Eastern Conference Semi-Finals: Milwaukee Bucks vs Brooklyn Nets Preview and Prediction

This has all the earmarks of a Heavyweight Championship fight of epic proportions. The Nets are built around the big three of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. But, Milwaukee sports their own big three with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo as well as former All-Stars Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday. It really doesn’t get better than this and most expect the winner of this series to go all the way to the NBA Finals. Let’s take a look at some key matchups headed into this showdown.

Will DeAndre Jordan play?

Jordan has been absent from 12 of the last 16 games and the Nets really need his presence on the court to combat the Bucks big lineup. Jordan has missed all 5 playoff games and in his absence, a lot of times Kevin Durant was the biggest player on the floor for the Nets.

The Bucks will be missing an important piece to their puzzle in guard Donte DiVincenzo, The Nets will look to attack 6-foot-2 backup guard Bryn Forbes on switches at times.

Hitting the boards

The Bucks in the regular season were terrible at getting offensive rebounds but they really stepped it up in the first round of the playoffs and dominated the Miami heat on the boards and if Jordan misses games they should be even more deadly on the boards.

The Nets had issues in the regular season on the offensive glass but in the playoffs, they spaced the floor well which kept them in the games on the glass against the Celtics. A huge key to the rebounding in this series will be how well the Nets are able to space the floor to possibly minimize the effectiveness of the Bucks big-men. It also could cause the Bucks to go a little smaller to keep up with the Nets offense.

Defense

You know the old adage that defense wins championships and if that’s the case the Bucks have a legit chance to pull the upset in this series, the only problem is with three elite scorers for the Nets it will be impossible to stop them all of the time. The Nets defense seems to take breaks at times and the Bucks are a team you can’t take breaks against.

Prediction

I think this is a six-or 7 game series and the deciding factor will be the Nets ability to spread the floor which will improve their rebounding chances. At the end of the day, I like the Nets in 7, but I would not be surprised to see a Bucks upset.