Giannis Antetokounmpo is carrying the Milwaukee Bucks in NBA Finals

Giannis Antetokounmpo is aware of the moment. He emotionally rallied his team during a timeout pep talk in Game 2 and has now proceeded to score 40 or more points in back-to-back NBA Finals games for the Milwaukee Bucks. The second such feat allowed his team to leave Fiserv Forum on Sunday night with a 20-point victory, their first win of the series.

Through three games and a 2-1 Phoenix Suns’ series lead, the Suns have looked like the more complete team. Chris Paul and company have had an answer to every defense the Bucks have thrown at them and have made incredible shot after incredible shot. They thrived on the home crowd in Games 1 and 2 and looked like a force to be reckoned with.

Despite their nearly back-breaking shooting, Antetokounmpo refuses to go quietly into the night.

Milwaukee Bucks’ superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is putting up an all-time great NBA Finals performance and willed his team to a victory.

Just over a week after a seriously scary knee injury that held him out for Games 5 and 6 against the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals, Antetokounmpo returned to the court for the start of the Finals.

After gaining confidence in his knee in Game 1 and looking like his typical spry self, he’s taken over this series and simply refuses to allow the Suns to defend him. After dropping 42 points in 40 minutes of a Game 2 loss, he somehow topped that with 41 points in 38 minutes in a Game 3 victory.

Most of Antetokounmpo’s damage has come at point-blank range, as he’s only made four shots outside of the paint (none in Game 3) in the last two contests. He’s attacking the only real big the Suns have in Deandre Ayton off the bounce and forcing him to defend (and often foul) in space. When the Suns go small, which they had to due to Ayton’s foul trouble in Game 3, Antetokounmpo simply takes advantage of a bunch of 6-foot-6 guys trying to defend him near the basket.

The best part is he’s doing it in a plethora of ways that rarely includes isolation. Sure, he’s gone head to head a few times in this series, often preferring the left block to do his dirty work. During these times, he usually backs down a smaller player until he’s right at the rim or faces up outside of the paint and uses his quickness and elite strength to get all the way to the hoop.

Mostly though, he’s finding other ways to score the ball. In Game 3, he set a number of ball-screens and quickly dove to the rim following contact with the on-ball defender. His teammates followed nicely be hitting him in stride and setting him up to score at the rim.

The above play began as an inbounds set where Antetokounmpo initially allows Khris Middleton to pass him on the perimeter before tossing it to Jrue Holiday. He then follows with a ball screen on the left-wing. The key here is the entire left side is cleared out besides Antetokounmpo, Holiday and their defenders. Holiday comes off the pick and immediately gets to the elbow which freezes Jay Crowder for just long enough. That allows Holiday to drop a one-handed bounce pass into the rolling Antetokounmpo’s arms who makes the finish look far easier than it is by flushing it at the rim.

As the Suns tried to build a wall to slow Antetokounmpo down, they found they lacked the necessary size and skill to do so. Other than Ayton and occasionally Crowder, Phoenix doesn’t have the bodies to stop the Greek Freak from getting to the rim. There were a number of times where Antetokounmpo simply took advantage of being the biggest and strongest player on the court and out-muscled and out-worked the Suns in the paint.

Antetokounmpo is blazing a path only walked by a few other superstars in the history of the NBA Finals. After consecutive 40-plus points and 10-plus rebound games, he joined Shaquille O’Neal as the only other player to accomplish that in Finals’ history. He’s also only one of five NBA players to score 40 or more points, grab 10 or more boards, and hand out five more assists in the Finals, joining Shaq, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Jimmy Butler. The list goes on. And on. And on.

The best part is Antetokounmpo doesn’t care about any of these personal stats. He only wants to win. Who’s to say when the Bucks will get back to this point or if they ever will. That means he’s not going to let this opportunity slip through his team’s fingers and will do whatever it takes to win.

So far in this series, Antetokounmpo has scored 103 points–fourth-most by a player through his first three Finals games (I told you I could go on). That sort of dominance is exactly what the Bucks need. The moment may not be too big for Antetokounmpo, he’s proving to be too big for the Suns.