Orlando Arcia’s 7th-inning single lifts the Brewers over the Cardinals, 3-2.
Thursday night marks the beginning of the NBA Finals and yet again the series will start in Oakland, Calif., pitting the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Golden State Warriors for the fourth year in a row.
The Milwaukee Bucks will be one of the 28 teams watching from home, dreaming about the day they may get their shot in the league's championship series.
The phrase "compete for championships" has been part of the Bucks' future plans since the ownership group of Wes
Edens, Marc Lasry and
Jamie Dinan took over in 2014. It's been spoken at just about every news conference since by owners, team executives, coaches and players.
With a new coach in Mike Budenholzer, a star player in Giannis Antetokounmpo and a new arena nearing completion, the Bucks hope they're on the precipice of their big jump as a team. They've reached the point where participating in the playoffs is expected, but the next step is winning a playoff series for the first time since 2001 and actually
establishing themselves as a threat.
A key piece of the puzzle is in place. Antetokounmpo, just 23 years old and still under contract for three more seasons, ranked as the second-best player in the East behind LeBron James according to all-NBA voting each of the past two seasons. He had a career year in terms of scoring at 26.9 points per game in 2017-'18 and is still coming into his own as a player with plenty of room to grow, especially when it comes to his one-on-one scoring and shooting abilities.
After getting outcoached and falling to a tougher, more cohesive and more polished Boston Celtics team in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the Bucks hope adding Budenholzer to their talented nucleus of players can put them over the hump.
If Budenholzer can maximize the team's talents on both ends, especially on defense where Milwaukee's length and athleticism failed to lead to positive results, the Bucks could be a formidable team in the East.
Barring a major off-season acquisition, though, the Bucks will enter next season looking up at their Eastern Conference competition.
In most conversations about young, exciting and up-and-coming teams in the East the Bucks are usually mentioned third — if at all.
When it comes to the Eastern Conference, up-and-comers hasn't meant anything for almost a decade as the path to the Finals has been blocked by James, whose teams have won the conference each of the past eight years.
The Bucks aren't considered to be in the best position to stop Warriors-Cavaliers Round 5 from happening next season, but they're not totally out of the conversation, either. How they handle this summer's draft and free agency and how much they can improve under Budenholzer will determine both if and how soon they can get into the conversation — and how long stay there.
Here's an early look at the landscape of next season's Eastern Conference as it relates to the Bucks, including the three teams that are looking like the cream of the crop.
Cleveland Cavaliers (or whichever team James lands on)
The conversation in the East begins and ends with James. He proved this season that it really doesn't matter who his teammates are. James dragged a shifting, problematic Cavaliers roster to the Finals with journeyman Jeff Green playing second banana in Game 7 of the conference finals because of an injury to Kevin Love.
What James, a free agent this summer, decides to do has the potential to shift the entire landscape of the NBA.
If he leaves Cleveland for the Western Conference, the Warriors' reign in the West will immediately be challenged while the East will open up, including offering the Bucks a greater chance of success.
If James stays in the East with the Cavaliers or anyone else — there was no shortage of rumors during the season about James possibly heading to Philadelphia — that team will summarily be penciled into the conference finals, daring a challenger to prove them wrong.
(Healthy) Boston Celtics
The Celtics were a revelation this season and in the playoffs as rookie Jayson Tatum and second-year wing Jaylen Brown, along with savvy, underappreciated center Al Horford and a host of successful role players, carried the team to the conference finals and a home Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers.
On the way, the Celtics held home court to dispatch the Bucks in the first round despite Antetokounmpo having a strong series and Khris Middleton shooting the lights out.
Nothing encapsulated Boston's fearless youth and dynamic potential quite like Tatum's dunk on James, and chesty celebration after, in Game 7 on Sunday.
Add all-stars Kyrie Irving, who missed the end of the season and playoffs due to a knee injury, and Gordon Hayward, who went down just five minutes into the season, and the Celtics are in line to be one of the top teams in the East next season.
Philadelphia 76ers
The other team most commonly associated with a youth-led renaissance is the Philadelphia 76ers, which rose to third in the East and bowed out to the Celtics, 4-1, in the second round. Rookie of the year finalist Ben Simmons wowed at both ends in his first season and center Joel Embiid, who joined Antetokounmpo on the all-NBA second team, proved to be both durable and dominant during his second full season.
While the current talk about the 76ers has to do with burner accounts on Twitter and organizational chaos, "the process" has certainly born fruit in Philadelphia. When the dust settles on the current craziness, the 76ers will reassemble for a season that will include the team's highest level of expectations since the days of Allen Iverson.
The rest
Along with the Celtics, 76ers and Cavaliers, the Bucks also spent last season looking up at the Toronto Raptors and the surprising Indiana Pacers. They were neck-and-neck with the Miami Heat — though they got swept in the season series — and the Washington Wizards were right at their heels.
Surpassing any of those teams, while keeping the rest of the conference at bay, will be a challenge for the Bucks if they want to establish themselves as a real threat in the East. That's especially true when it comes to the Raptors, who are coming off a franchise-best 59 wins, and the Pacers, who will bring back a young core featuring Victor Oladipo and have money to spend this summer.