After eliminating the Suns 4-2 in the finals last season, the Bucks also successfully won the second crown in team history, and this season their goal is naturally to defend their title and strive for the third crown in team history, they entered the playoffs with the third place in the East in the regular season, the first round encountered the Bulls who faced them in the regular season, and finally the Bucks easily eliminated their opponents with an aggregate score of 4-1 and advanced to the semifinals, and the semifinals will be greeted by the Celtics, who won the championship.
The Bucks have a 4 percent chance of winning the title, and fans aren't even optimistic that they'll make it to the East Finals
Earlier, the US media also updated the probability of winning the championship of various playoff teams, of which the Celtics ranked first among all playoff teams with a 31% probability, the 2nd and 3rd places were the Suns (19%) and the Warriors (14%), as for the defending champions, in the case that Middleton is already expected to miss the second round, the probability of winning the championship is only 4%, and even the probability of them being able to enter the East Finals is only a pitiful 24%, it can be seen that the outside world does not seem to be optimistic that the Bucks can complete the defense of the title this season.
Middleton missed the second round with a knee injury and suffered a heavy blow on the Offensive end of the Bucks
Although the Bulls were lightly beaten in the first round, the team's second-in-command Middleton suffered a knee injury at G2, after which he was diagnosed with a secondary sprain of the medial collateral ligament of his left knee and is expected to miss all games in the second round of the playoffs. Before the injury, Middleton averaged 14.5 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists per game in the playoffs, and the three-point shooting rate was as high as 42.9%, it can be seen that after experiencing the baptism of last year's finals, Middleton also enhanced his organizational ability, thinking that he could use the newly developed "passing skill pack" to help the Bucks defend the title on this year's playoff trip, and as a result, he did not want to encounter such a serious injury in the first round, and he did not know what Middleton felt in his heart.
The Green Shirts have both offense and defense, and the Bucks really don't have much chance of winning
As far as the Bucks' overall situation this season is concerned, even if Middleton remains healthy and plays in a full lineup, the Bucks may not be able to gain the upper hand against the Greenshirts, and this time without such an outside fire point, the Bucks' prospects in the semifinals are estimated to be really fierce. Look at their opponents Celtic, after the new coach Uduka took over the team, although their performance was not ideal at the beginning of the regular season, they suddenly found their form in the middle and late stages, strengthened their aggressiveness on the defensive end, and finally entered the playoffs as the second in the East, and directly swept the Nets sitting on Durant and Irving in the first round.
This season, the Celtics can be said to be a strong team with both attack and defense, the offensive end has double detective Jaylen Brown, Tatum can take on the scoring responsibility, plus this playoff Smart, Horford, Gwee have averaged double-double performance, so on offense alone, the Greenshirts are not afraid of the Bucks, especially this time the Bucks also lack Middleton, the main scorer who averaged more than 20+ points per game in the regular season, and on the defensive end, even if the Bucks rank first in the league in the defensive efficiency of the playoffs, But the Greenshirts are not vegetarians here, Tais, Gervay, Lowe, Brown, Smart, Derrick White, let them have almost no dead end on the defensive end, although the alphabet brother is likely to be unable to limit, but if you can limit several of his helpers Holliday, Portis, and Big Lo, the Celtics really have a chance to crush the Bucks' defense plan and let them stop at the semifinals stage.