Bucks lose to drop to No. 3 seed in the East, will face Indiana in first round
Milwaukee’s late-season slide came to a conclusion Sunday as the Bucks got blown out in Orlando on the final day of the regular season. With New York beating Chicago in overtime, it meant the Knicks would be the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference and Milwaukee fell down to the three seed.
The Bucks will face a familiar foe in the first round, with Indiana earning the No. 6 seed. The two sides played five times this year and the Pacers came away with four wins. That included matching up in the semifinals of the league’s first in-season tournament in Las Vegas where Indy topped Milwaukee 128-119 on Dec. 7.
The teams matched up a week later at Fiserv Forum and Giannis Antetokounmpo dropped a franchise-record 64 points in Milwaukee’s lone win. Things got feisty afterwards when Antetokounmpo attempted to get the game ball and he thought the Pacers took it with them to their locker room to celebrate the first points of Oscar Tshiebwe’s career, leading to a confrontation in the tunnel.
Antetokounmpo’s status for the playoffs is in question. He missed the final three games with a calf strain. Milwaukee has not given an update on the two-time MVP since the original diagnosis, though the team did say he would be evaluated on a day-to-day basis.
The first round of the playoffs gets going April 20.