When the Atlanta Hawks take on the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, it will be an emotional moment. Their first Eastern Conference Finals berth since 2015, facing the coach that hightailed it up North instead of seeing the rebuild through, and a two-time MVP also looking for validation. The storylines here really are endless.
One, in particular, stands out as we are just a day away from Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. That is free-throw shooting and sending Giannis Antetokounmpo to the line. It was big in the Bucks series versus the Nets.
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We all saw Giannis taking his time at the stripe.
Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanovic combined to go 12-for-19, or 63.1 percent in the series.
You might expect Clint Capela to struggle like that (35 percent last round, by the way), but it’s unacceptable from your starting wings. too.
How that story unfolds in this series will be key. For the Hawks, they can’t get tempted to follow what might seem like an obvious blueprint in sending Giannis to the free-throw line intentionally.
It quite honestly has more of a chance at backfiring than being successful.
They aren’t going to start off the game that way under any circumstances so the risk of falling behind is already great.
But the obvious effect on the Hawks is that they will be picking up needless fouls. It’s imperative they avoid this trap because this series could come down to the NBA’s most efficient bench in Atlanta holding serve and taking advantage of Milwaukee’s, which has struggled in its limited floor time. Team efforts got the Hawks here and will carry them through.
Atlanta Hawks intentionally fouling Giannis Antetokounmpo could quickly backfire in Eastern Conference Finals
The other issue is Giannis is a much more aggressive scorer than Ben Simmons was.
He will visit the line a lot more frequently and you can bet Coach Bud won’t be looking to take him out. And he’s a better shooter when he gets there.
Simmons shot 61.3 percent from the line in the regular season and a miserable 33.3 percent against the Hawks. Giannis hit 68.5 percent during the year, though he too has had issues in the postseason, going 48.3 percent at the free-throw line against Brooklyn.
Still worlds better than Simmons.
What’s more is he improved as the games went on in the last round, going from a 35.7 percent free-throw shooter in the first quarter to hitting them at a 62.5 percent clip in the fourth. So the best way to go about it, if they were to do it, would be early but that would be premature and further deplete the bench.
Besides, even as the Hawks have struggled with their free-throw shooting at times this postseason, they’ve been better than the Bucks, shooting 78.4 percent to Milwaukee’s 67.7 in the last round. Atlanta might as well play it straight up.
So intentionally fouling Giannis will remain an emergency option, just not a very good one.