The Bucks had 4 starters with 20+ points. They shot tremendously well from the field, though were still weak from 3. They played team basketball and really spread it around. I actually thought they played more cohesively and better even though they aren't as good without Giannis. Lopez looked like his Brooklyn days. Holiday looked like prime-Holiday. Middleton, was good Middleton, and had a very strong all around game 26/13/8. They just had a different feel to them. If they get by the Hawks, they almost certainly won't beat the Suns without Giannis, but the Bucks have some really good players and play a more team oriented game without Giannis.
I have long thought Giannis was a difficult player to play with on the offensive side of the floor.
Before Budenholzer arrived and created that 4 out 1 in with Giannis next to a stretch 5 and three other shooters, I was unsure how well Giannis could do next to talented teammates.
I felt he impeded the progress of other talented teammates earlier in his career with his lack of shooting and insistence on handling the ball 20 feet from the hoop despite not being able to make a jump-shot consistently.
His lack of shooting hurt spacing off the ball and shrunk the court. Allowing opposing teams to play off of him and make his teammates lives more difficult when they tried to create for themselves.
Coach Bud showed a way to make it work despite Giannis' limitations but there has always been an issue there with his teamwork (offensively only!) - how well he works with others and whether he helps or hinders his teammates.
Interesting to see another signal of this now (years later) even in a system designed to minimize Giannis' weaknesses.
I think he really hampers Lopez because Lopez is an absolute master in the post and can't really play in the post with Giannis also there. Obviously I wasn't expecting an uber efficient 33 from Brook, but I absolutely think he can continue to be a 20+ scorer with solid efficiency for as long as Giannis is out.
Middleton's problem is consistency and I don't think that has anything to do with Giannis. Middleton is what he is at this point, i.e. a good, but not great player, that at times can look like the best player in the word and at other times is going to look like a GLeaguer. He just isn't good enough to be more than that.
Holiday is also what he is at this point, but he is more effective with the ball in his hand, so he is probably hurt some by Giannis' ball dominance, especially given Holiday is not a great outside shooter, but overall I don't think you see much different from him.
So in sum, I think Giannis has almost no impact on Middleton's effectiveness, might have a small negative effect on Holiday, and has a fairly big negative effect on Lopez.
The Bucks without Giannis though are a team of all star or near all star caliber of players, but not all nba caliber of players, and they aren't going to realistically beat the Suns in a 7 game series without Giannis because while the Suns don't have a mega star like Giannis, they do have 2 All NBA caliber guards, a future all nba center, and a really well constructed and deep team.
