Neither the Milwaukee Bucks, nor the Atlanta Hawks, were expected to reach the eastern conference finals this season. The Bucks avenged their second-round embarrassment from the Orlando Bubble, then took down the consensus title favorites heading into the postseason, the Brooklyn Nets. Meanwhile, the Hawks took care of business against this year’s lovable New York Knicks team, then dismantled the number one seeded Philadelphia 76ers on their side of the playoff bracket. The ability to see new faces in the conference finals was a welcomed sight for positive NBA fans, but those smiles soon turned upside down for Bucks fans once Trae Young went off for a 48-point conference finals debut. Unfortunately, this scoring output was not unfamiliar to Milwaukee coming off of a series versus Kevin Durant and the Nets, but they would pile on the déjà vu for their supporters with a huge disparity in the final score for the Bucks’ second game two in a row. At least this time it was they who won by more than 30. However, the Bucks knew that they couldn’t hang their hats on that outcome based on how the conference semifinals ended, and the abundance of possibilities that there are in a long series.
Luckily, the Bucks stole back their homecourt advantage after they were able to split the two games in Atlanta, but that didn’t come without a cost. In Game 3, Khris Middleton tied his playoff career-high that he set against the Nets in the previous round with 38 points. Trae would also drop 35 points in the contest, despite coming down hard on a referee’s foot following a deep three pointer at the end of the third quarter. He would be able to return early in the fourth quarter shortly after his fall to add to his scoring, but that wouldn’t be indicative of his availability for the next two games. With respect to Trae, it would seem that the Bucks would be gifted a golden opportunity to capitalize on having the health advantage once again in these playoffs. Similar to the April 25th contest between the Bucks and Hawks, Lou Williams and Bogdan Bogdanovic went off from beyond the arc to fill the hole left by Trae. To add insult to injury, just as Giannis Antetokounmpo started to heat up, Clint Capela would come down on the left leg of Giannis, bending it back at a 30-degree angle. Milwaukee waited in bated breath for 18 hours to hear that Giannis had no structural damage in his left knee, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Still with the Greek Freak’s uncertain future, the Bucks had a long way to go.
Giannis would not return for the reminder of the eastern conference finals, but all things considered, the encouraging news on their superstar may have given the Bucks the energy they were missing when Giannis went down. In Game 5, the Bucks took care of business, led by playoff career-highs from Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis with 33 and 22 points, respectively. Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday also each scored 25 or more points to round out the starting lineup. In the face of elimination, Trae would return in spite of the painful bone bruise from Game 4. Although he would not have a shooting night that he’d be proud of, it’s difficult to imagine that having Trae in the lineup again didn’t help his teammates like Cam Reddish shine in their most important game to date. In the end, the series was decided by Khris scoring 16 points early in the third quarter, and Jrue’s stellar defense on Trae.
