Play-offs!

Inflatable Bango Buck. 2/10/17 dwm

 The best Wisconsin team of my youth was the Milwaukee Bucks.  They won the NBA title in 1971 and regularly won their division and fought deep into the play-offs more often than not.

 Eventually, being in the play-offs weren't enough after a long stretch of the Bucks earning high seeds in the post-season under coach Don Nelson.  Coach George Karl had some great teams, but not good enough to get past Philadelphia or Boston.

 It took Giannis Antetokounmpo to put them over the top in 2021 when the team earned its second crown.

The Bucks came into the 2022-23 play-offs with the best record in the league, which means they have home-court advantage as long as they play.  Milwaukee is considered one of the favorites because they have a deep team and strong line-up that goes 15 players deep. 

Then came game one, Monday night.  Giannis played ten minutes, falling hard on a drive to the basket and left the game.  He tried to return but wasn't able to get loose and missed the rest of the game.   

Giannis is a tough player.  The year the Bucks won the championship, he returned after hyper-extending his knee.  I wasn't the only one who thought that was it for his season.  His teammates won that series and the Greek Freak came back like nothing happened, taking the team, city, and all its fans to a title.

Giannis didn't play game two, although reports from the team are that he is getting better and they remain optimistic he'll return to the court.  I believe Milwaukee can defeat the Heat in a seven-game series but for them to win a third championship, they will need the Alphabet (a Giannis nickname from previous radio play-by-play announcer).

The Bucks without Giannis blew Miami off the court, up 30 with ten minutes left in the game, tying the series at a game a piece.  The next two games are in Miami, then the teams return to Cream City for what could be the deciding game or the turning point in tight series.

Better hang on tight, go Bucks!