Despite suffering a knee injury in the Eastern Conference Finals, Giannis Antetokounmpo delivered a historic performance, albeit in a losing effort in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. (Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons)

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Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Greek Freak, led his Milwaukee Bucks to the franchise’s first NBA Finals in 47 years. Along the way, he received critical help from talented teammates Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez, among others. But through the first two Finals games, the supporting cast hasn’t done enough. With the Bucks trailing the Phoenix Suns 2-0 and the series shifting to Milwaukee, Frank Madden of Locked on Bucks explores what must change as the team hopes to win four of its next five in pursuit of the 2020-21 title.

7:05-8:03: “You’re tied in the Eastern Conference finals, you have the more talented team, you really should be advancing to the Finals, and then to see your superstar, two-time MVP, a guy who’s been remarkably durable, just suffer this horrible-looking injury. You know, I kind of half-jokingly referred to it as like from a fan perspective, it was like a near-death experience. Basically, those 24 hours thinking that ‘Geez, I have to be prepared that he’s blown out everything in his knee and next year is gone too’ to then, the next day hearing no structural damage and we’ll see what happens here over the next couple weeks. … To win those two games the way they did to close out the Hawks series was incredible to know that Giannis still had a chance to come back at some point in the playoffs. It just felt like a new lease on life, I think for Bucks fans, just that we had a chance at that. And then for him to come back and actually play at a high level has just been incredible.”

15:27-16:07: “Now you’ve got to win four out of five, so they [Middleton and Holiday] can’t afford to have three off games out of five. They’ve gotta pretty much be good to great more or less every game from here on out. Certainly, they can’t both be bad, as we saw in Game 2, shooting the ball. It’s just really tough. And again, I mean, I think we’ve seen those guys when they have their game, they’re really valuable two-way guys. They can both create for others as well as themselves. But you know, that’s the difference between a top 5-10 player and a top 30-35 player. I think those two guys are both in that latter category, and they’re just not going to be able to give you 25-30 points every night in the playoffs.”

19:06-19:26: “Part of the issue is just the Suns are really good. You kinda have to pick your poison. Are you gonna give Booker and Paul the looks that they want from midrange or are you going to try to put more pressure on them, try to turn them over more, but at the risk of letting those wings and those role players get open looks for themselves?”

22:47-23:25: “Playing against Trae Young and Clint Capela was kind of a warm-up for playing against CP3 and Ayton and Booker as well. They won games in different ways. In some games, it was because they went small during crucial periods and were able to still rebound well enough to get stops. Other games, it was Brook Lopez and shrinking the floor and forcing turnovers; that was really a Game 2 type story. I think we’ve seen the Suns be able to do enough against kind of whatever the Bucks have done so far. But again, it doesn’t mean that those different approaches just are doomed to be exploited throughout the series forever.”

28:16-28:43: “I think they do need to lean in a little more on Lopez, use their size, try to beat them up on the offensive glass. Interestingly, the offensive glass has been sort of their savior throughout the playoffs and kind of in many ways been the antidote to that poor 3-point shooting that I mentioned. And so whether it’s just religiously zone-dropping in or at times switching him, I think he’s kind of underrated in terms of his ability to kinda hang in switches.”

37:27-37:34: “That’s the challenge for the Bucks right now. This is probably their best chance ever to win a championship. There’s really no guarantee that they’re gonna be able to get back.”

38:23-39:17: “I think the financial piece is challenging too because I was doing some of the math. If they bring back Tucker at a deal kind of around what he’s making now and you just use the taxpayer midlevel and just sign minimums beyond that, they could be looking at a $45 million luxury tax bill just to do that, which really is essentially just running it back. So there’s gonna be a major gut check for ownership, whether they’re willing to pay to have even really a decent chance to do again what they have done so far this year. … Definitely a tough spot for them if they can’t come out of this with a championship. If they win a championship, hey, everybody’s gonna be happy.”

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Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod.