Our killer from last year, from Zach Lowe:
Giannis Antetokounmpo, multitasking -- and uh oh, here come the Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are 11-2 in their last 13, and one loss came without their two-time MVP.
And, yes, as I've been saying for months, the MVP is a three-person race between Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, and Nikola Jokic. I mean, Antetokounmpo is averaging almost 30-12-6 on 55% shooting. The number that should have rivals trembling is Antetokounmpo's 72% (and rising) mark at the line.
If he can carry that into the playoffs -- something he has mostly failed at before -- there is no answer anymore. He's getting 30. The only question becomes whether he's getting 40, and how many open 3s his teammates make.
Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton look like themselves. Jevon Carter adds a new pressing peskiness on defense, and will push for playoff minutes if he continues to make 3s. Milwaukee is plus-10 per 100 possessions with their big three on the floor, and maybe more important, plus-7.2 when Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton play without Antetokounmpo. In high-leverage games, the Bucks can play every minute with at least two of those three. Milwaukee has been my pick to come out of the East since the Brooklyn situation went haywire in training camp. (They have stiff competition; Boston is getting scary.)
The combination of Antetokounmpo, Lopez, and playoff focus should stiffen a defense that has been unusually scattershot -- caught between identities, suffering some championship hangover.
Antetokounmpo remains a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. Perhaps his defining highlight was his retreating block of a Deandre Ayton alley-oop late in Game 4 of last season's Finals -- a play on which he did two hard things at once: containing Devin Booker with the ball while keeping contact with Ayton.
