Semi has done a fine job on Giannis but the Freak still had 31 points on 23 shots last night. We're not talking about the value of shutting down the opposition's best player we're talking about the value of playing him as well as anyone else but where he still puts up MVP numbers.
If that's the case, I need to see more than 1 FGA in 21 minutes. Maybe he was told "Don't worry about shooting" but if you're on the court, you're a basketball player. I'd like to see Semi try a little more than what we've seen.
That's the conundrum, though.
Does Semi's defense that has "limited" Giannis to 23.5 PPG, 12 RPG, 6.5 APG, on 54.5% over his 2 starts outweigh his series averages of 1.7 PPG on disastrous shooting (FG% 23.1 - 3PT% 22.2)?
I'd say it's worth it, slow down to centerpiece of their offense
It just isn't that simple. Giannis can/will get his numbers but I believe the other players will determine whether or not the Bucks win. The Freak has been a minus in the box score for 4 out of the 6 games in the series. His most efficient game was our biggest blow out win.
Middleton and Parker cannot BOTH impact the game like they have recently. The Middleton part is more difficult to control because he makes tough shots routinely. He's a winning player IMO. The best we can do is force him take a bunch of tough shots.
As for Parker, his presence off the bench has made things very difficult for the Celtics. Mediocre defense aside, Parker gives the Bucks another weapon who can score in different ways. He's been a significant positive since game 2. They always seem to go on some sort of run when he is in the game.
At the end of the day we can survive Giannis getting 30+ points. Hopefully the Celtics hold Middleton to something similar to his game 5 performance.
It is indeed not that simple, but if you were to ask me about the math of limiting a star player versus having a zero on offense on the other end (the question posed by the OP), I'd say, generally speaking, in this case, it's worth it.
Another thing to factor in this, I reckon, is that Semi reduces the upside (for the Bucks, downside for us) possibility of Giannis going nuts for 40+ points and getting supernova hot.
Also, Smart being back in seems to have slowed down Middleton just a bit (haven't been able to watch closely, but been following a bit through reports and comments on the series). He also defended Jabari...which is such a "Smart" thing to do...
To add to this, Semi also provides another solid body to switch on defense, when they try to get the mismatch with Giannis.
Not sure where the equilibrium is, in terms of stopping opposing stars and stopping opposing secondary pieces - seems Brad got it right though. Hopefully this continues to work out into the next series with the 6'ers - whose star players are eerily similar to the Bucks' cast of stars.