Three of the NBA’s four second-round matchups are set, and while the Sixers/Hawks and Suns/Nuggets series should be entertaining and competitive, the showdown between the Nets and the Bucks in the East looks like the clear headliner of round two at this point.
The Nets are the favorites to take home this year’s championship now that Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving – who have combined for 27 All-Star nods, seven scoring titles, and two MVP awards over the years – are all healthy. No other NBA team can match Brooklyn’s offensive firepower, and the club made quick work of the Celtics in round one, dispatching Boston in five games.
Milwaukee, however, was one of the only teams that looked more impressive than Brooklyn since the postseason began — the Bucks’ win over Miami was the lone sweep of the first round, and it showed why this year’s squad may be more dangerous than the one that led the NBA in regular season wins in 2018/19 and ’19/20. With Jrue Holiday and P.J. Tucker now in the mix, the Bucks have a versatile, switchable defense to complement All-Stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.
As John Hollinger of The Athletic writes, this series looks like an NBA Finals-caliber matchup. In fact, Hollinger predicts that whichever team wins this series will go on to win the championship, and I’m inclined to agree with him.
The Nets are the favorites, but the Bucks are one of the only teams in the NBA that could realistically hope to slow down Brooklyn’s superstar trio, according to Hollinger, who points out that the Bucks could assign Holiday to Irving, Middleton to Harden, and either Giannis or Tucker to Durant.
On the other side of the ball, the Nets’ have no obvious primary defender for Antetokounmpo if Jeff Green remains sidelined, Hollinger argues, since Giannis is too quick for most of Brooklyn’s bigs, but would likely to be able to overpower Durant.
Still, the Nets will have some advantages of their own. It remains to be seen whether Bucks center Brook Lopez will be able to hang with Brooklyn’s offensive attack, and if Lopez is forced off the floor, Milwaukee will have fewer options for smaller lineups with wing Donte DiVincenzo sidelined. While role players like Bryn Forbes and Bobby Portis provide offensive punch, the Nets would likely pick on them on defense.
Health will play a big part in this series — with DiVincenzo out for the postseason and Green potentially able to return for some or all of round two, the Nets seemingly have the injury advantage, but it’s worth noting that Irving, Harden, and Durant all missed time during the regular season due to health problems. If one of them turns an ankle or tweaks a hamstring against Milwaukee, it would quickly change the outlook of the series.
We want to know what you think. Are you picking the Nets or the Bucks to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals? How many games do you think the series will go?
Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!
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Losing Divencienzo didnt hurt in the Heat matchup, and might not hurt them against Philly, but it hurts in this series. Also not sure Brook Lopez can play in this series, but I’m leaning Milwaukee in 6. Both teams arent that good, and somewhat lucked out by certain things happening. Curious to see what the rotations look like in this series, with Budenholzer not making adjustments in previous situations, and Steve Nash being bad in general.
Nets really need Durant to take over in this series. For Milwaukee, as much as they obviously need Holiday defensively, and to try to cancel out the nets guards offensively, Middleton is probably their most important player
Curious as to what you think constitutes as a good team as you stated in your post “both teams aren’t that good”?
I would argue they are both extremely good teams.
Who would you say IS a good team in comparison?
The team with the best rotations!
“both teams aren’t that good”
lmaooo if that’s the case, then every other team by your standard must be considered “dogs**t”
According to espn reporters
Either of them will win the East
If you stay objective it’s Nets and it isn’t close
True but if you go subjective, it’s Bucks in four.
The Nets make more projective sense, but the Bucks are better for the digestive.
Everyone expected the Bucks to win the east the last two years and they failed both times. Are they that much better this season? Not at all. Milwaukee’s most realistic chance of beating the Nets is for one of the Big 3 to pull an AD and gift them the win, get lucky like the Suns did before they are exposed by Denver in round 2.
Two words – Jrue Holiday
That’s the difference right there. HUGE upgrade over Bledsoe
Slow_mo… Agree..jrue so underated.nola so wrong traded him for bledsoe.his defense so so great.and his offense is good too.i was hope my bulls traded him but he went to buck.
The Bucks might be like the 2011 Mavs, they won it all when they were no longer supposed to. As someone said, Jrue Holiday is a huge difference. I think the X factor here is Irving; one knows what to expect from Harden and Durant, but what about Irving?
Yup. People forget in 2011 Caron Butler was the other star. He got hurt before the playoffs, he did make the allstar team. If Caron didn’t get hurt mavs beat the heat in 5 games…
KD, Kyrie, and Harden are all about as soft as AD, so it’s probably likely it happens.
Can’t wait for Giannis to win a chip and then watch NBA twitter and casuals tear him down, just like they did with Steph. What’s it gunna be?
“Had too much help/title isnt “real” because teammate was a good player too”
“Opposing team had too many injuries”
“Refs were on his side”
“Was the best player on the court in 5 of the 6 games but was not named Finals MVP”
There’s your “poll”, hoopsrumors….
That’s just normal behaviour bud, its always happened, even in the Jordan, Bird, Magic years. Only difference now is that social media has given every man and his dog a platform to voice their knee jerk reactions, anger, jealousy etc etc.
Two Euros for regular season MVP-Jokic- and finals MVP-Giannis-?
Going to be the Nets. Biggest no-brainer in the 2021 NBA playoffs.
You might want to write this down or take a screenshot. Trust me on this one.
Now I’m not sure… too many “trust mes”!
When have I ever failed you?
Giannis choosing GSW… But in general, an opinionated one-team fan is going to be wrong sometimes! How often have I been too optimistic on the Cavs?
Got you. But I admit I like to swing for the fences. Couple of strikeouts here and there but lots of home runs.
So, Gar, you’re not really a pro basketball fan, are you?
Nope earmbrister, not really.
Bucks in 6.
Brook Lopez will be highly motivated against his former team and had a great series against the Heat. Clearly Harden and KD are coming off injuries and look what happened to AD. Lastly the Bucks have been healthy and played together all season while the Nets are still finding their groove.
those poll results are – shocking. and certainly wrong if Brooklyn’s big three are healthy.
Best finals matchup possible
Mil vs Utah
Big Noise don’t play D. No Green makes them worse. Holiday makes the difference in this series. Giannis is going g to show you who is the Best player in the World. Fear the Deer …..
Bucks bucks and bucks…love jrue holiday game style.
Look UTA & PHO are just average teams that just luck out of R1 by playin’ a bad team & an injured team!
So in the WC the only team with a clear chance to win it all is DEN & maybe DAL if Luka can keep or even improve on his monster play!
In the EC PHI without Embiid are toasted as the LAL were without AD!
Real tough match up between BRK & MIL, my heart wants MIL so Giannis can at least make it to the finals if not win it all, unless they play DEN… but my head tells me BRK has too much firepower & star power for MIL to match up… havin’ said that I can’t see BRK beating DEN neither!