Winners and Losers of the NBA Conference Finals: Chris Paul earns his moment. Trae Young Arrival. Injuries ruin the fun

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It’s been an uphill journey with a lot of basketball victims, but we’re finally getting to the 2021 NBA Finals. With Saturday’s 118-107 Game Six win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Milwaukee Bucks earned the right to play the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Championship, starting Tuesday.

The Bucks would participate in the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1974, with their only title arriving in 1971, while the last time the Suns reached the finals was in 1993 and never won an NBA championship. Needless to say, one of those fan bases will be very cheerful in a couple of weeks.

Before we move on to the finals, let’s take a quick look at a couple of fun and interesting conference finals matches and identify some winners and losers.

Perhaps the biggest story is in the post-season, as Paul will appear in the NBA Finals for the first time in his 16-year Hall of Fame career after a masterful playoff against the Los Angeles Clippers as he scored 31 of his 41 second-half points. There’s no doubting Paul’s legacy given his numbers and career achievements, but the championship would at least bump him up two rungs down the all-time hierarchies.

Paul’s trip was even more awesome when you remember that the Houston Rockets had to give up multiple picks from the first round in the trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder versus Russell Westbrook. Just as his career was supposed to be falling apart, Paul has turned in two NBA seasons and now has a chance to be the MVP of the championship team at the age of 36.

Loser: Superstar Health

This point has been detailed to death, but it’s worth repeating. Kawhi Leonard missed the entire conference finals. Chris Paul, Tra Young and Giannis Antikonmo missed several matches. Devin Booker played with a broken nose for the majority of the series. It’s not a good year to be a star in the NBA. Fortunately we still have a couple of entertaining Conference Finals series, but let’s hope Giannis is healthy and everyone stays at their best physical shape during the Finals.

Due to Antetokounmpo’s offensive limitations at Halfcourt, Middleton has been closer to the Bucks in several high-leverage games over the past few seasons. After the first four relatively sub-par games of the series, Middleton put his stamp on Games 5 and 6 as Milwaukee wrapped up a berth for the Finals. He came in the clutch when it mattered most, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter of Game 3 and 23 points in the third quarter of Game 6, creating the necessary distance to close the series.

Matches 1-4

21.0

41.8%

22.9%

Matches 5 and 6

29.0

47.6%

37.5%

Middleton has been an All-Star for two of the past three seasons, and he will be joining Team USA at the Olympics for the first time this summer. It would be great for casual fans to see him play on the biggest stage in the NBA.

Winner: Monty Williams

After reeling from his turbulent NBA coaching career and enduring the untold tragedy of the 2016 death of his wife, Ingrid, Williams let all his emotions flow after the Suns sealed their World Cup quarter-finals against the Clippers. Williams and Paul’s embrace on the sideline in the final moments of Game 6 will be one of the lasting images of this post-season.

It’s just what I felt like doing. I’m not cool. I just felt his embrace,” said Williams, who coached Paul in New Orleans during the 2010-11 season. “I think his parents were totally behind us and he was emotional. I could feel it.”

The slander of Paul George’s game no longer has a place in the NBA. George was having great, amazing moments even before the fall of Kawhi Leonard, but he went to another level in the Jazz finish and in the conference finals against the Suns. Just as it seemed like he was running out of gas due to being the Clippers’ main playmaker for the entire series, George gave up his high in a playoff with 41 points in a 15-for-20 shot to help his team temporarily avoid elimination on the road.

George has received a lot of criticism over the past few seasons, both foolproof and unjustified, for his post-season play. When asked if he feels he is facing unfair scrutiny during the playoffs, George didn’t hold back.

“I do,” George said after his fifth game win over Phoenix. “It’s the honest truth. It’s the truth.” “But I can’t worry about that. I think it comes with the job. But it is what it is.”

Loser: JJ Watt

The newest Arizona Cardinal JJ Watt hasn’t been shy about showing his support for the Suns this postseason. He was also enthusiastic in his fandom in his hometown of Milwaukee Bucks. Now he has to choose, and while you can look at this situation as a winner, either way, we’re not that naive.

We all know any aspect that he doesn’t root for is that he will label him as a gig fan and send hate in his own way on every social media platform available. sigh. At least it was fun while it lasted, JJ

Winner: Mike Budenholzer

It’s not much of a secret: Mike Budenholzer has been clinging to his job like a cat on the edge heading into the post-season. If Kevin Durant’s shoes are about two sizes smaller, Budenholzer might be looking for a new job as we speak. But he made it to the conference finals, coaching a solid streak and presumably having some safety as the Bucks head coach. One of his biggest moves — starting Bobby Portes in place of Giannis Antetokonmo during games five and six — paid dividends for the Becs in terms of energy and rebound, and placing Brock Lopez near the basket in the absence of Antetokonmo resulted in a 33-point performance in Game 5. Discussions about his longevity could be revived if The Bucks lost in the finals, but for now, it looks like Budenholzer has got his job back with the Bucks.

Loser: The NBA’s Lame Arguments

“It doesn’t matter, everyone is injured!” “Who wants to watch these small market teams?” “There is not enough star power in the finals!” We’re not here because of these horrible arguments heading into the NBA Finals. Basketball has been great, existing stars have been great and new stars have emerged. The Bucks and Suns have totally earned their positions, so let’s not waste any more breaths talking about their unworthiness because you think they got “easier” than your team did. Thank.

Winner: Tra Young

Young’s stunning debut came to an inauspicious end due to a bizarre injury, but he made one of the highlights of the season with 48 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds in a 116-113 Game 1 win over the Bucks to start the Eastern Conference Finals. He did so in typical Trae Young fashion, throwing a punch out of the backboard to John Collins, then hitting the Bucks with “the bright sound that is heard around the world” before moving a wide-open treble in the late third quarter.

At just 22 years old, this likely won’t be Young’s last big playoff round. Game 1 scene is what fans and analysts will look at as the moment it hits the post-season, and it sure was fun to watch firsthand.

You hate to call Huerter a loser after all he’s done for this team during the post-season, but he’s had such tough conference finals. He fired only 34 percent from the field and went 10-for 38 (26 percent) from a 3-point range against the Bucks after firing 48 percent from the field and 40 percent from a 3-point range in the pre-series playoffs. Not only did he struggle offensively, but he also became a frequent target of Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, who were constantly bullying their way to the basket. Huerter was a huge part of the Hawks’ success in this post-season, but the Conference Finals weren’t his brightest moments.

You can’t say more about Jackson, who re-signed with the Clippers three weeks before the season began after not getting more lucrative offers in the free agent market. With Leonard injured, Jackson was the Clippers’ second-best player during the post-season and performed consistently throughout the conference finals, averaging 20.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 46/37/80 shooting splits while playing nearly 38 minutes. for each match. It’s safe to say the Clippers wouldn’t have made their debut in the conference finals, or win two games once they got there, without Jackson, who has expressed his gratitude toward the franchise and his teammates.

“This city makes me feel at home. This organization welcomes me. My quirks, my strengths, my weaknesses. I’m not here today without this team,” Jackson said after the Clippers were eliminated by the Suns. “I’m still playing without this team. I thank them for everything. In my heart this will be a special year forever.”

Beverly wrangled a phenomenal Conference Finals performance on both ends of the field by committing one of the most intense acts you will ever see on an NBA court in this day and age. For reasons that remain unclear, Beverly violently shoved Chris Paul in the back with both hands late in the final quarter of Game 6 as the contest veered away from the Clippers.

Earlier in the same game, TV presenters were discussing how Beverly straddles the line between being aggressive and reckless, and this behavior has clearly gone too far. To his credit, Beverly took to Twitter to apologize to Paul the next day.

Beverly received a one-game suspension in his first game of the 2021-22 regular season as a result of his actions.

We don’t know who will win the title, but we do know Tori Craig will be eligible for the ring either way. Craig played 18 games for the Bucks this season before being traded to the Suns for cash. Craig wasn’t particularly productive with Milwaukee, and the acquisition of PJ Tucker would have put him out of the spin anyway. It was a win, as Craig blossomed into his role at Phoenix and became an important part of the team’s run after the season, scoring 44 percent of his three-pointers in 12.6 minutes per game while playing a solid defense.

Craig could turn down the ring if the Suns lost, as quarterback Anderson Varejao did after the 2016 Finals. Vargao played in the Finals as a member of the Golden State Warriors, but was at the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier that season and thus qualified for the championship ring. After famously returning from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Warriors, the Cavs could vote to give Varejao a ring, but he preemptively crushed the idea by saying he wouldn’t accept it if it was offered to him. Craig hopes he won’t have to make such a decision.

When the Clippers replaced Lou Williams with Brajon Rondo before the trade deadline, they hoped Playoff Rondo would walk through the door. Well, if he did, it was a revolving door. Rondo played a total of 47 minutes in the conference finals, only seeing the floor in three of the six games. He averaged 5.3 points and 3.7 assists, not bad numbers considering the minutes he played, but he was consistently short on trying to defend Suns guards Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Cameron Payne, which contributed to keeping Rondo off the field. Another postseason, Rondo was one of the main reasons the Los Angeles Lakers won the championship. This time around, he can help the Los Angeles team in the same way.

After injuring his Achilles tendon, Reddish was thrown straight into the fire as he made his playoff debut in Game Two of the Conference Finals. Despite being at the “minute limit”, Reddish has clearly established itself as an important rotation piece for hawks on both ends of the Earth. He scored in double figures in three of the four games he played in, including 21 points and six three-pointers in Game No. 6. He also demonstrated his defensive prowess by alternating over Middleton and Holiday when Atlanta. She was having trouble slowing it down.

Reddish is only 21 years old and has shown huge potential as a two-way winger. He also holds an interesting place in NBA history, as the player the Hawks drafted with the pick they received from the Dallas Mavericks in swapping Luka Doncic Tra Young. Hawks coach Nate McMillan said he “sees a lot of Paul George” in Reddish, and if he comes close to that in the next few years, given the level Young has already reached, Atlanta may be able to say they have won it. Trade – something that seemed unimaginable only a few months ago.

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