The Brooklyn Nets, fourth in the Eastern Conference, receive the Milwaukee Bucks tonight, leading the said conference. Failing to offer us good entertainment for Christmas Day on Sunday evening, this poster will at least have the merit of potentially giving us a taste of what we could see in the Playoffs in a few months.
Let it be said, in this period of end-of-year celebrations when the general mood is rather to rally, it’s a safe bet that this is not really what will be discussed on the floor. from the Barclays Center tonight.
Ultimately, if there was a term linked to Christmas that we could associate with this meeting, it would be the yule log. Not because this match will be a piece of cake, rather because we can expect to see both teams throwing wood. So expect Milwaukee and Brooklyn to look to show who’s boss in the East, while the Bucks, unlike their evening opponent, will also be on deck on Christmas Day for another clash against the Celtics. Small clarification, the two evening teams have already faced each other once at the start of the season, a match won by the Greek Freak teammates (110-99).
Impossible to look at the recent history of direct confrontations between Milwaukee and Brooklyn without going back to these famous 2021 conference semi-finals, and in particular the huge Game 7, whose outcome no one could forget. First an archi-clutch shoot from Kevin Durant to, it is thought, crucify the Bucks and punctuate his anthology duel with Giannis Antetokounmpo. But one size too many will finally push the match into overtime, where the Daims will win to slip to the ring.
One year ago, the Bucks withstood Kevin Durant’s NBA-record 48 points in a Game 7 thriller, beating the Nets, 115-111.
One for the history books ???? pic.twitter.com/wRvHV09fif
— ESPN (@espn) June 20, 2022
This confrontation will inevitably be present in the minds, even if many things have changed since then, especially on the Nets side (bye-bye James Harden, hello Ben Simmons, oh do you play basketball again Kyrie Irving?).
To return to the present, we start with two teams with fairly similar results, 22-9 for the Bucks (number one in the League) and 20-12 for the Nets. In contrast, where the Wisconsin franchise remains on a frustrating loss to the Cavs, Brooklyn chain of victories (7 in a row, 11 in 12 games) and had a healthy ride against the Warriors, during which no Nets player spent more than 29 minutes on the floor. A good point in terms of freshness, when it comes to facing a team among the most athletic in the League. In addition, the Brooklyn infirmary is almost empty (only Yuta Watanabe is uncertain) while on the side of Milwaukee, Khris Middleton should not play.
A great opportunity for Kevin Durant’s band to add a reference hit to their superb dynamic?