What a week it was for Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. After a size-able loss to the Grizzlies without Ja Morant (Who seem to beat anyone in their path), Giannis led the Bucks to two bounce back, statement wins over two Eastern Conference rivals and became the Bucks' all-time leading scorer.
On Tuesday in Philadelphia, Giannis finished the game with 40 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 blocks in a 118-116 win over the Sixers. The best parts about Antetokounmpo's performance were that he did against one of the favorites for MVP in Joel Embiid and blocked his game winning layup attempt in the final seconds. Milwaukee trailed by as many as 13 points in this game and while trailing 85-72 late in the third, Giannis scored Milwaukee's next 15 points to lower the deficit to four at 91-87. Giannis also had a big alley-oop dunk assisted by Jrue Holiday and made a late pull up jumper from the mid range area to help seal the deal in this game as well. In an MVP race that is as tight as we have had in a while, Giannis showed up big against one of the best teams in the East and led Milwaukee to a huge win.
Following Giannis' amazing performance against the 76ers, Giannis found a way to top it against the Nets on Thursday night. The Greek Freak finished with 44 points, another 14 rebounds, and another 6 assists. Milwaukee trailed the majority of the game, but they were never out of it because the of the dominance of Giannis. The point where everyone thought the game was over was in the fourth quarter when Khris Middleton got ejected for a flagrant foul penalty two after he hard fouled Bruce Brown in mid air when he was going up for a dunk. The score was 99-96 at that point and after Middleton got ejected, the Brooklyn lead went to 108-99 with about three minutes left. After a series of big baskets from multiple Bucks players, they were able to shrink the deficit to three at 110-107. With about 20 seconds left Giannis made a clutch, game tying three to tie the score at 110 all. Up to that point, Giannis had missed his first three three pointers, but came up big when his team needed it most. The game went to overtime and no player scored more than six points and after a late foul by Nic Claxton, Giannis nailed two free throws to give the Bucks a 120-119 lead. Kevin Durant missed what would have been a game winning three point shot and the Bucks held on to win the game from there.
The conclusion that Giannis is the best player in the NBA and the MVP cannot be reached after two great games and Giannis did not earn these titles after the week he had. Giannis became the world's best basketball player after averaging 35/13/5 in the NBA finals and sealing the deal with a 50 point performance in game six where he went 17/19 from the free throw line. These numbers are impressive, but what makes them even more impressive is he put them up after severely hyperextending his knee in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals. Nobody thought that Giannis would even come back and play in the playoffs, but he did and had two straight 40 point finals games and had historic plays such as the clutch block on Deandre Ayton in game four and the and one on the last second alley-oop in game five.
In his first season as a champion, Giannis is currenty averaging 30.1 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game and currently has the Bucks in position to get the number one seed in the East. He's also shooting 72% from the free throw line this year and shooting the foul shots with confidence. In his ninth season, Giannis also has a chance to win his first scoring title and his second Defensive Player of the Year award. He is by far and away the best two way player we have in today's game and with what he's able to do on both sides of the ball while also making his teammates better, he should receive his third MVP award this year and be considered the best player in basketball.
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