Stars keep dropping as the playoffs grind on, and opportunities keep popping up for understudies because games need to be won and players win them.
Bobby Portis isn’t a star, not in a traditional sense, and neither is Brook Lopez. But Fiserv Forum popped on command from Portis, and Lopez’s long-armed shocking alley-oop dunks sent Milwaukee’s arena into a frenzy — another main character in the Bucks moving to within one game of joining the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals.
The Bucks were without Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Atlanta Hawks were without wunderkind Trae Young — giving the perception that both teams were evenly matched.