It appears that the only thing that can derail the Milwaukee Bucks from a deep playoff run is beginning to become a problem
For the majority of the season, the Milwaukee Bucks have been the NBA’s best team. They’ve certainly looked that way for almost all the year in the Eastern Conference. Led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Eric Bledsoe, the Bucks currently have a league-best 53-18.
At this point, the group thought about the Bucks is that they’re going to make a deep run in the post-season and at the very least make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. At this point, losing before that point would be pretty much a disappointment.
However, the real uncertainty that can throw everything off track – for any team, and not just the Bucks, is the injury factor. And it’s looking like that could potentially be something that Milwaukee will have to overcome heading into the playoffs.
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The Bucks are already without Malcolm Brogdon for the foreseeable future, and he could miss the first-round, if not more, of the NBA playoffs. Now, it appears that the Bucks have lost a second integral player from their rotation.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Mirotic is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with a fracture in his thumb. It would’ve been easy for the Bucks to overcome one injury, even one to a player as valuable as Brogdon has been this season. However, overcoming both the injuries to Brogdon and Mirotic is going to be a tall task for this team.
Even though many will still expect this team to do so in the first round, if this team faces a team like the Boston Celtics in the second, and are still without both Brogdon and Mirotic, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Bucks bow out in the second round – something that no one really expected them to do when healthy.
At this point I believe it’s safe to say that the Bucks are the prohibitive favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. However, the one thing that can stop them is starting to become a real problem for this team headed into the playoffs.