As we approach the clinching games of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, the true diamonds of the postseason are beginning to shine through the rest of the rubble in both series. And they couldn’t be peaking at a better time.

On the Eastern side of things, it’s become apparent that all predisposed notions about 2x MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and shot-creating wing Khris Middleton’s play styles being unsustainable are being disproven on a game-to-game basis. After dropping game one of the Eastern Conference Finals to Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks, the Bucks quickly stormed back to take both games two and three in convincing and exemplary fashion, as both Middleton and Antetokounmpo have shown that they have their own ways of closing games against versatile opponents who have game plans in place to neutralize both talents.

And on the Western side of things, DeAndre Ayton has proven everyone who objected to him being the first-overall pick in 2018 by showing out on the biggest stage of his career, or so far at least. Through his athleticism, prowess, on-court intelligence, and coachability under Chris Paul, the Bahamian has looked like the far and away best center in these playoffs. And as Devin Booker has noticeably struggled due to both the stingy defending from Clippers guard Patrick Beverley or the eight pieces of a broken nose bone he sustained in their Game 2 win, Ayton and other pieces like Torrey Craig, Jae Crowder, Cameron Payne, Dario Saric have given the Clippers nightmares on the offensive glass in three of their last four games.

Let’s get into the weekly rankings and see who looked the best out of the leading teams with advantages in their respective series.

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1. Milwaukee Bucks

(46-26, Won 4-0 vs. No. 6 Miami Heat in First Round, Won 4-3 vs. No. 2 Brooklyn Nets in ECSF, Up 2-1 vs. Atlanta Hawks in ECF, Last Week’s Ranking: N/A)

If there was any real doubt over whether the Milwaukee Bucks weren’t championship contenders with the roster put in place this year…well, those doubts are being discarded quicker than recyclable paper into a shredder.

Through three games of the Eastern Conference Finals, we’ve seen a revival and increase in confidence in Giannis Antetokounmpo’s half-court game through all four quarters, whereas Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday have been looked to create off the dribble above the free-throw line and on the wing when Atlanta has to lock up in crucial possessions.

And in the midst of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s insane playoff run – he’s averaged 32.9 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists over the course of Milwaukee’s last eight games – Khris Middleton’s rise to superstardom has been more than exceptional. In this series alone, the former Texas A&M Aggie has put up 22.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists against Atlanta, and as he has been looked to finish games off in the fourth quarter as their wing creator, he’s done so with efficacy, none more so than in last night’s 113-102 Game three victory to put his Bucks up two wins to Atlanta’s one.

Milwaukee weathered the storm and survived yet another Trae Young masterpiece of a four-quarter effort, though it was slightly easier to finish off due to Young’s freak accident of an injury when he unsuspectingly rolled his ankle by stepping on the foot of an official with 29 seconds left in the third quarter. Young finished with 35 points off 12-for-23 shooting, but could only muster up 3 points in the game’s waning 12 minutes. You could tell that he was hampered from the accidental ankle roll, as he struggled to explode past his initial and switched matchups, and had difficulty sprinting back to slow Milwaukee’s open-court attack in the game’s final possessions.

Even with a forgettable 6-point, 2-for-11 night from Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee survived what seemed to be Atlanta’s best punch. An additional opportunity to steal back even more momentum awaits in Game 4 on Tuesday night, and Trae Young’s injury will be under close examination. If he’s not at least 85 percent – a gentleman’s sweep and first NBA Finals berth since 1974 could soon be on the horizon.

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2. Phoenix Suns

(51-21, Won 4-2 vs. No. 7 Los Angeles Lakers in First Round, Won 4-0 vs. No. 3 Denver Nuggets in WCSF, Up 3-1 vs. No. 4 Los Angeles Clippers in WCF, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)

Last week, we spoke on how each game felt closer than the other, and how competitive this series would be since both the Clippers and Suns’ similar ‘tale-of-the-tape’ measurements stacked up in a way that a winner of this series could only be predicted by a toss-up. And hypothetically excluding health with even rosters potentially making one of the biggest barnburners of a Conference Final that we’ve not seen in years, we pictured two of the stingiest defensive teams in the NBA and two of the best half-court teams left to show why they’re at the level they are.

The problem is that the world isn’t a place for hypotheticals, and the playoffs aren’t harbingers of alternate realities, either.

Now, granted, this is a chess match between the ever-resilient Tyronn Lue and COTY-favorite Monty Williams, and only two of the four games have (likely) hit the over if you’re into those betting shenanigans. Both teams have grown adept to diminish the impact on all three levels of the half-court, with the Clippers having the skill position players to shut down superstars Devin Booker and Chris Paul when the game slows down to their benefit, as have the Suns with their defense-by-committee effort to neutralize Paul George to the best of their ability.

However, the playoffs prove that two factors are paramount to success – the game is about a bucket, and whoever displays the toughness and tenacity to impose their will on both the offensive and defensive glass often walk out with wins under their belt in a series like this.

The fourth quarter of Game 4 wasn’t pretty, to say the least. Chris Paul got to his spots and took the right shots, but could only go 1-for-7 for seven points (but still staying aggressive and going 5-for-6 from behind the FT stripe) while playing all 12 minutes in the final quarter, his lone bucket being an uncontested right-handed layup. Devin Booker finished the night as the game’s second-leading scorer with 25 points off 8-for-22 shooting before fouling out with less than two minutes remaining.

While it seemed like the rim was sealed with a lid in the fourth (probably due to fatigue), the Clippers failed to capitalize much in credit to the defensive pressure of the Suns, going an ugly 0-for-12 on game-tying or leading buckets as a whole in the second half as the Suns found a way to pull out an 84-80 road win to go up 3-1 in the series.

Phoenix struggled to muster any consistent offense in the fourth with a litany of lineup combinations, finishing the night with an underwhelming 93.6 offensive rating (per 100 possessions), but the constant? DeAndre Ayton, who could make a ton of money this offseason due to his consistency in the 2020-21 playoffs.

Phoenix showed toughness and muscle underneath the bucket for the majority of the night, both as a +8 in the TREB statistic and +2 in the OREB department – largely due to the effort of the speedy and energetic third-year big man out of Arizona.

The Clippers’ injuries to their frontcourt have caught up to them in the most inconvenient time, as Ivica Zubac and DeMarcus Cousins haven’t concocted the solution to erasing Ayton from the offense. Phoenix shot a grotesque 36% in their Game 4 win, with less than four scorers shooting above 60 percent on the night but Ayton happened to remain their most consistent player this series, as he put up 19 points off 8-for-14 shooting with a career-high 22 rebounds with four blocks in 41 minutes of play.

The finisher of the now-iconic “Valley Oop” responded quite admirably following Ivica Zubac vehemently outplaying him in Game 3, and now with a scheme in place to get him his touches in the low post and as a roller, Phoenix could advance to their first NBA Finals in 28 years should they get another filled stat sheet from the 22-year-old big man.

Source: pngkey.com

We’re into the thick of it during the Conference Finals, and as both series are underway between the final four teams left out of the 16 that entered the field, there are some clear-cut favorites as both series unfold.

The Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns have played two games, but it seems that the series is halfway over. Team leader Chris Paul has yet to play in this series due to him being held out for COVID-19 health and safety protocols after he contracted COVID-19 after being vaccinated, but the Suns have won two games against the Clippers. So while the Clips stay behind the 8-ball with their injury woes – Kawhi Leonard will continue to be out with a sprained knee – Chris Paul and the Suns could not be healthier, and Paul himself – a former Clipper that’ll look to exact revenge on the franchise that traded him away in 2017 -with these Suns, they look to escape the Staples Center with a win and advance to the NBA Finals with only two wins left needed.

And on the Eastern side, the Hawks and Bucks played their first game of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night, and to the shock of just about everyone, Trae Young’s Atlanta Hawks upset the Milwaukee Bucks as Young proceeded to put on a breakout performance of 49 points, 11 assists and 7 rebounds against arguably the best team left in the playoffs. It’s only been one game, and a sample size isn’t too quantifiable as well as justifiable this early in a series where adjustments will be made frequently.

We’ll get to analyzing the two teams who have the distinct advantage in their respective series in this week’s Power Rankings.

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1. No. 2 Phoenix Suns

(51-21, Won 4-2 vs. No. 7 Los Angeles Lakers in First Round, Won 4-0 vs. No. 3 Denver Nuggets in WCSF, Up 2-0 vs. No. 4 Los Angeles Clippers in WCF, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)

Up a full two games over the No.4 seeded Clippers in their first Western Conference Finals appearance in a decade, the Phoenix Suns are rolling. Devin Booker is blossoming into the next great superstar in the NBA, and even more importantly, DeAndre Ayton has shown he cannot be contained or neutralized by the Clippers frontcourt – indicative of his shocking game-winning throwdown off a lob.

Clippers big man Ivica Zubac has an even plus/minus of zero, which isn’t good or bad but largely contributed to Ayton’s presence on the offensive glass and in transition, in which the Clippers have shown they lack the strength and athleticism to match and better the effort he’s put in (22.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 2 games in the Western Conference Finals) during Phoenix’s holding serve at home in this series.

And not to say that it’s been two lucky outings in which everything fell into place for the Suns; this young and growing team has held the third-highest home win total all season, so them winning two straight against an undermanned Clippers team wasn’t exactly expected but certainly eye-opening.

Now, Chris Paul will return to his team to potentially go up three games to none for the first game of this series inside the Staples Center since he finished up his quarantine period, and also keep in mind: the Suns owned the best road record of any team in the NBA this season.

With how highly Devin Booker’s been achieving in these playoffs, it’s remissable to skip over how quintessential Cameron Payne has been all postseason but none more than in this series with Chris Paul quarantining at home. Payne has shown a fearlessness unabated by the magnamity of the moment, stepping up in big ways by averaging 20 points, 9 assists and 2 rebounds in the first 2 games in the 2021 Western Conference Finals. Whether he’s dipping his head and going at the rim, taking his man off the dribble to score in the 8-foot range with a mid-range pullup/floater/scoop layup, he’s shown that the adversity of the backup-turned-starter’s role is practically non-existent.

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2. No. 5 Atlanta Hawks

(41-31, Won 4-1 vs. No. 4 New York Knicks in First Round, Won 4-3 vs. No. 1 Philadelphia 76ers in ECSF, Up 1-0 in ECF vs. No. 3 Milwaukee Bucks, Last Week’s Ranking: N/A) 

This year’s playoffs have adopted a theme of the youthful uprising, and Trae Young is on the forefront of the reverberation of the memo.

In his first-ever Conference Finals appearance, the 22-year-old 6-foot-1 Point Guard indomitably snatched a win from the unrelenting hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, defensively stout and all, on Wednesday night with a performance for the ages – 48 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists against the third-best defense in these playoffs, becoming the first scorer to put 40 on two-way star Jrue Holiday’s head all postseason.

Even more noteworthy: Trae put up those numbers in an efficient manner off of 17-for-34 shooting through four quarters. Young had 32 through three when matched up onto Holiday, who would’ve had a better shot rolling a perfect strike with his feet than stay in front of Trae for the 29 minutes and five seconds he guarded him for during Game 1.

Head Coach Nate McMillan saw an opportunity to target Bucks big man Brook Lopez when he was in drop coverage, and proceeded to work the in-between game, utilizing the floater with ease and when switched onto an additional lengthy body in Mike Budenholzer’s defensive schemes to stop the Pick and Roll, it took Trae little effort to get by whoever was in front of him, while he casually dished some lobs and pocket passes to both Clint Capela and second-highest scorer John Collins, who floated around Young all night.

Young finished Game 1 as a net-positive +10 due to his aggressiveness in both halves and especially in the fourth quarter, where the Oklahoma standout scored his remaining 16 points by knocking down some simple runners and getting to the line, where he shot over 83 percent in 12 attempts at the stripe. His feel for the game was accentuated when the drop coverage went away, and Young looked to be in more of a facilitating role to take pressure off of himself.

What Mike Budenholzer will do to diminish Young’s imprint on Game 2 is yet to be seen, but as great as Atlanta’s offense was last night, they showed very little tenacity to neutralize Giannis Antetokounmpo from imposing his will inside the paint. It’s going to be a series of adjustments from two coaches who are set to have a masterclass of a series, and Game 2 will give us more of a broadened perspective on who really has the edge in a competitive series like this one.

Source: pngkey.com