Bucks, healthy Giannis gear up for Pacers rematch in Round 1
DETROIT — The Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers will matchup in the first round of the NBA playoffs for the second consecutive season.
All the Eastern Conference playoff seeds were secured on Friday night, as the Bucks secured their position as the No. 5 seed with a 125-119 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Meanwhile, Indiana dropped a 129-115 contest to the Orlando Magic, snapping a six-game winning streak, which locked the Pacers into the No.4 seed.
It sets up a rematch from last season, when the Pacers defeated the Bucks in six games during their 2024 first-round series. Indiana dominated Milwaukee all season, going 8-3 in their 11 meetings.
However, the Bucks responded by winning three of their four games against the Pacers this season. Milwaukee also seems likely to have a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo for the playoffs after a calf strain kept the two-time MVP from appearing in any games during last year’s series.
The Pacers have been one of the NBA’s best teams since the start of January, where they’ve gone 33-14 since Jan. 1, the fourth-best record in that span in the NBA.
However, Antetokounmpo enters the playoffs putting up some of his best production of the season, averaging 31.8 points, 12.0 rebound and 11.8 assists in his past six games.
“Well, it’s huge,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said before Friday’s game about having Antetokounmpo healthy. “Giannis in the last three playoffs, am I correct, has not played for the most part. So he wants to be healthy. I think everyone in this room would agree we’re a better team when Giannis is healthy.”
The Bucks are still entering the series uncertain about the status of guard Damian Lillard, who missed his 13th consecutive game on Friday with blood clots in his right calf.
Lillard has been on blood thinners, which have stabilized the clotting. That has made Rivers optimistic about Lillard’s potential return for the playoffs, but the team won’t know for certain until the blood clot is completely gone.
Despite Lillard’s absence, the Bucks have rallied to win seven straight games.
“We needed to go on a run,” Rivers said after Friday’s game. “We’d come back from that long road trip. … We were still trying to figure it out, what lineups [we would have] without Dame and all that. But we have found ourselves and we’re playing terrific basketball. We’re playing together. Giannis is trusting all his teammates. Him and Scoot [Kevin Porter Jr.] are starting to really have some chemistry together. We’re doing a lot of things. There were so many individual great efforts.”
Source: espn.com