Giannis Antetokounmpo helped force a Game 7 with 30 points and 17 rebounds.
The Milwaukee Bucks looked wobbly for a moment in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s Game 6 against the Nets. A 15-point lead had been cut to 5 in a matter of minutes. Kevin Durant, coming off a marvelous Game 5 performance, looked primed for a repeat after scoring 12 third quarter points. Milwaukee’s offense was stagnant. But the Bucks’ top trio responded in a decisive and rather undramatic stretch. Khris Middleton was fouled shooting a 3-pointer and hit all three free throws. Jrue Holiday drove for a layup. Giannis Antetokounmpo hit two free throws, followed by an emphatic “and-1” to push the lead to back to 15. That stretch saved the season for the Bucks, sealed a 104-89 victory in Milwaukee and forced a winner-take-all Game 7 in Brooklyn on Saturday. It was a microcosm of the Bucks at their best: Middleton creating offense from the perimeter. Holiday being able to break down a defense. Antetokounmpo being unguardable near the rim. And the team defense not allowing easy baskets for the Nets. This was the kind of basketball that has been hard to come by for Milwaukee in this series, and it came at a necessary time. “They responded after every run we made,” Durant said after the game. Antetokounmpo finished with 30 points and 17 rebounds. Middleton carried most of the load offensively, with 38 points,10 rebounds and five assists — with five steals for good measure. Holiday added 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists of his own. The three scored 89 of the Bucks’ 104 points. On Middleton, Nets coach Steve Nash said, “We just kind of let him out of the bag tonight.” When the team needed its stars, they responded from the start. The Bucks attacked the rim relentlessly from tipoff. Antetokounmpo, who has faced withering criticism for his penchant for taking too many jump shots, did not take a single 3-pointer the whole game. In one play, he went up for a jump shot, changed his mind midair and tossed it out to Middleton for an open 3. “I think there were was maybe one or two plays where I was open on the 3-point line that I could shoot it, but I still felt like I could go downhill.
