The NBA doesn't usually work this way. Normally, you see the juggernauts coming from a mile away, but the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals was basically a fever dream that happened in the wake of a global pandemic and a condensed schedule that broke almost everyone's bodies. If you were watching back then, you remember the vibe. It was weird. It was loud. It was deeply, deeply unpredictable.
Think about the matchup for a second: the Milwaukee Bucks against the Atlanta Hawks.
If you had told a casual fan in December 2020 that Trae Young would be shimmying at the free-throw line in the Conference Finals while Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid watched from their couches, they’d have called you insane. But that’s the beauty of that specific postseason. It wasn't about who had the best "paper" roster. It was about who survived. It was about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s knee turning into a literal chevron and him somehow coming back from it.
The Trae Young "Problem" and the Hawks' Magical Run
Atlanta had no business being there. Honestly. They fired Lloyd Pierce mid-season, Nate McMillan took over, and suddenly they were a juggernaut of chemistry and "we don't know any better" confidence. By the time they hit the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals, they had already dispatched a Knicks team that thought they were back and a top-seeded Sixers team that proceeded to melt down in historic fashion.
Game 1 was the Trae Young masterpiece.
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He dropped 48 points. In Milwaukee. He did a literal shoulder shimmy before hitting a wide-open three because he knew, at that moment, he was the baddest man on the planet. The Hawks took a 1-0 lead, and suddenly the "Fear the Deer" crowd was looking at their shoes. It felt like the Bucks might choke again. People forget that before the 2021 run, the narrative around Giannis was that he was a "regular season player" who couldn't figure out a wall in the playoffs.
The pressure on Milwaukee was suffocating. If they lost to a #5 seed Hawks team? That's the kind of series that gets coaches fired and superstars traded.
The Moment the World Stopped: Giannis and the Hyper-extension
You can still hear the collective gasp from Fiserv Forum. It happened in Game 4. Giannis went up to contest a lob, landed awkwardly, and his left knee bent in a way that knees are absolutely not supposed to bend. It looked like a season-ender. It looked like a career-altering injury.
I remember the Twitter doctors immediately diagnosing him with a torn ACL. It seemed obvious.
But this is where the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals shifted from a basketball series into something of a legend. The Bucks didn't fold. While Giannis was in the back getting treatment for what was eventually diagnosed as a "hyperextended knee"—a miracle in itself—Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday decided they weren't going home.
Middleton is one of those players who is either a ghost or a god. There is no middle ground. In the absence of Giannis, he chose god mode. He’d just decide to score 20 points in a quarter. He did it in Game 3, and he kept that same energy when the Bucks needed to close out the series.
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Breaking Down the "What Ifs"
The Hawks were dealing with their own nightmare. Trae Young stepped on an official’s foot in Game 3 and suffered a bone bruise.
So, for a chunk of the most important series in recent Eastern Conference history, the two biggest stars were sidelined or severely hampered. It became a war of attrition between Brook Lopez, Lou Williams, Cam Reddish, and Bobby Portis. Bobby Portis, man. That guy became a folk hero in Milwaukee during this stretch. The "Bobby! Bobby!" chants were louder than the actual play-by-play commentary most nights.
- Brook Lopez turned back the clock in Game 5, scoring 33 points.
- Khris Middleton put up 32/10/7 in the clincher.
- Cam Reddish came out of nowhere to hit six threes in Game 6, almost saving Atlanta's season.
It was messy basketball at times. It wasn't the refined, tactical chess match of the Spurs-Heat years. It was a brawl.
Why the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals Changed the NBA
We talk a lot about "parity" in the NBA now, but this series was the catalyst. It proved that the "Superteam" era—the Brooklyn Nets experiment specifically—was vulnerable to health and chemistry. The Bucks won the series in six games, but the implications lasted way longer.
It validated the "build through the draft and stay patient" model. Milwaukee didn't trade Giannis when things got tough in 2019 or 2020. They doubled down. They traded a king's ransom for Jrue Holiday. And in the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals, that gamble finally paid its dividends. Holiday's defense on the perimeter, even when his shot wasn't falling, was the silent killer for Atlanta's rhythm.
The Statistical Reality of the Series
People love to say the Hawks were a fluke. Maybe. But they were trailing by only six points with a few minutes left in Game 6 without their superstar at 100%.
The Bucks averaged 112.5 points per game over the series.
The Hawks averaged 105.5.
That seven-point gap doesn't tell the story of how close those fourth quarters actually were. It was a series defined by runs. The Bucks would go on a 15-2 spurt, then Bogdon Bogdonovic would hit a couple of transition threes and the lead would evaporate. It was exhausting to watch.
Actionable Takeaways for Basketball Students
If you’re looking back at this series to understand how high-level basketball actually works when the stars go down, look at the screening actions Milwaukee used for Lopez in Game 5. They stopped trying to play like a "Giannis team" and started playing like a traditional "inside-out" team.
Watch the tape on these specific things:
- Khris Middleton’s pacing: He never lets the defender speed him up. Even when the Hawks doubled him, he waited for the skip pass.
- Atlanta’s "Next Man Up" philosophy: Look at how Onyeka Okongwu defended Giannis before the injury. For a rookie, he showed the blueprint for being a "Giannis stopper" by using low center of gravity.
- The importance of the "Corner 3": P.J. Tucker basically lived in the corner. He didn't score much, but his gravity opened the lane for Jrue Holiday's drives.
The 2021 Eastern Conference Finals ended with the Bucks hoisting the trophy and heading to the Finals to face Phoenix, but for many fans, this was the real championship. It was the hurdle they had to clear. It was the moment Milwaukee proved they weren't just a regular-season wonder.
For the Hawks, it remains a "what could have been" moment. They haven't reached those heights since. They’ve tinkered with the roster, traded for Dejounte Murray, and changed coaches again, but that 2021 magic has been hard to bottle twice. It reminds us that in the NBA, windows of opportunity slam shut much faster than they open.
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To truly understand the legacy of this series, you have to look at the 2021 NBA Finals that followed. Giannis’s 50-point masterpiece in Game 6 of the Finals doesn't happen without the confidence the Bucks built winning those final games against Atlanta without him. They learned they were a team, not just a supporting cast for a superstar.
Next Steps for Deep Diving into 2021 Hoops History:
Study the Game 5 box score of this series specifically. It is the perfect example of "identity-less" basketball where role players forced themselves into stardom. Then, compare the defensive rotations of Mike Budenholzer in this series versus the previous year against Miami; you’ll see a coach who finally learned how to adjust his "drop coverage" scheme to account for elite pull-up shooters like Trae Young.
Reflecting on this series isn't just about nostalgia. It’s about recognizing the rare moment where the NBA hierarchy shattered, and for a few weeks in June and July, anything felt possible.