1. Milwaukee Bucks – 8. Detroit Pistons
Regular Season Series: Milwaukee 4-0
The Milwaukee Bucks are the number one overall seed as they finished with an NBA-best record of 60-22, meaning they’ll have home court in every round they face, including a potential Finals appearance. That comes as little surprise as Mike Budenholzer is an incredible coach that has done a great job with Milwaukee and they’re led by MVP-candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo is a force in and of himself as an athletic freak of nature and a defensive ace, but he’s also surrounded by ample talent in the likes of fellow All-Star Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe and several others. Between depth, stingy defense and overall basketball intelligence that starts with Budenholzer and trickles down through a well-rounded roster, it’s entirely feasible that this Bucks team could go all the way to the Finals.
They shouldn’t meet too much first-round resistance as they’ll be facing a less than formidable Detroit Pistons team that limped their way into the playoffs and didn’t clinch a spot until the final day of the regular season. Their best player Blake Griffin is banged up and purportedly is still day-to-day heading into the postseason. Even if he were full-strength, though, this Pistons team has been about as inconsistent as can be.
They finished a mediocre 41-41, don’t really jump out in any stat category and aren’t overwhelmingly deep. Assuming Griffin makes it back and because of the playoff acumen of head coach Dwane Casey, I can see Detroit potentially earning one victory, but not much more. Milwaukee dominated the regular season series and I foresee a repeat of that in the postseason as the significantly more talented team should prevail in a gentleman’s sweep at most.
Prediction: Bucks in 5