When it comes down to it, the Milwaukee Bucks are going to need some secret weapons and luck on their side to win this first-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers.
This veteran team has the talent, secret or otherwise, that should lead to some good home victories (Milwaukee was 31-11 at the Fiserv). Then, if they can get a win on the road, the math should take care of itself.
First off, before we get too into what “secrets” and “weapons” the Bucks have to deploy against their newfound rival, the Indiana Pacers, let’s say this: this series promises to be really high-scoring. In the NBA regular season, Indiana averaged the most points per game (123.3). The Bucks were fourth this season in points per game (119), per NBA.com. Expect to see a lot of points.
In fact, the “not-so-secret-weapon” is a pretty obvious one: defense. Whatever team can get stops and, more importantly, consecutive stops, will win. "Defense wins championships."
In the regular season, the Pacers were (4-1) against Milwaukee. Advantage to Indiana.
Milwaukee still has some secret accouterments that are both unique and hiding in plain sight. Let’s take a look.
The first, hidden secret weapon…
The chip on Doc Rivers' shoulder
Doc Rivers has been coaching for a long time. This is not his first playoff series. In fact, you may want to remind yourself he did lead the Boston Celtics to the NBA title in 2008.
Bucks guard Pat Connaughton addressed this in an interview.
"The interesting thing to me is I know how a bunch of talking heads will talk about some of the negative things because that’s what social media is and they like to do, but you talk about the success that he’s had and the ability that he’s had to get teams into positions to win, whether they’ve closed or not I look at our team and I look at the situation that he’s coming into, we get to those situations, I think we got a really good chance to close."Pat Connaughton
This team, and Rivers himself, knows what everyone thinks will happen. But that could be all the motivation this team needs. Motivation can be paramount in the playoffs. When you feel like your back is up against the wall and when a team has something to rally around, that could be a great position to be in. It is why young guys like AJ Green and Andre Jackson Jr. could really be helpful.