There’s no real drama left in the ass-whooping better known as the Bucks-Pistons first-round series. Milwaukee is the best team in the East, featuring the likely MVP and a top five offense and defense. Detroit is...not that, plus they’re missing their best player, Blake Griffin, due to injury.
So, it’s not exactly a shock that the Bucks took a 2-0 series lead on Wednesday night, with a commanding 120-99 victory at home. The only remaining point of interest in this lopsided series is whether a certain Buck will make a bunch of grown men cry about the futility of life. During game 2, Giannis Antetokounmpo proved that no Piston is safe from his wrath, not even former teammate and “little brother” Thon Maker, who was traded to Detroit for Stanley Johnson back in February.
Early in the second quarter on Wednesday, Giannis found himself one-on-one with Maker in the post. Giannis basically acted like Maker wasn’t there, backing him down and then dunking both the ball and the poor 22-year-old into the Earth’s crust:
As if that weren’t enough, in the fourth quarter and with the Bucks pulling away, Maker found himself in the corner with room to drive against his former teammate, only to discover too late an important fact about the man defending him: Giannis’s limbs stretch all the way to the damn moon.
We’ve covered the objective fact that Giannis is a bit of a motherfucker on the court, but you might expect him to let up a tiny bit against someone who he was formerly close with. Maybe just hook shot it over him instead of dunking right through him, maybe just swat the ball enough to stop Maker’s shot, rather than blasting it with the force of a thousand insults.
And yet, that’s not who Giannis is, and he sure as hell is not taking it easy on Detroit. After scoring 24 points in just 23 minutes in game 1, Giannis scored 26 points on 11/18 shooting in 30 minutes on Wednesday. Giannis is here for a good time, not a long time, with Maker and the Pistons picking up the tab for what will very likely be just two more games before the start of their summer vacation.