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The Milwaukee Bucks have the distinction of having earned the right to get swept by the Miami Heat in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs this year. This is quite unfortunate for the Bucks who have not been able to get out of the first round in 12 years. The last time they did they had Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson on their team, and some guy named George Karl was also their coach.
The Bucks are losers of four in a row and have games left against Denver (home) and against Oklahoma City (road). They could potentially be entering the playoffs on a six game losing streak. Denver and Oklahoma City are not expected to rest players as they still have seeding and home court advantage to play for.
Miami has three games left Chicago (home), Cleveland (road) and Orlando (home) to finish out the season. It's very possible that Miami enters the post season on an eight game winning streak. They could also lose the next three as they might rest LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen and others.
Doesn't matter to the Heat though, they have home court sealed up through out the playoffs and they really can't afford an injury right now to any of their key pieces.
Milwaukee did manage a blow out win over the Heat back in December (104-85). They have also taken the Heat to over time once this year before eventually losing in overtime (113-106) and then lost the other games by an average of twelve points.
Let's hit the tale of the tape and then prediction time!
Tale of the Tape
Miami Heat |
Milwaukee Bucks |
||
102.9 |
PPG |
98.9 |
|
38.5 |
RPG |
43.9 |
|
22.9 |
APG |
22.9 |
|
8.78 |
SPG |
8.41 |
|
49.5 |
FG% |
43.6 |
|
39.5 |
3PT% |
36.1 |
|
76.7 |
FT% |
73.8 |
|
LeBron James |
|
Brandon Jennings |
|
Chris Andersen |
X Factor |
Mike Dunleavy? |
|
The chance for an upset in this series sits at 12.2%. Will Milwaukee channel their inner Lloyd Christmas? Probably not. I fully expect to see a lot of Mike Miller, James Jones and Rashard Lewis in the fourth quarter of these four games.
I'm taking Miami in a sweep.