17 and 5 were the “Magic Numbers” in Game 4
A lot of things factored into why the Bucks won Game 4 and why the Suns lost Game 4, but the two biggest numbers that stand out from this game are 17 and 5. The Bucks had 17 offensive rebounds in this game, the most they have had in a game this series, and the Suns only had 5 offensive rebounds. To add onto the “magic numbers,” Milwaukee had a total of 5 turnovers for the game and Phoenix had a total of 17 turnovers for the game.
Offensive rebounds were a huge reason why the Bucks were so successful in Game 4 and from these 17 offensive boards, they were able to create 19 total second-chance points. This is way too many points for the Suns to give up just because they allowed one of the Bucks guards to out-muscle them on box outs.
Giannis Antetokoumpo led the way for Milwaukee with 5 offensive rebounds, the magic number yet again, but P.J. Tucker, Jrue Holiday, Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton all did a fantastic job of crashing the offensive glass and putting the pressure on Phoenix. All of these guys ended up with more than one offensive rebound in the game, which was huge for Milwaukee.
The Bucks wound up taking 19 more shots and 10 more free-throws than the Suns in Game 1, which is directly correlated to the fact that they had 17 offensive rebounds as a team. From the Suns’ standpoint, this cannot happen and they will need to put an emphasis on boxing out in Game 5. Having Antetokounmpo grab offensive rebounds is one thing because is a “freak,” but guys like Holiday and Connaughton cannot be creating second-chance opportunities. That is just a lack of effort from the Suns players boxing out.
Besides offensive rebounds, turnovers were also a major reason why the Bucks were able to win this game and why the Suns lost this game. Phoenix had a total of 17 turnovers in this game and they just straight up beat themselves in Game 4. Whether it was Chris Paul dribbling the ball off his foot or making a bad pass, somebody stepping on the baseline with the ball or numerous Suns players leaving their feet to make a bad pass when nobody was open, Phoenix just seemed to rush on offense for no reason, leading to tons of turnovers.
In fact, their 17 total turnovers directly contributed 24 points off of turnovers for Milwaukee. Time and time again, the Bucks converted off of Phoenix making mistakes and this is a major reason why the Suns were never able to put the Bucks away. Phoenix held a 9-point lead at one point in the first-quarter, a 6-point lead to end the third quarter and then they held a six-point lead again early in the fourth-quarter for 3-4 minutes, but turnovers constantly killed them and allowed the Bucks to get back in the game.
Milwaukee did an excellent job defensively of forcing the Suns to rush, but ultimately, this game was more of the Suns beating themselves than Milwaukee beating them in terms of turning the ball over. The Bucks did an excellent job of taking care of the ball on offense and as a result, they came away with arguably the biggest win in this NBA Finals series so far.
