Milwaukee Bucks: Series with Brooklyn Nets stands as critical litmus test
The Milwaukee Bucks‘ latest and greatest test this regular season tips off Sunday afternoon when they host the Brooklyn Nets at Fiserv Forum.
The Bucks will host the Nets not just Sunday afternoon, but Tuesday night in a back-to-back series that oozes all sorts of playoff implications and previews, depending on how the seeding at the top of the East shakes out. Even after recently suffering a sprained ankle, Giannis Antetokounmpo is listed as probably for Sunday’s matchup, per the league’s injury report, while the Nets will still be without James Harden due to his hamstring strain.
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Having already fallen to the Nets earlier this season in a tough 125-123 loss in Brooklyn back in January, the Bucks will look to somehow take the season series.
More importantly, though, this series with the Nets represents the best possible dress rehearsal the Bucks will have in their final nine regular season games over the next two weeks.
The Milwaukee Bucks’ series with the Brooklyn Nets could be a playoff preview
While the Bucks will face a potential first round matchup in the Miami Heat on the penultimate day of their regular season, the Nets exist on a different plane altogether for so many obvious reasons. No other team in the league, whether one that stands directly in the Bucks’ path to get out of the East or the league at large, presents the kind of problems that the Nets offer to their opponents this season.
The top-line firepower that the Nets have assembled after making their blockbuster deal for Harden earlier this season has arguably made them the team to beat across both conferences, given the ongoing injury struggles that the Los Angeles Lakers are starting to overcome. Furthermore, the Nets stand as the top seed in the East, albeit by a half-game over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Whether the Nets will stay in the top spot is not only determined by the outcome of this upcoming back-to-back with the Bucks, but they have the 11th-hardest strength of schedule to close out this regular season, per Tankathon. The 76ers, meanwhile, have the easiest strength of schedule of all teams in what remains this season.
Unlike in the past couple of seasons, Milwaukee has to watch the top seeds duke it out to determine the challenging path they will have in their quest to make it out of the East. And without question, seeing the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round rather than the 76ers is a much more desirable option for the Bucks, especially if they want to return back to the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the second time in three years.
While the stakes only grow as the top two in the East duke it out for playoff positioning, Milwaukee will have to use this series as a tune up for the critical questions and adjustments they have been increasingly experimenting with as the year goes on. That will surely be put to the test as the Bucks have gone through ups and downs mastering the new methods that head coach Mike Budenholzer has deployed in these situations.
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Either way, the Bucks’ series with the Nets will be a fascinating matchup and ultimately, it will show how close or how far the Bucks are in being to stop the most talented team standing in the league.