The Phoenix Suns have been the luckiest team. In their opening round, Anthony Davis was injured during their playoff series and Lebron James was forced to carry the Lakers.
Nuggest were missing Jamal Murry, their top guard and the outside compliment to Most Valuable player Jokic and the Suns took advantage to sweep the Nuggets.
Clippers were missing Kawhli Leonard over the last three games of their series and while Paul George had a great series, but Suns played well and even won two games with Chris Paul out for Covid restrictions.
Now they play Milwaukee who managed to win their last two games against the Hawks without Giannis Antetokoumpo, but the Hawks were missing Trae Young with sore ankle for one game and Young was hampered by his ankle in the deciding game.
Will Antetokoumpo be available for the final series? While the Bucks have a good team even without Giannis but he is one of the two super stars in this series, with Chris Paul the other. Both teams have good players, Suns have a rising star in Devin Booker and Bucks have Kris Middleton. Brooks Lopez was a regular 20 point scorer with the Brooklyn Nets and while he has averaged 12 to 13 points a game since leaving the Nets but he was playing with Lebron James in LA and Giannis was the super star who along with Middleton, who are the two scorers. Lopez is support and Suns have the young Deandre Ayton who has a good playoffs. Both teams have talented support players.
This NBA playoff has been as much a survival match as key injuries have hurt teams during the playoffs. Celtics began the playoffs without Jaylen Brown, Nets played without Irving and Hardin much of their playoff run and in their last two games with Bucks, Irving was out and Hardin was playing with one leg.
Key players have been hurt at crucial times and the nearly year of straight year of playing with summer session followed by short off season. So the finals is upon of us and the survival of the fittest continues.
The Donelson Files 