Deandre Ayton being in foul trouble killed the Phoenix Suns
Entering the second-half of Game 3, DeAndre Ayton had 3 personal fouls and about 1:35 into the third quarter, Ayton picked up foul #4 after Giannis aggressively attacked the rim. Cameron Johnson entered the game for the young center at this moment and played well the rest of the game, but this was a turning point in Game 3.
Not only did Ayton being out mean the Bucks had a major advantage on the interior, but the Suns were forced to play small and their defense was out of rhythm. DeAndre Ayton had a really strong showing in the first-half of this game on both ends of the floor, but him being out made things so much easier for the Bucks offense to not only attack the paint, but attack and kick out for three-point attempts as well.
All season long, the gameplan for the Bucks in games has been to use their height and length to their advantage in terms of scoring in the paint. In Game 3, they did an excellent job at attacking the paint with Ayton being out and for the game, they wound up outscoring the Suns 54-40 in the paint.
Giannis Antetokounmpo especially benefited from Ayton being on the bench because 28 of his 41 total points in this game came inside the paint. Time and time again, Giannis would put his head down and get to the rim with ease since the Suns had no interior presence without DeAndre Ayton on the court.
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Whether it was backing down his defender in the low-post or grabbing offensive rebounds for putback layups/dunks, Antetokounmpo was a menace in the paint and Phoenix had no answers to stop him. A front line of Jae Crowder, Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson was not enough size or strength to stop the 2x MVP from asserting his dominance on his own court.
In Game 2 of this series, the Bucks did an excellent job of containing DeAndre Ayton and keeping him in check, as he only had 10 points, 11 rebounds and had 4 personal fouls as well. In this game on Sunday night, Milwaukee continued to keep Ayton in check the best they could and their gameplan on offense was to attack him every chance they got.
Attacking DeAndre Ayton has resulted in a lot of success for the Bucks on the offensive-end of the court, which is why they were finally able to break through in Game 3 to win their first game in this series. Finding ways to take Ayton out of the equation for the Suns really opens things up for the Bucks’ offense and allows them to play their game of attacking their opponents in the paint.
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On the other side of things, it is easy to say that the Suns and particularly Ayton need to stay out of foul trouble, but that’s a really easy thing to say. When a guy like Giannis is coming down the lane with a full head of steam, it is pretty hard to not only stop him, but not to foul him either!
Defensively, the Suns need to position themselves better to try and limit DeAndre Ayton fouling because one way or another, he is going to pick up some fouls. The best thing Phoenix can do is to go back to what worked in Game 1 of creating a wall around Giannis and not letting him just drive downhill time and time again.
Throughout Game 3, the Suns just seemed out of rhythm on both ends of the court and they really did not collapse on Antetokounmpo when he looked to attack. This resulted in the Bucks’ MVP getting to the rim virtually every single time he put the ball down on the floor, which is a big reason why they lost this game.
Monty Williams is a very smart head coach and has proven time and time again that he is able to make successful adjustments, so it should be interesting to see how he adjusts his defense to help DeAndre Ayton out. If the Suns continue to let Giannis attack them every possession one-on-one then this series will be 2-2 heading back to Phoenix with the Bucks having all the momentum.
