With the regular season finally at an end, we now have details of when the Milwaukee Bucks will be playing their first round games with the Orlando Magic.
It’s been something of a slog for the Milwaukee Bucks as they’ve played their way through a slate of largely meaningless games for the past couple of weeks, but that should now all be set to change.
The Bucks officially brought the curtain down on their shortened 2019-20 regular season, which was played over an extended period of time, on Thursday in their loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, and soon after, the schedule was released for their first round playoff series.
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The No. 1 seeded Bucks will match up with the No. 8 seeded Orlando Magic, the closest thing that exists to a home team in these unique times in the NBA bubble.
Following the West’s play-in games taking place over the weekend, the playoffs will officially begin on Monday. The Bucks and Magic will have to wait just a little longer to get things underway, though.
With Game 1 starting on Tuesday, the Bucks and Magic will have to prime themselves for a series of early tip-off times, with the first four games of the series scheduled to take place at HP Field House on the ESPN Wide World Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort.
The confirmed schedule for the series is as follows (all times are Central Time):
Tuesday, 8/18 (12:30) – Orlando at Milwaukee [TNT]
Thursday, 8/20 (17:00) – Orlando at Milwaukee [ESPN]
Saturday, 8/22 (12:00) – Milwaukee at Orlando [TNT]
Monday, 8/24 (12:30) – Milwaukee at Orlando [NBA TV]
Tip-off times and broadcast details for Games 5 through 7 will be confirmed at a later date, if required, with those games set to be played on August 26, 28, and 30, respectively.
Of course, with games being played on a neutral site and without fans in attendance, the home and road team distinctions don’t mean quite what they usually would in the postseason.
However, they will still factor into smaller details that may yet prove to have psychological impacts for the players, such as PA announcers, in-arena DJ, jersey choices, and virtual fans.
On that note, with the Bucks having secured the best record of any team in the league through the regular season, they will have this significantly watered down version of homecourt advantage for however long their playoff journey lasts.
The Bucks would love to make light work of the Magic and to move on quickly to the second round, much as they did with the Pistons last season, but given Milwaukee’s more inconsistent play in the bubble so far, that could prove to be easier said than done.
Either way, we’ll finally get our answers starting Tuesday, as the Bucks will begin their most consequential playoff run in close to 50 years.