Until then, Im a little cooler on them than many of my colleagues. In terms of tiebreakers, the Heat will lose their season series to Boston regardless of Wednesdays outcome, but the Heat are tied 2-2 with both Philadelphia and Milwaukee. at Then Antetokounmpo drained a 3-pointer from 28 feet to make it 85-81 and it was on. It felt like we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds down the stretch and in the fourth quarter but able to get enough stops, hold them to 24 (points in the fourth)in a tight game. 2 seed when it could very likely mean a first-round matchup with the Nets? The Sixers have to finish a game ahead of the Bucks because Milwaukee owns the tiebreaker via its 2-1 head-to-head advantage over the Sixers. That means Embiid has to come down a good chunk. In the East, it's between Toronto and Chicago. 7. After the defending champs dispatched the Chicago Bulls last night, the Eastern Conference Semifinals is set between Milwaukee and Boston. Cleveland is locked into the play-in tournament, but the Cavaliers may still have something to play for as they will want to avoid falling to the No. Even more impressive, Holiday recovered the loose ball and threw it off Smart. No one wants defenders to be treated like bowling pins, but when they go hunting for charges, some of the games biggest stars like Antetokounmpo and Tatum are put at crazy risk. 3 in net rating. The Bucks are 2-1 against the Pistons this season but lost the last matchup 115-106 at Milwaukee on Jan. 3 DraftKings Sportsbook has the Bucks favored by 6.5 points at home over the Celtics, priced at -265 on the moneyline. Holiday also had 29 points and handed out eight assists while Middleton scored 22 points and had nine assists. The veteran point guard poured in 27 points with 12 assists and three steals in 43 minutes. Of course, you don't make a double-digit comeback in the fourth quarter without some luck. Boston forced overtime with a high-arcing 3-pointer from Sam Hauser. We have another head-to-head meeting on Wednesday as the Celtics host the Heat (7:30 p.m. Counting on Durant and Paul to stay on the floor for four rounds is a dicey proposition, though. If they lose to the Bucks on Thursday, though, Milwaukee will own the tiebreaker and likely drop Boston to No. But as our Chris Forsberg observes, there's still a lot to be sorted out ahead of the Celtics' back-to-back with the Bulls (Wednesday night) and Bucks (Thursday night). The Milwaukee Bucks woke up Wednesday in a three-way tie for second in the Eastern Conference standings, knotted at 49-30 with Boston and Philadelphia. Falling to the Bucks on Thursday would drop Boston down in the standings, and give the Bucks the tiebreaker over the Celtics. He shot 3-of-6 from beyond the arc Tuesday and has hit nine of his last 16 3-pointers. And there is still much to be decided. They desperately need a healthy Gary Payton II for the playoffs. Let's get it on. But if youre a fan of another Western Conference team, do you really want your squad responsible for trying to knock out Steph, Klay, and Draymond Green? Feels like Thursday night in Milwaukee should decide who gets 2 seed.Win in Chicago tonight would go long way towards ensuring no Raptors draw. Entering Wednesdays games, there are 12 days and just 96 games remaining in the 2021-22 regular season. The Nuggets have all the ingredients to make a deep run. Milwaukee entered Tuesday on a 14-game win streak. Muscala has been better than expected early in his Boston tenure. They were tougher than us in that fourth quarter, Game 5. Those kind of plays are exactly why the Bucks traded for Holiday prior to last season. The jazz have a one-game lead in the loss column with two game remaining. Boston then inched a half-game ahead of the. Eight of the Bucks' whopping 17 offensive rebounds came in the fourth quarter, and nine of their 20 second-chance points came in the frame. Khris Middleton is still not playing his normal minutes load. If they lose that 7-8 game, they would face the winner of the 9-10 game with the winner of that game securing the No. This team always seems to be battling injuries, and we have no idea when Zion Williamson will return. There are teams trying to get into the Play-In Tournament (7-10 seeds in each conference), there are teams trying to rise out of the Play-In and secure a guaranteed playoff spot (1-6 seeds in each conference), then there are the battles for playoff position, home-court advantage and securing tiebreakers that may be necessary come April 10. All Rights Reserved. The Toronto Raptors haven't left themselves any wiggle room. ET TV: ESPN Celtics v It feels a lot better now and just trying to give everything I have.. Much has changed since we last ranked NBA title contenders headed into the new year. Brooklyn controls its own destiny to pass No. East teams jockeying for position, matchups. The Bucks either claim the No. Boston clinched home court advantage in this second round series when the Celtics won in Memphis with a full complement of players whereas the Bucks sat most of their rotation players on the final day of the regular season. Boston has by far the hardest schedule, although the Grizzlies are locked into the Western Conference's No. White is enjoying the best stretch of his Celtics career with Smart sidelined due to injury. Despite a slow start from behind the three-point line, the Bucks dominated inside with 34 points in the paint. If the Celtics beat Chicago and the Raptors can win at least two of their last three, Toronto will land in the 4-5 matchup with the Bulls slotted at No. A Celtics win would push Milwaukee (.627) to first place, Boston would take over second thanks to owning the tiebreaker over Miami as the two teams would have matching 48-29 records (.623), while Philadelphia (.613) would remain in fourth place. There was chatter after Game 6 focused on the end of the regular season, when Boston closed out with a victory over Memphis while Milwaukee went belly-up at Cleveland. 4 Sixers by one game in the loss column. The Milwaukee Bucks (22-10) and Boston Celtics (23-10) meet Sunday at TD Garden.Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. Collectively, so far only three teams have clinched a playoff berth, while five teams have been mathematically eliminated. 2 seed would mean home-court advantage in a potential 2-3 second round series, which is a big deal with these teams so closely matched. Both would also be divisional champions in a scenario where the teams tie, so it's on to Eastern Conference win percentage. The Bucks had a 13-point lead at one point and then trailed most of the fourth quarter, and a dramatic final few minutes were set up by the fact the Celtics ran out of the gates in the fourth quarter with seven straight points to take a 104-102 lead with 10:24 left in the game. The 27-year-old was signed on Feb. 16 after he was waived by the Brooklyn Nets and played in eight games for the Bucks. But, each time Boston responded with a key bucket, including a Smart basket that made it 121-118 Celtics with 2:27 to go. He also had 11 assists and 10 rebounds. At this rate, it would be disappointing if they didnt at least reach the championship series. I know a lot of times we missed some rebounds. The Celtics led by 12 points at one point in the third quarter, but the Bucks made a huge run and hit several clutch shots late in the fourth quarter to take a 116-113 lead with 7.4 seconds remaining. In some cases, the next tiebreaker would be division winning percentage, but that only applies if the teams are in the same division, so the Bucks' 11-3 advantage over the 9-7 Celtics doesn't . Will any of the top four teams try to avoid a first-round matchup with Brooklyn? Khris Middleton had 27 points and 13 rebounds, and the Milwaukee Bucks topped the Boston Celtics 121-119 on Wednesday for their eighth consecutive victory. The most obvious problem is All-Star wing Khris Middletons continued absence with a left knee strain. Jrue Holiday certainly believes as much, and he tried to prove it down the stretch in Game 5. Now that you've had a chance to breathe. The Celtics have a 41-17 record and still lead the NBA standings with one more game -- Wednesday night against the Detroit Pistons at TD Garden -- before the All-Star break. 9:31 pm ET, at Most importantly, Giannis is an MVP-caliber player who can take his game to a place very few are capable of doing in the postseason. I would have liked to see theGrizzliestake a bigger swing at the trade deadline than Luke Kennard, a shooter who doesnt really shoot enough. We'll see if they really want it (and if the Bucks want it, for that matter) when the two teams take the floor in Milwaukee on Thursday night. Boston has the edgehere, owning a 20-13 record against the 10 Eastern Conference playoff qualifiers (a field that is set). The Celtics' elite defense has stifled the Bucks all series, and was doing so once again in the fourth quarter -- at least on the initial shot. It's important for the Celtics to finish with the No. The Bucks already have a head-to-head edge over Philly (2-1), so they'd win the tiebreaker over Philadelphia in any head-to-head scenario. "Surgery can be season-ending, so you dont want to do that. timeout to try and patch it up, and giannis gets to the line. The other seven rotation Bucks who played combined for only 51 points to his 44. Will Russell Westbrook still be starting? All Rights Reserved. Heading into the final weekend of the NBA's regular season, here's what we now about the playoff and play-in races: All 20 teams are set, as are the first 12 playoff teams and the eight play-in teams. 8 spot in the playoffs and a matchup with the No. 1 seed and, as a result, likely play only one of the Bucks or Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs. The NBA's Noches ne B A celebration starts in March, where teams will commemorate fans and players across Latin American and U.S. Hispanic communities. 9:45 pm ET, at Giannis Antetokounmpo was fantastic for Milwaukee all night long finishing the win with a game-high 40 points to go along with 11 rebounds and three assists while Jrue Holiday made a number of clutch plays on both ends of the floor down the stretch on his way to a 24-point, eight-rebound and eight-assist performance. Bucks (51-31) The Celtics claim the 2-seed via their tiebreaker (which, in this scenario, is record against Eastern Conference playoff opponents). That best two words in sports clich might be getting old, but Game 7s themselves never do. The Celtics own that tiebreaker. As we move past head-to-head in the tiebreaker scenarios, Miami has two advantages: they have already won their division and they currently have the top conference record of any team in the East. You would think the No. / CBS Boston. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc. site: media | arena: nba | pageType: stories | 6-keys: media/spln/nba/reg/free/stories, By pressing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the. Since the Jazz own the tiebreaker, one more win or one more Denver loss would seal the No. 3 or No. Much has changed since we last ranked NBA title . The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting. Miami also has eyes on this race because if Brooklyn falls to No. Boston has two games remaining -- Thursday in Milwaukee and Sunday in Memphis -- while the Bucks (vs. Celtics, at Detroit, at Cleveland) and 76ers (at Toronto, vs. Indiana, vs. Detroit) each have three. The Bucks clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker with Philadelphia on Tuesday (winning the season series 2-1), they are tied with Miami (2-2) and currently trail Boston (1-2) with one final. Even then, the game wasn't over. The Celtics beat the Grizzlies 120-107 in Boston on March 3. The same rule cancels out Kevin Durant, who will finish with 55 games played assuming he is active in Brooklyn's final two games. And time is running out for this team to properly gel before a deep run. But the Bucks own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the 76ers. 9:35 pm ET, at He also had seven assists. big time play. The Bucks failed to cover as 2.5-point underdogs in a 118-100 loss at the Brooklyn Nets Friday. Bucks: At Detroit on Friday. The Celtics (50-31) have one game left in Memphis on Sunday while the Bucks headed right to the airport to play Detroit on Friday and then wrap the regular season in Cleveland on Sunday for a. Detroit beat Milwaukee at Fiserv Forum on Jan. 3. Please enter valid email address to continue. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Griffin has been so good from 3-point range recently that the Bucks had to respect him on the perimeter, and he used that to his advantage on this drive to the hoop during the first quarter. Boston's regulars all played big minutes in Chicago on Wednesday night, with Jaylen Brown playing 35 minutes and Jayson Tatum and Al Horford each logging 30 minutes. src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=674090812743125&ev=PageView&noscript=1"/>. The Celtics 18-point lead had shrunk to six when Tatum subbed in with 9:37 left. His closet competitor was LeBron James, who won't be eligible now that he's set to sit the Lakers' final two games (you have to play at least 58 games to be eligible for the scoring title, and LeBron has only played 56). 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