LAS VEGAS — Following a sloppy stretch of play from both teams, Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers took a timeout with 6 minutes, 52 seconds remaining in his team’s NBA Cup semifinal matchup against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.
Out of the timeout, Andre Jackson Jr. did his best to deny the ball from Trae Young, but the Hawks star point guard managed to shake free and bring it up the floor. Jackson recovered and forced Young to pass it to Jalen Johnson. Stuck on the left side of the floor with the shot clock running down, Johnson attempted to take Giannis Antetokounmpo baseline off the dribble. As Johnson spun back to the middle of the floor, Antetokounmpo poked away his dribble and the ball slowly started to roll toward the sideline.
Antetokounmpo had done his job and denied Johnson’s drive, but that wasn’t enough for the Bucks’ two-time league MVP. Antetokounmpo dove to corral the ball before it went out of bounds. As Antetokounmpo slid, Johnson fell on top of him and the officials whistled the Hawks forward for a foul.
That level of effort from the team’s best and most accomplished player set the example the Bucks needed to close out the final seven minutes and secure a 110-102 win over the Hawks to advance to Tuesday’s NBA Cup final.
“Him going that hard makes me want to go even harder,” Jackson told The Athletic after the game. “When that happened, it was right in front of me. He got a piece of the ball and he dove and I felt like I was supposed to dive for it. It just made me play with a little more urgency … It’s just like you gotta give to get.”
Read the rest of my story here.
Bucks feed off ‘winning plays’ to down Hawks, advance to NBA Cup final
