After finishing off a four game sweep of the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs, the Boston Celtics now know they’ll face the defending NBA Champions the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals beginning on Sunday in Boston.
Milwaukee finished off a five game victory in the first round over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night. The Bucks are the defending league champion, beating the Phoenix Suns in six games last summer to win their first title in 50 years. They are led by two time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The other key member of the team, guard Khris Middleton, will miss the entire series with Boston. Middleton was injured in a game two loss to Chicago, and has a Grade 2 ankle sprain. The Bucks will need rely on the hot shooting of Grayson Allen and Bobby Portis and of course the play of Antetokounmpo. Giannis is a finalist once again for MVP this season and has averaged 29.9 points per game, 11.6 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks.
Boston will just need to continue what they’ve been doing that led to a sweep of Brooklyn. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown has been playing phenomenal, while Marcus Smart and Al Horford have played above expectations against the Nets and down the stretch of the regular season. Having center Robert Williams III back now fully healthy will also help clog up the lane against Antetokounmpo and will also help on the glass. The #2 seed Celtics and #3 Bucks split their season series with one another 2-2, finishing with the same record of 51-31 with Boston winning the tiebreaker giving them the homecourt advantage in this series. Boston and Milwaukee will meet in the playoffs for the first time since 2019, which was also the Eastern Conference Semifinals, in which the Bucks won that series 4-1.
Here is the schedule with only Game 1 having a listed game time, the rest of the game times are TBA:
Boston (55-31) vs Milwaukee (55-32)
Game 1 @Boston Sunday, May 1 at 1 p.m.
Game 2 @Boston Tuesday, May 3
Game 3 @Milwaukee Saturday, May 7
Game 4 @Milwaukee Monday, May 9
*Game 5 @Boston Wednesday, May 11
*Game 6 @Milwaukee Friday, May 13
*Game 7 @Boston Sunday, May 15
*- if necessary
