First things first, and this is mainly me talking to myself: Appreciate a series win. For almost my entire life, with the exception of recent history and 2001, winning a playoff series was a pipe dream. They NEVER won a playoff series. And if they did, it was reason enough to throw a parade or hang a banner. And we’re not talking about the distant past, we’re talking like 5-6 years ago. It was inconceivable to think of not only winning one series, but MULTIPLE series. The culture has changed with Giannis, and there was never truly any doubt that they would take care of the Bulls in the first round, but never take a second of this for granted. Never take a second of watching a transcendent, generational talent leading the Bucks to playoff series wins for granted. Good talk I’ll see you out there.
Anyway, the Bucks took care of business last night as we all expected they would. They jumped out to a 29 point second quarter lead and never really looked back. Giannis was a monster, BP posted a double-double, Patty C and Grayson were drilling 3’s off of the bench. The Bucks did precisely what they should have done as the defending champions against an inferior/injury plagued team. The Gentleman’s Sweep.
Now, on to this morning’s news:
The left MCL injury of Bucks All-Star Khris Middleton is a Grade 2 sprain and he is expected to miss the entire second-round series vs. Celtics, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The recovery of Grade 2 MCL places a potential Conference Finals in jeopardy for him as well.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 28, 2022
When they posted the schedule for the Bucks/Celtics series last night, and we saw that Game 3 wouldn’t be until next Saturday in Milwaukee, we had real hope that maybe Middleton would be back in at least a limited capacity. Welp, not so much. Jon, you dumb slut.
Now even with Middleton, this next series against the Celtics is going to be a war. Without him, it gets REAL tough. Jayson Tatum has become a top 10 player in the league. Jaylen Brown is probably top 25/30, Marcus Smart is the DPOY and an expert flopper, and even though Al Horford is ancient, he seems to always give the Bucks problems. Add into all of that a ton of confident role players, and Boston having home court, and it becomes a VERY difficult road.
But: The Bucks still have the best player on the floor every single night in Giannis. Jrue Holiday needs to play like he did in Games 3 and 4 in Chicago, not like he did last night, but he is a lockdown defender who should give Brown and Tatum fits. BP has delivered consistent productivity, and Brook Lopez is an elite rim defender. The X Factor: Bucks DESPERATELY need the Grayson Allen/Patty C train to stay on the tracks, those guys are going to have to give you 10-15 points each night to give the team a chance to win. If they can do that, you can fill that Middleton scoring void.
And you know what else the Bucks have? Championship mettle. They’ve been down this road before. They were down 0-2 in the second round last year and came back to win. They were down 0-2 in the Finals and won 4 straight games. So they know what it takes. The Celtics don’t. That’s not everything, but if these games are close, that experience is going to help Milwaukee more than Boston.
I would have said this is a 7 game series if both teams were totally healthy, obviously the Middleton news is a gut punch. But I’m still going with the series going the distance. Bucks in 7.
PS: Can you imagine if Giannis drags this team to a second straight title without Middleton for the 2nd and 3rd rounds? He’d instantly vault into the, ‘Top 10 All Time Players,’ category.
Double PS: It’s also draft night in the NFL aka the best night to be on Twitter. Live look at thousands of Packer fans 25 seconds after the Packers make a pick and they hate whatever Gutey does:
