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For the second straight season, the Milwaukee Bucks are facing a huge hurdle in the second round of the playoffs. After taking down the Brooklyn Nets in the first round, the defending champs must now get through the hottest team in the NBA since the turn of the calendar year, the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics are far from the team Milwaukee just took care of in five games the previous round. Those Chicago Bulls were also hobbling to the finish line with all their injuries.
This Boston squad finished as the league's best defense during the regular season. That was on full display in their first-round series versus Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the Nets. With that, the Bucks will need to dig deep to advance to the conference finals, especially since they could be without All-Star forward Khris Middleton, who is out with a Grade 2 left MCL sprain.
Nonetheless, this should be a fun and close series between two title favorites in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee is still the defending champion, so it's going to be hard to just count them out, especially since they do still have Giannis Antetokounmpo and a solid supporting cast around him. With that said, here are three reasons why the Bucks will take down the Celtics and advance to the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals.
3 reasons Bucks will beat Celtics
1. How does Boston stop Giannis Antetokounmpo?
The Celtics were able to contain Kevin Durant in the first round. In the four-game sweep, Boston held KD to just 38.6 percent shooting from the field and 33.3 percent shooting from long distance. In every sense of the word, the Celtics put Durant in jail with their stifling defense, even forcing him to commit four turnovers throughout the entire series. Boston put on a masterclass defensive game plan for the 12-time All-Star.
But now, they will need to deal with a different kind of beast — a Greek Freak, specifically — in the second round. Antetokounmpo's brute force and strength are a problem for any defense.
And yes, the Celtics could build that proverbial “wall” to prevent Giannis from dominating inside. But Antetokounmpo has found ways to get to the rim no matter what the defense presents. In addition, his much improved playmaking and vision allow him to pass out of double-teams and collapse defenses to wide-open shooters on the perimeter. The Bucks have a plethora of shooters to take advantage of Antetokounmpo's gravity inside the lane.
And while the Celtics would most likely prefer Antetokounmpo to shoot from the outside, the 2-time NBA MVP has shown an improved stroke. More importantly, Antetokounmpo has settled in striking the right balance of when to use the jump shot and when to put his head down. Nonetheless, if his perimeter shots start to drop, this will pose big problems for the Celtics.
2. Championship pedigree
This may be intangible, but their championship pedigree is a key factor as to why some people still believe Milwaukee can take down Boston in round two. The Bucks enter this series with their experience from last year's historic championship run in their back pocket. They faced several hurdles throughout the postseason. The Bucks were down 3-2 versus the Nets in the second round. They won Games 5 and 6 versus the Atlanta Hawks without Antetokounmpo in the conference finals and faced a 2-0 series deficit in the NBA Finals against the Phoenix Suns.
So even without Middleton, if there's one team between Boston and Milwaukee that has overcome adversity, the Bucks have the edge on that one. It's hard to discount experience. Milwaukee knows how hard the journey is to get to the mountaintop. And they should be aware that they are facing perhaps their biggest hurdle back to the NBA Finals.
3. Jaylen Brown's hamstring injury
Jaylen Brown reportedly suffered a hamstring injury in Boston's Game 4 win over the Nets. Celtics coach Ime Udoka admitted this could be something that could impact the two-way forward the rest of this series. That is huge news for Boston given the 6-foot-6 wing's impact for the Celtics.
Brown is Boston's second-best scorer behind Jayson Tatum. He has developed into an elite shot creator and three-level scorer. On the other side of the ball, the one-time All-Star fortifies is a big part of that Celtics defense with his length and versatility.
Hamstring injuries are tough to deal with. One wrong move and it could flare up and tighten at any moment. A less than 100 percent Jaylen Brown could be something the Bucks can take advantage of. We saw what injuries did for the Bucks in their second-round series last year. Could that happen again this year? Only time will tell.
