Tall task awaits in Game 7 on the road

It’s one thing to impose your will on an opponent at home in an NBA playoff series, where you ride a wave of energy created by 18,000 screaming fans, where the shots seem to fall in bunches, where you don’t rattle easily and the other team does.

It’s quite another task doing it on the road, where no one has your back outside of your small traveling party, where sometimes there's a lid on the basket and the officials have swallowed their whistles, where a little momentum by the home team can turn into a game-defining run faster than you can say Giannis Antetokounmpo.

And to do it in a Game 7? Here’s how hard that is:

Never, in franchise history, have the Milwaukee Bucks won Game 7 of a playoff series on the road.

They fell to Atlanta in 2010, to Philadelphia in 2001, to Boston in 1987, to Philly in 1981, to Seattle in 1980 and to Denver in 1978.

The Bucks again find themselves in that unenviable position thanks to their 97-86 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 on Thursday night, though the alternative – a season-ending loss at the BMO Harris Bradley Center – would have been much worse.

At least they have a fighting chance Saturday of advancing to the second round for the first time since 2001 and delaying the closing of the Bradley Center. But it’s no bargain going into the snake pit known as TD Garden for any game, let alone a Game 7.

“Absolutely,” said guard Malcolm Brogdon. “Especially (against) a team like that and in the atmosphere at the Garden. That’s a team that plays way better at home. They make more shots. They’re more locked in. So we’re going to have to be able to match their intensity.”

Each team has won its three home games in this series, which underscores the value of earning one of the top four seeds in the conference and thus ensuring Game 7 is played on your court. It’s a moot point now for the Bucks, who must withstand the storm they know is coming.

“Just a lot of grit,” said forward Jabari Parker. “We’ve just got to come together and try to find a way.”

It’s a given that making shots, playing sound defense, taking care of the ball and doing all the little things the right way will go a long way toward determining the winner.

More importantly, though, the Bucks must play with fierce determination and unyielding resolve. They can’t melt down when the Celtics go on a run, the Garden starts rocking and they can’t hear themselves think.

You can tell yourself you won’t let it happen, that you won’t let a rough few minutes turn into an ugly quarter, that you won’t let an ugly quarter sap you of your will to win.

But if it were easy, the Bucks (or Celtics) would have won a road game by now. The task is exponentially more difficult in Game 7.

“As long as you leave it all out on the floor, you play the right way and you play together, you’ve got to be able to live with the results,” Brogdon said. “There’s a lot of pressure going into Game 7. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t. But you’ve got to be able to handle the pressure.”

Antetokounmpo put the Bucks on his back in the fourth quarter of Game 6, scoring 12 of his 31 points. He said, in his play if not out loud, “We’re not losing this game,” and was magnificent down the stretch.

The Bucks will need that kind of performance from him again. They’ll need Khris Middleton to knock down tough shots, Eric Bledsoe to be sound in his decisions, Thon Maker and Parker to be impactful off the bench.

They’ll need all that, and more.

“It’s tougher, obviously, when you’ve got the away crowd and sometimes calls are not going your way,” Maker said. “You’ve got to find a way to be ready, find a way to execute, find a way to get things done in pressure moments.”

The cheer went up in the Bradley Center bowl in the waning seconds Thursday night and spilled out into the concourse after the game. “Bucks in seven! Bucks in seven!”

It was a modification of the hopeful “Bucks in six” chant that rang out after Milwaukee won Games 3 and 4 at home. But you just knew this series was going to go to Game 7. And so it has.

“Like I said early on, the series doesn’t start till somebody takes a game at the other team’s house,” Maker said. “Now we’ve got a great opportunity to do that.”

The odds are stacked against them. Let’s see what they’ve got.