Bucks look for spark, Suns see opportunity as Finals shifts to Milwaukee

So much has changed since the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks last played – cities, arenas, temperature, crowds – you could excuse the players and coaches if this felt like a completely different series to them.

The Bucks, down 2-0 in these 2021 NBA Finals, happily would roll with that outlook. They want Game 3 at Fiserv Forum Sunday night (8 p.m. ET, ABC) to be a great reset. Do more of what’s worked, less of what hasn’t and all of it better. Starting with the 48 minutes immediately in front of them, ignoring any stray thoughts about, y’know, needing to win four out of five.

The Suns, meanwhile, will be trying to handle all those changes – and the first two-day break between games in the championship series – with as little disruption as possible to their routines, their rhythm and their results. The three R’s of continuity, if you will, to carry them past not only the Milwaukee team but the 30,000 or more fans inside and outside (Deer District) the building vociferously committed to flipping the script.

For the Bucks, this is their last chance to keep their title hopes alive. It’s no secret no team in NBA history has ever come back to win a playoff series after dropping the first three games. And as you might expect, the first step to doing that is to block that notion completely out of their minds.

“Obviously, I know it’s the Finals,” Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo said during a relaxed media-availability session Saturday afternoon. “We know what we got to do. But at the end of the day, you got to keep it light. You cannot tell yourself, ‘Oh, it’s the Finals. You got to do this. There’s so much pressure, man.’”

As he talked, Antetokounmpo repeatedly punched his right fist into his left palm for emphasis.

“No, like, it’s still basketball. It’s easy to say, hard to do, but at the same time, you have to try to approach it that way. Just got to keep it light. Got to keep the ball light. You got to keep the atmosphere light.”

As if to prove his point, Antetokounmpo had begun his interview time by telling the reporters present: “I’m just here not to get fined.” Of course he smiled as he said it. (“There was the football player, Marshawn Lynch? He said that in his media day. … I don’t know what I’m doing, man. This is my first time to the NBA Finals.”)

Then there are the Suns, who can afford to take what sounds like a more grim approach precisely because their situation isn’t grim at all.

“For us, the biggest game of the year is tomorrow. Tomorrow,” guard Chris Paul said. “It’s a must-win game for us. We got to come out with that mindset. Know that they’re home, they’re more comfortable, they will be in front of their fans. But we got to be us. We got to be us and we got to be the hungrier team, and so that’s what we’ll do.”

Going up 3-0 would, barring something never before seen in this league, clinch the series. Already, Phoenix has a 2-0 lead that historically has been bankable 31 times in 35 previous NBA Finals. Only the 1969 Boston Celtics, the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, the 2006 Miami Heat and the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers did what the Bucks hope they can do, dropping Games 1 and 2 yet snagging rings.

Whether a reset or an attempt to keep things rolling, injuries could matter. The updates Saturday: Phoenix forward Torrey Craig is listed as day-to-day after banging knees with Antetokounmpo in Game 2, an MRI Friday revealing no structural damage in Craig’s right knee. Both Bucks guard Donte DiVincenzo (tendon) and Suns forward Dario Saric (knee) are out until next season.

As for Antetokounmpo’s heavily monitored left knee, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said of his two-time NBA Most Valuable Player: “He’s in a good place.”

That includes mentally. Wherever the Bucks are drawing resiliency from – their 7-1 home record this postseason, maybe, or their ability to climb out of an 0-2 hole to beat Brooklyn in seven games – all their principal players brimmed with confidence.

Milwaukee has played five of its last six games on the road dating back to June 25, with only Game 5 against Atlanta at Fiserv Forum.

“Seems like it’s been a month,” forward Khris Middleton said. “We can’t wait to see the crowd, knowing they have been waiting on one of these games – just like Phoenix was – for years. I have too. My whole career I’ve been waiting for a game like this here at home with our fan base behind us.”

Middleton can hope the change of venue changes up his performance. Scoring 11 points on 5-of-16 shooting, with a minus-15 in a 10-point loss, is no way to reassure anyone that he’s a dependable Robin to Antetokounmpo’s Batman.

Point guard Jrue Holiday was 7-of-21 in Game 2 is shooting 28.6% in the series and has taken only four 3-pointers, making none. His burden is considerable, trying to contain Paul, the Suns’ veteran metronome, while still leading or at least contributing offensively. But as Budenholzer said: “We feel like he can do both.”

Holiday concurred. “I’m not complaining. I signed up for it.”

Paul and Devin Booker have combined to average 56.5 points on nearly 50% shooting, with only five of their 20 buckets so far coming from outside the arc. That mid-range pain has put the Bucks’ defensive tactics to the test, with a pair of premier scorers getting inside to sometimes draw too much help. That left Suns perimeter shooters open and the result was lethal, sinking 20 of 40 3-pointers in game 2.

“All the other guys, Jae Crowder, [Mikal] Bridges, they all did a really good job of making us pay when we helped,” forward P.J. Tucker said. “It was definitely something that hurt us a little.”

Phoenix coach Monty Williams hasn’t had a lot of teachable moments so far with which to work (other than that clip of him locking in and boosting young center Deandre Ayton’s confidence late in Game 2). Still, seeing Antetokounmpo light his team up for 42 points – 20 in the third quarter, 30 in the second half – suggests some tweaking inside.

One area of little or no concern? Weathering an early storm from the Bucks or their fans. Phoenix had the best road record in the NBA this season, 24-12, which Williams and several players attributed at least in part to how tight their team is. They lean on each other when it’s the Suns traveling party vs. tens of thousands, apparently.

“We spend a lot of time together,” Booker said “We get our laughs in together, for sure, daily. … I know we spent a lot of our free time this year, especially with the COVID protocols, spending time together. Not with our families on the road, just somebody hosting. We’re playing cards. We have 10, 12 guys in the room at a time.”

The circle has been draw tighter this week. Crowder played two seasons at nearby Marquette, just blocks from Fiserv Forum, but rather than acting as social director for night spots in the city, he has worked with staffers to get food catered to the visitors’ hotel from his favorite local restaurants. That wasn’t the Suns’ M.O. in the first three rounds.

“This is the first. We’re pretty locked in,” Crowder said. “We know what’s at stake. … You don’t want to go outside of your comfort zone in a sense of just trying to get food and have to deal with food poisoning or what-not. We are in enemy territory right now, not to say anything bad about Milwaukee, I love Milwaukee, but you never know.”

Antetokounmpo will try to stick with the same two principles every time he plays: Enjoy the game and compete. He checked those boxes in Games 1 and 2, which has him in position – in spite of the defeats – to preach his theory of lightness for Game 3.

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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