherever on the court he wants to go, and then he shoots over Tucker. When Durant misses, it cannot honestly be said that Tucker stopped him. Durant just missed--and he did not miss very often during game five. Antetokounmpo is taller than Durant, stronger than Durant, and almost certainly faster than Durant. It is understandable that the Bucks do not want Antetokounmpo to guard Durant for the whole game because that could take away from Antetokounmpo's offense, but Antetokounmpo is a former Defensive Player of the Year, and it is incumbent on him to accept--or demand from the coaching staff--the challenge of guarding Durant on key possessions down the stretch. It is not acceptable for Antetokounmpo to be standing in the corner guarding Joe Harris while Durant hits shot after shot to put the Bucks one loss away from playoff elimination.
During both the halftime show and the postgame show, the TNT studio crew pointed out that the Bucks played--in their words--"stupid" basketball in terms of bad shot selection/failing to identify and exploit mismatches. The halftime comments about those problems foreshadowed Milwaukee's demise. The Nets' offense mainly consisted of giving Durant room to create mayhem--which he consistently did--but the Bucks proved incapable of (1) stopping Durant, (2) trapping him effectively to make someone else beat them by making tough shots (trapping Durant in a way that enables someone else to make a layup or a wide open three is not effective), and (3) exploiting mismatches on offense. No Net can stop Antetokounmpo in the post--and Brook Lopez also enjoys a mismatch advantage in the post--but the Bucks had far too many empty offensive possessions that resulted in bad, low percentage shots. During the postgame show, Charles Barkley singled out a late game possession during which Harden--guarding Antetokounmpo in the post on one good leg--waved off a double team and leaned on Antetokounmpo before Antetokounmpo settled for a turnaround fadeaway shot that he missed. Harden is not a bad post defender--he uses his strength and relatively low center of gravity to his advantage--but that possession had to end in a dunk or a foul on a dunk attempt. Antetokounmpo cannot settle for a fadeaway against an immobile player who is half a foot shorter than he is. That one possession did not decide the outcome of the game, but it is one example of how the Bucks do not exploit their mismatch advantages.
The Nets have one main mismatch advantage, and they wore it (and the Bucks) out by using it: Durant's performance was spellbinding and magnificent. I have been watching NBA basketball for four decades, and I am familiar with the history of the game prior to that. This was not the most significant playoff performance that I have ever seen--that has to be reserved for Finals games, or elimination games in playoff rounds prior to the Finals--but in terms of pure dominance, deadly shooting from all areas of the court, all-around skill set mastery (including rebounding like a center and passing like a point guard), and will to win, this is one of the best playoff performances that I have ever seen. Somewhere around the moment that Durant crossed the 40 point barrier, I thought to myself, "Tonight, Durant is Jordan or Kobe. He is just not going to let the Nets lose." Not long after that, the Nets had a horrible possession during which Harden dribbled out most of the shot clock and did not run any recognizable play; with the shot clock about to expire, he lobbed the ball to Durant, who promptly went to work and buried a three pointer. (Side note: it is hilarious that Harden got an assist on the play after wasting almost the whole possession and then passing to Durant--who had to create his own shot with no "assist" from Harden in any meaningful sense of the word--but that play is just one illustration of why statistics are often misleading, and I will have more to say on that topic in an article that will be posted shortly). Harden deserves some credit for logging so many minutes while nursing an injury, but anyone who ever argues that he is even close to being as valuable as Durant needs to be slapped silly and called goofy; not only is Durant much more valuable based on size, skill set, and mentality, it is tempting to say it was difficult to tell how injured Harden was just based on his numbers: although he has had a couple good performances in game fives with the series tied 2-2, Harden has also had 11 points on 4-10 field goal shooting, nine points on 4-8 field goal shooting, and 19 points on 5-21 field goal shooting. So, five points on 1-10 field goal shooting is not shocking, and he is fortunate that he can now be the third option riding Durant's coattails however far two-time Finals MVP Durant can carry this team.
That's the article: Dominant Durant Carries Nets to Pivotal Game Five Win Over Bucks
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