2021 NBA Finals

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2021 NBA Finals matched two franchises that had spent generations on the outside of basketball's biggest stage. The series began on the 6th of July, the second-latest tip-off in championship history, pushed back by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Milwaukee Bucks had not won since 1971. The Phoenix Suns had never won a title. Both teams were born as expansion franchises in 1968 and were making just their third Finals appearances ever. Each carried a championship drought of more than 50 years entering that summer. Chris Paul, at 36, was playing in his first Finals after 16 seasons in the league and 10 All-NBA selections. Hovering over the series was a scoring record from 1958, set by Bob Pettit of the St. Louis Hawks. No player in six decades had matched it in a championship-clinching game. How two overlooked franchises arrived at this moment, and what the series answered for Milwaukee, are the questions that drive what follows.

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• 2. Shared Roots

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  Before the 1969 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns participated in a coin toss for the right to select first overall. Milwaukee won and chose Lew Alcindor, the towering center from UCLA who would later be known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Alcindor led the Bucks to the 1971 championship in his second professional season. Phoenix, having lost the toss, did not reach the Finals until 1976, then again in 1993.

  Jae Crowder of Phoenix was the only player on either roster who had previously appeared in the Finals. He had played in the championship round in 2020 with the Miami Heat. That made 2021 just the second time since the first NBA Finals that fewer than two players in the series had prior championship experience. The series was also the first since 1984 without a teammate of Shaquille O'Neal on either side. The 2021 Finals was the first since 2015 in which no players on the eventual winning team had prior Finals experience.

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• 3. Two Roads to July

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  The COVID-19 pandemic compressed the 2020-21 NBA regular season into 72 games per team. Play ran from the 22nd of December, 2020, to the 16th of May, 2021. Phoenix spent the offseason adding a centerpiece. The Suns acquired veteran guard Chris Paul from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Phoenix gave up Ricky Rubio, Kelly Oubre Jr., and a future first-round draft pick in the deal. Under second-year head coach Monty Williams, Phoenix finished 51-21, their first winning record since the 2013-14 season and their first playoff appearance since 2010. They also claimed the Pacific Division title for the first time since 2006-07. In the five seasons before 2020-21, Phoenix had posted a .302 winning percentage. No team in any major American sport had ever reached the championship round with a worse five-year mark directly preceding it. Phoenix dispatched the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the opening round. They then swept the Denver Nuggets and beat the Los Angeles Clippers in six games. The Clippers were Paul's former team, and that win sent Phoenix to their first Finals since 1993.

  Giannis Antetokounmpo, a two-time league MVP, entered the offseason as Milwaukee's most pressing uncertainty. He was a free agent, and other teams had interest. The Bucks moved first, re-signing him and retaining forward Khris Middleton and center Brook Lopez. To shore up their backcourt, they acquired guard Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans in a four-team trade. The price included starting point guard Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, the draft rights to R.J. Hampton, and a package of future picks. Holiday had earned an All-Star selection in 2013 and was respected for his defense. Milwaukee finished 46-26 as the third seed in the Eastern Conference. They swept the sixth-seeded Miami Heat in the first round but lost guard Donte DiVincenzo for the season after he tore a ligament in his left ankle. They then fell behind 0-2 against the Brooklyn Nets before winning the series in seven games. In the conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks, Antetokounmpo hyperextended his left knee in Game 4 and missed time. Milwaukee closed out the Hawks in six, riding contributions from Middleton, Lopez, and Holiday to reach the Finals for the first time since 1974. Phoenix had beaten Milwaukee twice in the regular season, with each game decided by a single point. Deandre Ayton, the 2018 first overall pick, had yet to play in a Finals game.

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• 4. Phoenix Takes Control

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  Game 1 arrived on the 6th of July with Giannis Antetokounmpo's availability in doubt. His status was not confirmed until almost an hour before tip-off. He played and finished with 20 points and 17 rebounds, but foul trouble limited his effectiveness. Chris Paul and Devin Booker had no such complications. Paul scored 32 points and added nine assists. Booker contributed 27, and the Suns won 118-105. Phoenix attempted 26 free throws, 10 more than Milwaukee, and converted their first 25 before Jae Crowder missed with 24.8 seconds remaining. The Suns finished 25-for-26 at the line. That win was Phoenix's first home victory in the Finals since 1976, and the first time the Suns had ever held a series lead in the Finals.

  Game 2, on the 8th of July, pushed the Suns to a two-game edge. Booker scored 31 points, including seven three-pointers. Paul contributed 23 points and eight assists. Mikal Bridges added 27 points and seven rebounds, and the Suns won 118-108. Antetokounmpo scored 42 points and pulled 12 rebounds in a losing cause. He poured in 20 of those points in the third quarter. That placed him in the company of Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, and Joe Dumars. They are the only other players in Finals history to score at least 20 points in a single quarter. Phoenix made 20 of their 40 three-point attempts in the game. On the Suns' final first-half possession, all five players touched the ball across 10 passes before Ayton laid it in while being fouled. Khris Middleton had scored 29 points in Game 1 on 26 field goal attempts without visiting the free throw line once.

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• 5. The Bucks Strike Back

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  Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 41 points in Game 3, on the 11th of July, and Milwaukee won 120-100 at home. Holiday scored 21 and made five of his 10 three-point attempts. Middleton added 18. The Bucks buried Phoenix with a 30-9 run to close the first half, then finished the third quarter on a 16-0 run. All 14 of Antetokounmpo's field goals in Game 3 came within five feet of the basket. He became the second player in Finals history to record consecutive games with at least 40 points and 10 rebounds. The first was Shaquille O'Neal, who had done it in 2000. Antetokounmpo also logged his 11th playoff game that postseason with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds, surpassing a Milwaukee record held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar since 1974.

  Game 4, on the 14th of July, was a game the Suns controlled for most of 44 minutes. Phoenix led for 37 minutes and 55 seconds of that span. Then Khris Middleton scored 10 consecutive Milwaukee points in the closing stretch to put the Bucks ahead for good. Middleton finished with 40 points. Antetokounmpo added 26 points, 14 rebounds, and eight assists. With 1:14 remaining, he blocked a potential game-tying alley-oop attempt by Deandre Ayton, a play that prompted immediate debate about its place among the greatest blocks in Finals history. Booker scored a game-high 42 but was hampered by foul trouble late. A no-call on a Booker contact foul against Holiday was later confirmed as a missed call in the NBA's Last 3:30 Report. Holiday shot 4-for-20 from the field but added seven rebounds, seven assists, and defense that limited Paul to 5-of-13 shooting and five turnovers. The Bucks won 109-103 to tie the series 2-2.

  Game 5 opened on the 17th of July at the Footprint Center, the arena that had officially taken that name the day before. Phoenix led 37-21 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Bucks scored 43 points, a Finals record for any road team in a single quarter. Holiday accounted for 14 of those points. Milwaukee led 64-61 at halftime. With about nine minutes left in the fourth, the Bucks held a 10-point lead. Then the Suns mounted a comeback, and a Paul basket cut it to 120-119 with 56 seconds remaining. Holiday stripped the ball from Booker in the paint and passed to Antetokounmpo for an alley-oop dunk. Paul fouled Antetokounmpo on the play, and Middleton collected the missed free throw for an offensive rebound. The subsequent free throw made the final margin 123-119. Holiday finished with 27 points, 13 assists, and three steals. Booker scored 40 for the second consecutive game. He became the first player in Finals history to score at least 40 points in back-to-back games and lose both. Antetokounmpo, Holiday, and Middleton combined for 88 points in the win. They were the fifth trio in Finals history for each player to score at least 25 points while shooting better than 50 percent in the same game. The last group to accomplish it had been Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and Magic Johnson in 1985.

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• 6. Game Six and the Record

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  The championship game on the 20th of July produced one of the most dominant individual performances in Finals history. Antetokounmpo scored 50 points and added 14 rebounds and five blocks as the Bucks won 105-98. Throughout the playoffs, his deliberate pre-shot free throw routine had drawn mockery at hostile arenas. The routine could run longer than the NBA's 10-second limit, and opposing fans taunted him with sped-up timer chants. He had converted just 55.6 percent from the line during the postseason. In Game 6, he made 17 of 19 free throw attempts. The game was tied at 77 through three quarters. Antetokounmpo scored 13 of his points in the fourth period to give Milwaukee a lead it would not lose. Paul led Phoenix with 26 points. Bobby Portis scored 16 off the Milwaukee bench. Holiday finished with 12 points, 11 assists, and nine rebounds. His defense held Booker to 19 points on 8-of-22 shooting, with Booker missing all seven of his three-point attempts.

  Antetokounmpo was named Finals MVP. At 26, he was the youngest recipient since Kawhi Leonard, who was 22 when he won it in 2014. His 50 points in the clinching game tied the Finals record for most scored in a championship-clinching game. Bob Pettit had set that mark in 1958. Milwaukee became only the fifth team in Finals history to overcome a 0-2 series deficit. They were the first since Miami in 2006 to do it by winning all four remaining games. The Bucks also became the second team in NBA history to erase a 0-2 deficit twice in the same postseason. The Suns finished with two victories in each of their three Finals appearances, a record that went into the offseason unchanged.

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• 7. What Came After

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  The Bucks entered the 2021-22 season as defending champions and finished 51-31, securing the third seed despite what the league calls a championship hangover. A knee injury to Middleton in the second round proved costly. Milwaukee fell to the Boston Celtics in seven games, with Antetokounmpo averaging 33.9 points in the series. Three consecutive first-round exits followed in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The losses in 2024 and 2025 both came against the Indiana Pacers.

  Just before the 2023-24 season, the Bucks traded Jrue Holiday and draft picks to the Portland Trail Blazers for Damian Lillard. Holiday won a second championship ring in the 2024 NBA Finals. In February 2025, Khris Middleton was traded for Kyle Kuzma. Coach Mike Budenholzer was fired after the 2023 first-round loss. Adrian Griffin briefly held the job before Doc Rivers replaced him in January 2024. One highlight for Milwaukee in the lean years was winning the NBA In-Season Tournament in 2024, with Antetokounmpo earning the NBA Cup MVP.

  The Suns posted a franchise-record 64 wins the following season, with Booker, Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and Cam Johnson driving the run. Bridges finished as runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, and Johnson placed third in sixth man of the year voting. They were eliminated in the second round by a Luka Doncic-led Dallas Mavericks team. In Game 7, Phoenix trailed by 30 at halftime and lost 123-90.

  Owner Robert Sarver was forced to sell the franchise following allegations of workplace malpractice and racist conduct. In December 2022, Mat Ishbia's bid was accepted to acquire the Suns along with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury for $4 billion. Ishbia traded Bridges, Johnson, Crowder, and draft picks for Kevin Durant before the trade deadline and dismissed Monty Williams to hire Frank Vogel. The Suns then sent Chris Paul along with four first-round draft picks to Washington in exchange for Bradley Beal. Beal could not stay healthy in his first season and was benched for much of his second. Phoenix missed the playoffs entirely in 2024-25. By 2025-26, the organization had bought out Beal's contract and traded Durant to the Houston Rockets. Jordan Ott, 40 years old, was hired as head coach, becoming the fourth coach to serve under Ishbia's ownership. Chris Paul left one more mark on the record books after losing the Finals. He became the first player in NBA playoff history to lose four separate series in which his team had held a 2-0 lead.

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