Milwaukee Bucks: Ranking Possible Eastern Conference playoff opponents
Eastern Conference semifinals
The Milwaukee Bucks should sweep whoever they get in the first round, but the second round will not nearly be as easy. They will have to play the four or five seed and currently, three teams are in the mix for those two spots.
1. Indiana Pacers
The Milwaukee Bucks versus the Indiana Pacers is an interesting matchup. These two teams have faced off four times this year, and the Bucks are 3-1 in those games. In their one loss, Giannis was not playing and they only lost by nine in a game they could have easily won.
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The Pacers are currently the fifth seed, but could easily be replaced by the 76ers, and the Bucks could end on not playing them at all unless they made it to the Eastern Conference finals.
On the Pacers’ side, Jeremy Lamb is out for the rest of the season, and Victor Oladipo is still not at 100 percent. If the Bucks are at full strength, they could easily sweep the series. All three wins came by 19 or more points, and Antetokounmpo did not have to put on a dominating performance to win. In their 28-point rout of the Pacers in December, Giannis had only 18 points.
Out of all the opponents they could possibly face in the second round, the Pacers would be the team the Bucks are most likely to sweep.
If the playoffs break that way and the Bucks go 8-0, they could be well-rested against a team like the Celtics or the Raptors who should have a tougher time sweeping their side of the Bracket.
2. Miami Heat
A Milwaukee Bucks versus Miami Heat playoff matchup has the potential to be one of the best series in the entire playoffs. If the Heat end up with the four or five seed, the Bucks would have to play them in the 2nd round if they won their first series.
They are the only team to beat the Bucks twice this season, which would make it a tight series. The Heat did this by clamping up Giannis to the point where he only had 13 points and saw the rest of the team struggle from all over the floor as well.
The Bucks have the best defense in the NBA, and their ability to play physical with the Heat night in and night out will be essential. The keys to the Bucks beating Miami and any team in the playoffs for that matter is limiting the number of threes (Heat shot 48 percent from three last time they played).
Also. Heat: The revitalization of Jae Crowder. light
Also, getting Antetokounmpo going in the paint and breaking through double and triple teams by kicking it out to the shooters to help ease the pressure inside on the other side of the floor.
The caveat, however, is that in a seven-game series, it is unlikely that the Heat will shoot the lights out each game as they did so far this season, and for the Bucks to shoot as poorly as they did. The Miami Heat are a young team, and the playoffs are a whole different monster.
Now that the Bucks have some playoff experience and are hungry to not let what happened last year happen again, they should end up being too much for the Heat to handle, but it would not be easy for the Bucks to sweep them.
3. Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers are 9-23 on the road and the Bucks are 27-3 at home. Usually, when the records are like that it signals the Bucks should roll over the 76ers, but simply put, these two teams do not like each other and it shows every time they play, leading to highly contested games.
The Giannis/Embiid matchup is one of the more interesting in the NBA. They have similar stats, but the way they play basketball is entirely different, even though they both are dominant big men in the NBA. Then there is that pesky Ben Simmons guy, who gives any team that plays them a tough matchup on both ends of the floor.
Looking at the head-to-head this season, the Bucks have beaten the 76ers twice at home this year and lost to them in Philadelphia. The Bucks will have the home-court advantage in the playoffs, which means a Sixers team that can barely beat bad teams on the road will have to beat a hungry Bucks team at least once in Milwaukee.
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People point to the Christmas Day game this year as a piece of evidence that the 76ers could topple the Bucks, but at the same time, the Milwaukee Bucks have made easy work of the 76ers in games this season also. The 76ers have recently started to slide due to multiple injuries, and if they do not pick it up before the playoffs a team like the Bucks will run through them. The team seems to be dealing with disfunction, and this season The Bucks have bullied struggling teams.
Just because the 76ers are struggling towards the end of the season, does not mean it will be a cakewalk for the Bucks. Every time these two teams face-off, they play hard, physical games. A series like that could take a lot out of either team. A rivalry is starting to brew between these two teams that have gone from nobodies to contenders in a short span led by two of the best big men in the NBA. This could be a six or seven game series.