Presented by COMMERCIAL TIRE.
This Day In Sports…July 20, 2021, five years ago today:
The Milwaukee Bucks win their first NBA championship in 50 years, defeating the Phoenix Suns four games-to-two with a 105-98 home victory. The Bucks’ catalyst was Finals Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored 50 points, the first 50-pointer in a close-out game since Bob Pettit in 1958. It was the third time Antetokounmpo topped the 40-point plateau in the series. The Suns had won the first two games of the Finals in Phoenix, but Milwaukee became only the fifth team in NBA history to rally from an 0-2 deficit to win the title.
The Finals weren’t played until mid-July due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because the 2020 Finals weren’t completed until October 11 of the previous year, the 2020-21 season didn’t begin until December 22 and was shortened to 72 games. It was an odd schedule, to be sure—in order to limit travel, the league had teams play consecutive games against each other in the same city. The Bucks handled the COVID challenges well, pacing their players with an eye on the playoffs. They finished only third in the Eastern Conference but were generally rested and ready for the postseason.
Antetokounmpo was an exception, though, as he had dealt with left knee problems in March and April, missing eight games over that stretch. Then in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Atlanta Hawks, he suffered a hyperextended knee that some feared was a torn ACL. It was not, but it certainly didn’t look like a quick rehab. Antetokounmpo surprised medical experts by recovering in time for Game 1 of the Finals a week later, although the Bucks would still fall in Games 1 and 2 in Phoenix.
A turning point play in the series came late in Game 4 with Milwaukee clinging to a two-point lead. Suns star Devin Booker threw an alley-oop to Deandre Ayton, and Antetokounmpo, defending on the perimeter, dashed in to execute a gravity-defying, back-side block on Ayton’s dunk attempt. It’s considered one of the greatest defensive plays in NBA history. In his legendary Game 6 performance, Antetokounmpo added 14 rebounds and five blocked shots to his 50-points to cement Finals MVP honors.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
