Diet Celtics – 50% like the real thing: Bucks 106 – Celtics 95
With the Miami Heat emerging victorious (sadly and barely) from their last game of the season against New Jersey, clinching the fifth seed and leaving the Bucks to play the Hawks in the three-six matchup, it’s hard to get too excited about any of the positives that came from the Bucks Wednesday night win over Boston.
It’s merely evident now that Milwaukee’s jayvee plus team can defeat the Celtics freshman team. And I think that was probably a safe bet already. Milwaukee has pounded into us all season that they have good depth. From one through eleven, Milwaukee can plug different guys into different lineups and compete with most starters and defeat most benches.
Once again Wednesday night, Milwaukee got productive games out of Luke Ridnour, Jerry Stackhouse, Ersan Ilyasova and even …
*gasp* Dan Gadzuric?
Yes, under the right circumstances even old Gadzuric can look good again.
But the circumstances will be much different in the playoffs now. The Hawks have been a problem for Milwaukee all season. Hell, they’ve been a problem for the majority of the league all season. A group that’s been playing together for years now, Atlanta has the versatility, the star power, the defense and the offense to make a deep run into the playoffs and even scare the East’s top two.
If Milwaukee were about to embark on a playoff series with Boston, the questions would be how many games could Milwaukee win? Would the Celtics lose their cool during the series, specifically Rasheed Wallace. Could Milwaukee capitalize on any of those moments and gain some momentum? Basically, the questions about that potential series were full of hope and possibility. It would still be a long shot, but Milwaukee would at least be on the verge of a series that was going to likely have some give and take.
Now I can’t help but ask questions like, how is this series going to look any different than Monday night? Will Milwaukee shoot over 42% in any of the games? How many points is Joe Johnson going to average? My feelings of hope and excitement have withered away significantly. I know asking the big “What If” about Andrew Bogut won’t do any good, but it keeps coming back to me and gnawing at me.
But I guess it is what it is. The bottom line is that the Bucks are still going to be playing playoff games again this year, which is still a terrific feat. And I’m glad we got this final game of the regular season out of the way. Now, as Brandon Jennings so elegantly put it after Monday night’s game against Atlanta, we can just “lace ‘em up and let’s hoop.” Read more…






