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Both are nightmare scenarios, capable of scaring even the most seasoned and twisted basketball coach awake in the middle of the night, yelling, shaking, and calling “Mom!”
So what’s worse: Losing your superstar player unexpectedly in the heat of a playoff game and having to adapt and improvise on the fly? Or knowing and fearing for 48 hours that you may not have it at all, well aware that your opponents are preparing accordingly?
While Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo continued 24-hour treatment Monday for his right ankle sprain, coach Mike Budenholzer was able to protect himself from his response only because he and the team thought Antetokounmpo wouldn’t even play in Game 4 against Miami on Sunday. From that perspective, Antetokounmpo’s 19 points in 11 minutes before he had to leave in the second quarter were bonuses.
> Game 5: Tuesday, 6:30 ET on TNT
Budenholzer explained that “little asterisk” that got the Bucks through the first nightmare. Antetokounmpo’s availability for Game 5 on Tuesday is not expected to be known until the hours or minutes before the tip.
“I would say that, generally speaking, a player who falls into a game [is worse]”Said the coach. “What made this one a bit unique, there was some chance he wasn’t going to play. So he thought and prepared a bit on ‘What if Giannis didn’t play?’ From the tip.
“But if you’re going to play a totally healthy player and he unexpectedly gets injured, there are things you have to adapt and do as you go.”
To the Bucks’ credit, they did all of those things, strategically and emotionally, leading 118-115 in overtime to avoid being eliminated on a sweep. Several players, notably Khris Middleton, took over from Antetokounmpo’s departure. They were outscored from the foul line and 3-point arc, but managed to dominate in the paint without their powerful main intruder there.
The Bucks hit or pounced on the basketball when it came loose, landed a lot of their favorite shots, took advantage of when the Heat relaxed a bit and survived.
“Did we get into a hole? Absolutely, ”guard Wesley Matthews told reporters Monday. “Are we going to be punks about it? Absolutely not.”
Now we go to Nightmare No. 2: Anticipating an elimination game minus the Kia Most Valuable Player that is likely to repeat from the NBA and his certified Kia Defensive Player of the Year on his side. Against a Miami group that has been more of a fighter for most of the series, now cracked from missing Game 4 and no doubt supporting the Bucks’ potential understaffing.
“We look forward to him playing, ready to play, being the player that he is,” Heat veteran Andre Iguodala said. “We have to be able to adapt to him… and adapt better without him.
“They are not going to come in with a flat game,” Iguodala also said. “They are desperate and they are going to play like this.”
For the record, Antetokounmpo participated in the Bucks’ training session Monday morning on the Disney campus. Also for the record, the team didn’t do anything strenuous that a guy in a walking boot couldn’t handle.
“On the court, we literally went through a couple of defensive things, a couple of offensive things, just like standing in the middle of the court,” Budenholzer said. “He was able to participate in that, but I think it wasn’t much, so don’t read too much.”
If Antetokounmpo is out or plays under full health, he will slide back into that top player spot for Milwaukee, it will be Middleton. In addition to his vital numbers (36 points, eight rebounds, eight assists), he kept shooting regardless of his percentage (12 of 28) and made many of the Bucks’ offensive decisions to orchestrate the victory.
Said Iguodala: “He has a great ability to score the ball. He’s not a particularly fast player, but he has a great fast-slow, slow-fast change of speed, which is the hardest to defend. It has very good handling and … it is very fluid. More than capable 3-point shooter. And then he gets to the midrange, which is kind of a lost art in the playoffs. But it is very necessary, as we saw ”.
Middleton’s teammates know that he’s not the Greek monster when it comes to elite status in the league. It’s not that openly competitive either. (Not in the way Antetokounmpo spat at some of them as he lay on the court, cursing and clutching his ankle, “I should have sunk it!”)
But it is not a distant second in their eyes.
“It’s really blooming,” Matthews said of Middleton. “He is taking a step forward in a great moment. And not just on the offensive side. … This is the most vocal Khris I’ve ever seen. “
Budenholzer went on a four-guard attack for a time Sunday. Eric Bledsoe had more of the ball in his hands without Antetokounmpo as the main ball handler. And Brook Lopez got more work down the low post, with less need to open lanes for Giannis games through the paint.
Those adjustments give Miami new things to think about for Game 5. But most of the heavy thinking process will stick with Milwaukee, because playing Antetokounmpo even if he says he is ready is not an easy decision.
As Budenholzer said: “Sometimes you have to listen to the player, sometimes you have to protect him.”
The Bucks coach said the medical staff will have the biggest share, tasked with weighing Antetokounmpo’s sprained ankle condition now against an additional injury that could occur if you risk playing with him.
“Organizationally, we have a great athletic performance staff,” Budenholzer said. “Just a high level of confidence that they understand the big picture. They have been part of all decisions in the past and obviously in the future. The level of trust with them, the communication between them and Giannis. “
Having Antetokounmpo for Game 5 in a series that could end in five or six games anyway is bad business if it adversely affects the guy Milwaukee hopes to have in the next one or six or ten seasons.
“Looking at everything, evaluating everything together, we will continue to make decisions that protect and keep Giannis in a position where he is healthy and has a long, long and healthy career and is still available to us and giving us what he can.”
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Steve Aschburner has been writing about the NBA since 1980. You can email him here, find his archive here, and follow him on twitter.
Views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs, or Turner Broadcasting.
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