Milwaukee Bucks: Ranking Potential Eastern Conference Playoff Opponents
Cleveland Cavaliers
The defending world champions should be the team no one want to face. LeBron James is the best player in the world, and he showed last postseason how once the games become do-or-die he can still morph into one of the greatest two-way forces the league has ever seen.
But there are two reasons the Cavaliers are vulnerable in a first-round series against Milwaukee. One is how badly the Cavaliers are playing right now — and it cannot be overstated. Cleveland is 6-10 in March, the most losses LeBron James has suffered in a month since he was 18 years old.
The Cavaliers are struggling to defend at every level, giving up career nights to players unable to score on other teams. They are losing to contenders (29-point loss to San Antonio on Monday night) and pretenders (loss at Chicago Thursday night).
Their current three-game losing streak is the fourth-most this season; only one team in NBA history has won the title after enduring such a number of losing streaks.
The second reason Cleveland is vulnerable is that Milwaukee matches up against the Cavaliers better than perhaps any team in the East. Even when the Bucks were not playing well, they played Cleveland tough this season.
While the Bucks are 1-3 against the Cavs this season, those are three single-digit losses including one game that went to overtime.
The keys to beating a LeBron James-led team are simple, if hard to accomplish. Limit turnovers, throw multiple defenders at James, and run teams off of the three-point line.
With conservative guards, the Bucks are well-equipped to accomplish the first. In Antetokounmpo, Middleton, and Snell Milwaukee has those wing stoppers to rotate onto James. And their length and switch-heavy scheme protects the three-point line as well as anyone in the league.
In the end no one should pick against the Cavaliers to again win the Eastern Conference – LeBron James is that good, and after making the Finals for six-straight years has earned the benefit of the doubt.
But at the worst Milwaukee will prove to be a tough-out for the reeling defending champions, and at best could provide one of the more shocking upsets in recent playoff history.