Giannis Antetokounmpo is dominating. The two-time MVP just became the fourth player ever to average 30 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 60% shooting over a five-game span within a single postseason, joining Tim Duncan, Charles Barkley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But, unlike those other legends, Antetokounmpo is the only one who has done that during the NBA Finals.
Amazingly, just two weeks ago there were questions about whether the Milwaukee Bucks superstar would even be able to play in the Finals. He'd suffered a scary knee injury that kept him out of the final two games against the Atlanta Hawks, and he even said he thought his season was over. After looking shaky in his first game back, he has put an emphatic stamp on each of the past four games. As Antetokounmpo has rounded back into form, so have the Bucks, who have won three consecutive games after falling behind 2-0 in the series and are now just one home win away from their first title in 50 years.
The last time Milwaukee won it all, they had another pretty good young star on their squad. Antetokounmpo may not be Abdul-Jabbar, but they do have one big thing in common. They propelled their squads to wins with a simple formula: dominating the paint on both ends of the floor. And it's a formula that, more often than not, portends repeated success on the game's biggest stage.
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Antetokounmpo is simply the best interior player in the world right now, and it's not close. He's not just dominating the Phoenix Suns, he's dominating the entire NBA. It just so happens the Suns are the team trying to stop him from winning a championship, and instead they're ending up on the wrong end of some of the most iconic plays in NBA history.
Antetokounmpo's unforgettable block on Deandre Ayton's potential game-tying alley-oop with just over a minute left in Game 4 was one of the most clutch and acrobatic defensive plays this league has ever seen. Consider these facts:
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Antetokounmpo is the only player to block a dunk attempt in clutch time this postseason.
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Antetokounmpo is the only player to block a dunk attempt in clutch time of a Finals game over the past 25 seasons.
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Antetokounmpo is the only player to block an alley-oop dunk attempt at any point in a Finals game over the past 25 seasons.
One game later, Antetokounmpo used every inch of his 7-foot-3 wingspan to throw down one of the most jaw dropping alley-oops in postseason history -- one that no one could possibly block.
Both plays immediately earned legendary status, and cemented Antetokounmpo's reputation as this generation's most dominant two-way interior force.
Long before 3-point shooting and perimeter ball-handlers took over the NBA, the only surefire path to superstardom started and ended in the paint. Almost all of pro basketball's seminal superstars dominated the league with a simple recipe: dunks, layups, blocks, and rebounds. They served up titles brought to you from the low block.
That's what Antetokounmpo is cooking up right now. It's tried and true, it's a throwback to old-school hoops, but he's doing it in a 21st century way. He's not a back-to-the basket post-up machine. There are no sky hooks. His interior buckets often come off of slashing drives, euro-steps, transition opportunities, put-backs, or yes, lobs from teammates.
The methods may be new, but the results are decidedly old school. Antetokounmpo has made 60 field goals over the first five games of this series, and 52 of them have come inside the paint. Those are numbers that evoke names like Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Wilt Chamberlain, George Mikan, and yes, Abdul-Jabbar, who won five more titles after that first one 50 years ago (though they came with the Lakers and not the Bucks).
Through five games in the 2021 NBA Finals, Antetokounmpo is averaging 32.2 points (28 of which come in the paint or at the line) while shooting 61.2% from the field. Nobody has combined volume and efficiency like this in a Finals since O'Neal absolutely "dieseled" his way through the Indiana Pacers in 2000.
After Game 3 -- in which he became the first player since O'Neal to post back-to-back 40-point, 10-rebound games in the Finals -- Antetokounmpo spoke of the famed "Giannis Wall", the strategy used by the Toronto Raptors to slow him down two years ago en route to a title of their own.
"You have to take it as a compliment," he said. "It is a compliment that there's got to be three people in front stopping me from getting in the paint and building that wall."
However, the Suns' "Giannis Wall" has crumbled and failed. Ayton's foul trouble in Game 4 certainly contributed to that, but Antetokounmpo has largely been able to get inside whenever he wants in this series. That should come as no surprise, given that he's been doing it for years now. As a scorer, he presents an unmatched blend of interior production and efficiency.
His interior field goal percentage is better than low-usage centers who feast off putbacks and open lobs, while his volume dwarfs even that of the most drive-heavy leading scorers.
"He comes down there, he dunks, he dunks some more and he shoots a layup," Chris Paul said earlier in this series.
It's an accurate description. Over the past three seasons, no NBA player has attempted more paint shots than Antetokounmpo, nobody has converted more and, out of the 79 players who have tried at least 1,000 shots in the paint in that time, only Rudy Gobert has a better conversion rate -- and teams aren't building a "Rudy Wall" to slow down the Utah Jazz big man.
Nobody else has feasted at the rim like this since O'Neal was in his absolute prime. No other players in the 21st century have made opposing bigs look so delicate or so helpless. O'Neal was 28 and in his eighth season in the NBA when he won his first title and first Finals MVP. He'd go on to three-peat in both. Antetokounmpo, 26, is also in his eighth season and one win away from his first title. Look out, the kid from Athens is just getting started.
While the numbers are comparable, it's not fair to compare Antetokounmpo to O'Neal. In fact, we've never seen anything quite like this on the court. When O'Neal was at his absolute peak 21 years ago, the idea that a 6-11 Greek forward would be Eurostepping his way to dunks and matching O'Neal's ridiculous paint numbers in the 2021 NBA Finals would've been absurd. When O'Neal won his first title, the NBA had never even seen a player from Greece and Manu Ginobili was still two years away from making his San Antonio Spurs debut and normalizing the Eurostep in the American game.
The globalization of the NBA is far from the only big change over the past two decades. Rules changes have made the traditional back-to-the-basket post player obsolete. So while O'Neal would drop-step into dunks from the low block, Antetokounmpo often strides into them on dribble drives that start beyond the 3-point arc.
The NBA is at a fascinating place. While shots 25 feet from the rim have never been so prominent, and so vital to success, Antetokounmpo provides a powerful reminder that layups and dunks are still the best shots in the game. The 2010s saw the rise of an unprecedented jump-shooting dynasty in Golden State, but the biggest moments of these Finals have happened above the rim and in the restricted area. Antetokounmpo has been there for both, reminding us that interior points still win and lose games in the process.
Antetokounmpo's rise is demonstrating that while interior dominators may play a little bit differently now, players who can control the restricted area on both ends of the court are still the most valuable assets in this league. He might raise the Larry O'Brien Trophy after Game 6 on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET on ABC and the ESPN app). He might have to wait until after Game 7 in Phoenix. There's still a chance he won't become a champion at all this season. But one thing is for sure: Get used to hearing about Giannis Antetokounmpo's paint dominance, because he's poised to be a major factor in this league for years to come.
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