Time for Bucks to rise and shine
While there was certainly plenty of excitement for the return of the NBA season, there were also segments of the Milwaukee Bucks fan base who didn’t find the seeding games compelling. Since the Bucks were essentially locked into the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to encounter a wake-meup-for-the-playoffs mentality.
With the Bucks’ best-of-seven playoff series against the Orlando Magic set to tip off at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, though, there might still be some hitting the snooze button.
Atop the East for the second successive year, the Bucks are back in the position of facing an eighth-seeded team they swept during the regular season. Last time around that opponent was the Detroit Pistons, a team the Bucks
summarily swept out of the first round. This time, they’re facing a banged-up Magic team that enters the playoffs with a sub-.500 record, the worst of any team still in the Walt Disney World bubble.
While fans and the NBA’s television partners, which put three of the first four games of the series in the afternoon, might be sleeping on this matchup, the Bucks are going the opposite direction. After an underwhelming showing the seeding games, they know now is the time to wake up.
“We can’t just expect we’re going to walk in and sweep this team because we swept the 1-8 (series) last year,” Bucks wing Khris Middleton said. “It’s a whole new season, it’s a whole different type of game being played with the atmosphere and (no) home-court advantage and whatnot. We’ve just got to be prepared to do us.”
The theme of the past few days around Bucks practice has been focusing on themselves. Everyone knows they didn’t put their best foot forward in the seeding games and that they’re capable of performing better when the playoffs begin.
They’re less concerned with the prospect of taking the Magic lightly than they are with not pushing themselves hard enough. With the best record in the NBA, the Bucks have high standards and lofty expectations for themselves, and success or failure will primarily be determined by their preparation, effort, intensity and focus.
Over the course of the past three days as they’ve practiced in anticipation of the playoffs, those things have all ratcheted up a notch.
“I think we have a hungry group,” Bucks sharpshooter Kyle Korver said. “None of us have won championships yet but we’ve all been through experiences that you kind of have to go through before you can really be a contender, really. … You have to go through it and you have to be hungry and you have to want it in order to win.”
When it comes to the Magic though, the Bucks will be facing a team that’s going to make them work hard, particularly when it comes to finding ways to score. Orlando – true to form as a team coached by Steve Clifford – plays with an emphasis on stingy defense, ranking 10th in the league in defensive efficiency.
The Magic won’t have defensive disruptor Jonathan Isaac, who suffered a torn left ACL in the seeding games, or center Mo Bamba, who left the bubble for post-COVID-19 evaluation. Orlando may also be without young star Aaron Gordon (questionable with a left hamstring strain) or Michael Carter-Williams (doubtful with a left foot tendon strain), but the Magic won’t let those injuries impact their defensive mentality, one that will try to get back in transition and muck things up in the half-court.
“A lot of that is just gonna come off of our defense,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said of finding ways to crack the Magic’s defense. “Getting great stops and playing, whether it’s a miss or make. Getting the ball out quickly, sprinting, running wide, playing in transition ... before they can get set because they’re a great defensive team, that’s where they do their job. They’re hard-nosed and that’s their identity, really, so we have to find those easy ones in transition.”
Doing those things consistently was a hallmark of the Bucks’ season before the hiatus but not as prevalent since the restart. If they can play at their fast pace, turn their defense into easy offense and maintain a high level of play throughout their rotation they should have the talent to make quick work of the series.
Wrapping up the series quickly would be a clear benefit, too, one of the few remaining in the NBA’s campus environment. With home-court advantage gone – coincidentally, these neutral-court games will be about 20 miles from the Magic’s home court – rest between series could be a critical advantage available to the teams that can earn it.
But that’s a far way from the Bucks’ minds. They want to come out of the gates looking smoother, sharper and stronger, like the team they were for so much of the year. Now is the time for them to be at their best, which in a playoff with fewer advantages for the top seeds, is even more critical.
“The advantages don’t feel as strong, but hey, the best team’s gonna win – that’s what happens anyway,” Korver said. “I think basketball is unique in all of the sports because it’s a seven-game series. The better team almost always wins . ... And so that’s what’s gonna happen here, too.”
If the best team is going to win, the Bucks want to demonstrate that they’re just that – the best team. They had their wake-up call in the seeding games. Now it’s time to rise and shine.