BLUE BALLS

FRANCIS TIOPIANCO   If you missed Part 1 featuring Giannis & Bud,  CLICK HERE.  Here's Part 2.   *** 3. Khris Middleton: During the playoffs, Middleton averaged 23.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.5 steals. These stats are worthy of being the best player in a playoff team. Just to understand how impressive Middleton's statline is, Jimmy Butler averaged 22.2/7.5/7/1.3 when Miami made the bubble finals* last year.   More importantly though, Middleton embraced the closer role for the Bucks to alleviate the pressure on Giannis, given the Finals MVP’s well-known struggles from the line. How good was Middleton this postseason? He had a 40-point game in the must-win Game 4 against the Suns, including 10 in the final 2:07. He scored 7 of the Bucks’ last 9 points in the pivotal Game 5 on the road. He had 38 points in a season-saving performance in Game 6 against Brooklyn. He scored 8 of the Bucks’ last 10 points in a 35-point outing in Game 3 of the Brooklyn series

FRANCIS TIOPIANCO The Finals define legacies.   That's why Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward of all-time, not Karl Malone.   As Chris Paul himself said, “At the end of the day, no one cares about your story unless you win.” After taking a couple of days to let everything sink in—you have to lest you become a prisoner of the moment and be just another run-of-the-mill Twitter or FS1 dupe—now’s a good time to do a postmortem legacy check of 4 men who played crucial roles in the Finals:   1. Giannis Antetokounmpo   I have to admit, he’s the main reason why I needed to take some time off before writing this piece. Watching him go for 50 points (14 in the 4 th , 17/19 FTs), 14 boards and 5 blocks in a closeout game left such an imprint that I was still in awe 24 hours later. ESPN was quick to point out that it was first 50-point closeout game since Bob Pettit. But I obviously never watched Bob Pettit play so knowing that didn’t really help me appreciate the magnitu

THE CREW: Andrew Mediana, Benjie Panahon, Benjoe Panahon, Francis Tiopianco After the Bucks won their first championship in 50 years behind an epic 50-point effort from Giannis, the Blue Ballers share their thoughts on what has been one of the most unpredictable postseasons ever. 1.  W hat's your biggest takeaway from the Finals? AndMedia:    I thought that the Bucks were cooked when they went down 0-2. But then they run 4 straight. Holy Moley. Epic. Benjie:  True before as it is now: the healthiest team wins. Benjoe: Giannis IS Batman. Perk should stop embarrassing himself . FT: The superteam era is dead. OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration—as long as LeBron and KD are playing, they will continue to want to play with fellow superstars. But the Finals showed that teams that go through the process can win it all. Both the Bucks and the Suns drafted smart, added key veterans, and made game-changing trades for starting point guards. I’m hoping that this becomes the norm this decade. 2. W

FRANCIS TIOPIANCO After the Suns went up 2-0 against the Bucks, I jokingly said that the Bucks were 2 wins away from being 2 wins away. Who would’ve thought that barely a week after, the Bucks are 1 win away from their first title since 1971, while the Suns are left reeling after they got punched in the mouth? How it happened Game 5 followed a familiar script that we’ve already seen in this postseason: one team jumps out to an early lead, but the other team remained resilient and weathered the early onslaught. The Sixers practically wrote the screenplay, but it also happened to the Jazz in Game 6 of the West semis and the Bucks in Game 5 against the Nets. In fact, the Suns were the only team, until today, that had bucked (pun absolutely not intended) the trend. The Suns having a double-digit lead is as good as money in the bank. I was planning to do a Game 5 running diary as my first article for Blue Balls and noted at the 3:38 mark of the 1 st quarter, after the refs called a