Middleton has been ruled out tonight with "right knee injury management." Hopefully that means they want to avoid him playing back-to-backs and want to make sure he plays tomorrow against the Nuggets. Crowder, Dragic, and Leonard also out. Speculation is that Ingles will sit out tomorrow night to avoid the back-to-back.
Bucks do catch a break in that Markkanen is out for the Jazz. Jordan Clarkson and Rudy Gay also out.
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Bucks open up on an 11-0 run with G. Allen having all 11 in the first 1:40.
Now at 16-3 with 8:10 left in the first.
Bucks up 40-25 after one.
Bucks up 10 midway through the second.
Bucks up 14 at the half. Should have been more but they got sloppy with a 20 point lead in the last minute.
Bucks up 30 after three. Thanasis already in.
Woohoo 🙌🎉
When you get 60 points from Allen, Pat C and Carter you kind of know it’s your night.
No Middleton, no Crowder, Portis was a non factor, and Giannis basically played half the game yet the Bucks throttled the Jazz.
Health is the ultimate wild card for this team, but if they can keep these guys upright I don’t see a team beating the Bucks in best of 7. Hell, had Brook Lopez been playing this well in the postseason last year it’s possible they win another ring even without Middleton. He’s playing some of his best basketball of his career right now.
I was glad to hear Giannis come out and declare they want the 1 seed. If nothing else, it will create some added motivation down the stretch to play well and not just mail it in the last dozen games or so.
What's the magic number now?
Believe it’s 7 as of now
Something else worth monitoring is Jayson Tatum’s 3pt shooting percentage since the AS break is down significantly. In the last month he’s basically shooting at a 30% clip from 3. For the year, he’s around 34% and that’s about 4% off from his career average.
Now, the same could be said for Middleton but the difference I see is Middleton isn’t quite as reliant on the 3pt shot like Tatum is. Middleton has a solid midrange game.
@Tschmack posted:Believe it’s 7 as of now
Magic number is 7 against the Celtics and down to 6 against the Sixers.
The Sixers have a tough next few games - at Phoenix tonight on a back-to-back, at Denver, vs. Dallas, Raptors, Bucks, Celtics, Heat. Harden is banged up and Embiid is a little dinged. Let's just assume they will be the 3 seed.
Let's project the Bucks going 2-1 in the next three games (predicting a loss at Denver on a back-to-back tonight and wins vs. Detroit and Indy). Boston has the Spurs and Wizards the next 2 games.
The Bucks would be 55-21 while the Celtics would be 53-23.
That would put the Bucks magic number at 5 for the game against the Celtics on March 30th. The season series is 1-1. A win in that game would be worth 3 towards the magic number (a Bucks win, a Celtics loss, and winning the tie-breaker). Win that and it basically ensures the 1 seed.
Lose that, and the Bucks are still in the lead for the one seed, but they might have to win out.
