A real duel of titans. And after a memorable Game 7, the Bucks of Giannis Antetokounmpo, preponderant with 40 points, qualified for the Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA, after winning the shock in Brooklyn (115-111 ap), despite a historic performance of Kevin Durant, author of 48 points. The series looked like a final before the letter and over the matches, Durant's exploits, reversals, hazards also such as the injury of Kyrie Irving, very penalizing for the Nets over the last three games, this seventh meeting of exceptional intensity did not disappoint. A winner was needed at the end of this epic battle and it is therefore Milwaukee, which will return to the conference final, two years after its defeat at this stage against future Toronto champion. This time,the franchise of Wisconsin will face Philadelphia or Atlanta, which will also finish Sunday in a game 7.
It is because they had less shaking hands (2/6 on shots against 1/12 for the Nets) in the unbreathable overtime that the Bucks were able to get by. Led 111-109, after the basket of Bruce Brown, Giannis Antetokounmpo forced the passage to equalize closely, before Khris Middleton, icy, succeeds his fade-away (shot in rear suspension) at five meters. Brook Lopez (19 pts, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks), who had just inflicted a mammoth "block" on Durant, then added two free throws to seal the score. "I have never played a match like this in my life, a match 7 away, against the best player in the world ... We were a little lucky but we stuck, we resisted the pressure, ”commented Middleton, awkward for a long time but who finished strong (23 pts, at 9/26, 10 rebounds).
Irving absent, Harden diminished
"The best player in the world" in question, it is Durant, who had snatched the extension, one second from the buzzer, with an incredible shoot, which could have scored three points if his shoe had not bitten the arc circle.
But "KD" missed his other shots in this "overtime", his right arm shooting ever shorter, proof that he was then at the end of his strength, after 53 minutes spent on the floor.
Yet he has nothing to regret. Heroic in match N.5, when his 49 points (at 70% success) gave the Nets the advantage 3-2, he almost made the same shot on this one. His 48 points are also historic since no one in history has put so much in a seventh play-off meeting. Two years after his Achilles tendon rupture, he therefore succeeded in his return to the highest level, that of the fantastic player he was when he dominated the NBA with Golden State, titled in 2017 and 2018. And this even if this ended in a premature failure for Brooklyn, who had yet built a “Big3” champion on paper with Kyrie Irving and James Harden.
The latter, who dreamed of a first coronation, must curse the injury to the right hamstring which spoiled his end of the season. Although reduced, he also played more than 50 minutes, but his offensive impact (22 pts, 9 assists) was not that of his standards. Above all, the Nets came across brave, supportive and talented Bucks, who believed in themselves in this series and deserve their fate. They must now not be demobilized after the feat, if they want to win a second league title, 50 years after the first obtained by a duo of legend Lew Alcindor (future Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Oscar Robertson, that dream of imitating Antetokounmpo and Middleton.
