The Bucks spent most of Game 3 breezing their way to 113 points against the best defense in the NBA with the simplicity of a weekend up north. That belies the exactitude with which the Bucks played, the kind necessary to dismantle a Brad Stevens team, if only for a night. But it was true, too.
Whichever kind of beauty you prefer, it was beauty that was all around.
It was up, way up above where anyone in the arena — most of all, Aron Baynes — could reach, when Giannis lifted, cut a pose that is one of seven or eight of his that could end up as a statue next door to the Bradley Center, and threw down.
It was there when Khris Middleton let out the biggest scoff in the universe when he had Shane Larkin posted up.
You could find it wherever Thon was spotting up on the perimeter, and wherever the Celtics were driving in the paint against him.
It was on the tip of Jabari’s finger on his finger roll.
There was even — this was just the night it was — some of it in the arc of Delly’s floater, I kid you not.
Two and a half minutes into the third quarter, the Bucks carried an obscene 63–37 lead. But when Jayson Tatum knocked in a three to cut it to 76–62, you just wanted the Bucks to get to the end of the third quarter up double-digits.
On the next play, Baynes closed out far too late on a wide-open Maker, who missed the three. But for some reason, Baynes didn’t stop his closeout, and kept on running all the way through Maker, who before the night had made three three-pointers since late-February. “Some reason” could be that Maker — who had blocked four shots in a five-minute span earlier in the game and had hit a couple threes already — was having it a little too good.
Maker hit the first free throw, missed the second free throw, then Marcus Morris (who was otherwise quite quiet!) got chatty and got a technical, Middleton missed the technical free throw, and Maker hit the third free throw. 78–62.
And then… this defensive possession: completing the sequence and the beauty that sealed and summed up and killed off the game.