And here we are – the NBA Finals. Over nearly two months of pulsating NBA action has landed us here, where the two remaining teams after the smoke has cleared went to battle during Game one of what should be an entertaining series.

In his first-ever NBA Finals appearance, Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns stormed out in front for the 1-0 lead in the series, as Paul and backcourt cohort Devin Booker (also competing in his first NBA Finals after seven years with the Suns) scored a combined 59 points off an exact 50 percent shooting, scoring over a half of the team’s points in their 118-105 win at home. And for a team that won the fourth-most games on home soil amongst the other 29 teams in the league, the atmosphere of Talking Stick Resort Arena was as electric as you could.

Competing in their third-ever NBA Finals, it seemed as if the Suns couldn’t miss while the Bucks faltered mightily and fell behind as much as 20 points, but the good news is that Giannis Antetokounmpo, who many speculated wouldn’t be on the team’s minutes rotation due to anxieties over his hyperextended knee that he injured during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, looked spry and explosive without any noticeable discomfort in his first game back since the injury.

Brook Lopez was the team’s second-highest scorer and was a threat underneath the bucket as a consistent threat on the glass, but conversely played the unfavorable role of a defensive liability as the Suns attacked him what felt like all night when the Bucks committed to switching nearly all of their matchups to limit the Suns’ offensive attack to get out in transition.

As the NBA Finals are – and have always been – a chess match filled with adjustments (and adjustments on adjustments to those adjustments that will need adjustments), game one will likely look way different than every other game in this series. In this week’s Power Rankings, we’ll break down both teams in a detailed-and-succinct manner, and explain who has the advantage heading into Game two.

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1. 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, Won 4-2 vs. No. 4 Los Angeles Clippers in WCF, Up 1-0 vs. East’s No. 3 Milwaukee Bucks in NBA Finals, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)

As mentioned last week, the Suns are competing in their first NBA Finals since 1993, when league MVP Charles Barkley called the shots in a tough series against Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls that they ultimately lost in six games. And since then, it had been years worth of regression and playoff failure, up until a certain Canadian Point Guard by the name of Steve Nash staked his claim as one of the game’s best-ever during the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Nash’s 2008 MVP, the Suns’ top seeds through 2008 through 2010, and their success in the 21st century never materialized into a championship and since 2010, the Suns hadn’t materialized a successful season that would even land them a playoff berth.

Until the 2020-21 season, that is.

A year-long Cinderella story has looked anything but during one of the most shocking NBA Playoff runs in league history, and it’s culminated in their first Finals berth in 28 years as they found a way to outlast the resilient Los Angeles Clippers in six games during the Western Conference Finals.

The ageless wonder, and publically-described “Point Gawd”, Chris Paul, at age 36, has engineered a season for the ages, exceeding pre-season expectations and advancing the young-but-improving Phoenix Suns to the playoffs, acquiring the second-seed, winning 51 games, posting the best road record in the NBA, and helping to get the Suns through the gauntlet of the Western playoffs, as they beat LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round, MVP Nikola Jokic and the three-seed Denver Nuggets in the Conference Semis, and Paul George and the Clippers in the Conference Finals to get to this point. And last night, the Suns showed why they were championship favorites with a dominant win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Paul scored a team-high 32 points off 12-19 shooting with nine assists to boot and looked ferocious, prepared, and unafraid of the No. 2 defense in these playoffs by staying aggressive against a lengthy defense when they switched Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis onto the 11-time All-Star as he utilized all three levels of the floor to both score and scramble the Bucks’ defense with some drive-kick assists to shooters like Cameron Johnson (10 points off 3-for-6 shooting and 2-for-4 shooting from behind the arc) and Mikal Bridges (14 points off 5-for-13 shooting and 2-for-4 shooting from behind the arc).

Add on Devin Booker’s 27 points from punishing the Bucks’ defense when they failed to erase the elbows and turn him into a driver to the rim, Cam Johnson providing a spark off of the bench in the minutes when Devin Booker or Chris Paul sat, Torrey Craig being a force on the offensive glass when Dario Saric went out as the Suns went small during the non-Ayton minutes, and Jae Crowder’s game-high +19 (even with scoring only one point off of 0-for-8 shooting!) the stat sheet when he kept Khris Middleton silent through nearly three quarters, and you get the Suns’ first win in the Finals in 28 years.

They vociferously blitzed the Bucks, answering with vehemence whenever the Bucks went on a run of their own. Game one featured a signature performance from both Paul and Booker, but one they’ve been privy to putting on all year during this magical season of theirs as they lead 1-0 over the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals.

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2. 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, Won 3-2 vs. Atlanta Hawks in ECF, Down 0-1 vs. West’s No. 2 Phoenix Suns in NBA Finals, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)

Well, hey, it’s only Game one, right?

Giannis Antetokounmpo was announced as a full-go before Game one of the Finals and looked as explosive and crafty as ever by scoring in transition as well as giving both DeAndre Ayton and Cameron Johnson problems in the halfcourt on numerous occasions as well, as the 6’9 Goliath of a Power Forward played an unrestricted 35 minutes and scored a team-high 20 points off 6-for-11 shooting.

And at the beginning of Game one, the Bucks were going blow-for-blow with the offensively superpowered Phoenix Suns as Antetokounmpo was a lightning bolt in transition and at times, overpowered rising superstar big man Ayton during the 5 minutes and 19 seconds he was matched up with him, as he scored or assisted for a total of 26 of the team’s 105 points through four quarters against him.

But when other anchors of the team faltered on both ends, such as Jrue Holiday appearing as a -16 at the conclusion of Game one (played 40 minutes, shot 4-for-14 shooting, 0-for-4 shooting from deep for 10 points) and PJ Tucker being run off the line as a spot-up shooter and failing to make the defense pay from a litany of blown layups and runners as well as display unconventional leniency by letting up on Devin Booker for the entire night (7 points off 3-for-6 shooting, 1-for-2 shooting from deep, -14 through 33.2 minutes), Booker too made the Bucks feel the consequences of their failure to crowd the elbows and not get him out of rhythm early. Those two have to be better if the Bucks are to get in this series.

They allowed him to score 27 points in the superstar’s first NBA Finals appearance, and it felt like more of a conceding effort and a “give them this one and save the ace card for later” kind of loss. There will be a palpable time to adjust during a series in which gameplan tweaks will be prerequisites to success, so you better believe Game one is unlikely to tell the story of this entire series.

At a point in the third quarter, the Bucks found a way to go on a 7-0 run that cut deeply into what was already a 17-point deficit, but as they found they ingredient to softening the blow of the Suns’ attack late in the second half, it was too late to mount a comeback.

Brook Lopez scored the third-highest amount of points (17 points off 7-for-14 shooting, 3-for-5 shooting in 23 minutes),  but he finished Game one as a -17, and it was as if his offensive output was as meaningful as someone earning a B- on a final in a class they failed in all year. What’s worse – Khris Middleton, who finished with 29 points and went on a personal run of his own in the third quarter, was almost invisible through the first half as Jae Crowder kept him under wraps.

The Suns were out for blood when they realized the Bucks were going to be apprehensive playing up high on the arc with Lopez as the second body during their utilization of their “switch everything” gameplan, and they paid for it dearly. Bobby Portis got the same treatment and was even less effective as Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and Cameron Payne (off the bench) all took turns destroying the bigs of Milwaukee and winning the 1v1s when they were gifted those switches.

So now, Game two is on the horizon for the Bucks. Head Coach Mike Budenholzer may have found two factors that could be cost-effective during the remainder of this series, but those two factors could be enough to turn the tide of a series that could quickly get away from them if they don’t commit to them sooner rather than later.

For starters, the innumerable amount of switching that Budenholzer forced the Bucks to do ultimately did them for the majority of the game, as the Pick-and-Roll situation to limit both Paul and Booker remains unsolved in the larger picture. So, they have to limit the amount of switching while remaining physical with both Paul and Booker for 48 minutes. They might have a chance of stopping them from running their high PnR sets so freely, should they do so early in Game two. Also, employing a combination of zone looks could also help, as it’ll force the Suns to use the shot clock and put the ball in the hands of the Suns’ less-talented scorers off the bounce to win the game for them.

And secondly, the operation of Giannis Antetokounmpo at the center position stretches the floor enough for the two-time MVP and 2019-20 Defensive Player of the Year to equally break down the Suns in the post as well as give him a running start to attack DeAndre Ayton in the halfcourt, while giving him the full arsenal to restrict Ayton from freely taking the game over in the open court as his primary matchup.

Should the Bucks adjust properly, Milwaukee will split the series on the road and grasp a scoop of momentum heading back to the Fiserv Forum for Game 3.

If not, the Suns will be halfway to winning their first title in franchise history.