The Milwaukee Bucks will face the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs as a six vs three-seed matchup. The Pacers won the season series 4-1 over the Bucks and will see what happens in this series.
Giannis Anetokounmpo being on the injury list already for this series is not good news for the Bucks. Will see how it plays out and Game 1 of this series will not begin until Sunday. He missed the last three games of the regular season because of a calf injury and it has been a concern for this basketball team. Stephen A., Smith of ESPN on Sunday made his prediction on who will win this series.
He said after the games concluded on Sunday by saying:
“With or without Giannis, Indiana’s winning this series, they’re gonna beat Milwaukee.”
That is a strong assessment from him. He is confident that the Bucks are going to lose this series against the Pacers and if that were to happen, he also mentioned that the Milwaukee Bucks should look to trade Damian Lillard in the offseason. Here is the video below on what he fully said:
“With or without Giannis, Indiana’s winning this series, they’re gonna beat Milwaukee.”
– Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/QTjdR8ZZVq
— csb (@itsCSB__) April 15, 2024
Milwaukee Bucks Have Been To the Playoffs Before and This Young Indiana Pacers Squad Has Not
The Bucks just won an NBA Championship in 2021 against the Phoenix Suns and the Pacers haven’t tasted the playoffs since the 2019-2020 season. Indiana will look to gain experience from this season against Milwaukee. Even without Giannis Antetokounmpo, they still have the experience of Damian Lillard, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis Jr., and Patrick Beverley on this roster.
This is the first time that Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner will taste the NBA playoffs. Pascal Siakam has been with the Toronto Raptors over the past several seasons and made it to the playoffs a few times with Toronto. Siakam won an NBA Championship in 2019 against the Golden State Warriors. He played a huge part of that championship team with Kawhi Leonard.
Even if Giannis Antetokounmpo is out for this series against the Indiana Pacers, the Milwaukee Bucks will still be favored because of Damian Lillard. What Stephen A. Smith said about the Pacers beating them is understandable because the Bucks have not played their basketball this season under head coach Doc Rivers. Indiana has been very good offensively this season under head coach Rick Carlisle.
