The Brooklyn Nets, fourth in the Eastern Conference, receive the Milwaukee Bucks tonight, leading said conference. By failing to provide us with good Sunday night Christmas Day entertainment, this poster will at least have the merit of potentially giving us a taste of what we could see in the Playoffs a few months from now.
Let’s face it, in this period of end-of-year celebrations where the general mood is rather rallying, it’s a safe bet that that’s not exactly what we’ll be talking about in court tonight at the Barclays Center.
Ultimately, if there was a term related to Christmas that we could associate with this meeting, it would be the yule log. Not because this match is going to be a no-brainer, rather because we can expect to see both teams throwing wood. So expect Milwaukee and Brooklyn to be looking 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 showdown against the Celtics. Small clarification, the two evening formations have already faced each other once at the beginning of the season, a game won by the Greek Freak’s teammates (110-99).
Impossible to look at recent Milwaukee-Brooklyn head-to-head history without going back to these famous 2021 conference semifinals, and especially the huge Game 7, the outcome of which no one will forget. First an archi-clutch shootout by Kevin Durant to, it is thought, crucify the Bucks and punctuate his anthology duel with Giannis Antetokounmpo. But one bounty too many will finally push the match into overtime, where the Daims will win to slip into the ring.
A year ago, the Bucks held on to Kevin Durant’s NBA record 48 points in a Game 7 thriller, beating the Nets, 115-111.
One from the history books 📚 pic.twitter.com/wRvHV09fif
— ESPN (@espn) June 20, 2022
This comparison will inevitably be present in the minds, even if many things have changed since then, especially on the side of the Nets (hello James Harden, hello Ben Simmons, oh but do you still play basketball Kyrie Irving?).
To return to the present, let’s start with two teams with fairly similar results, 22-9 for the Bucks (number one in the league) and 20-12 for the Nets. On the other hand, where the Wisconsin franchise remains in a frustrating loss to the Cavs, Brooklyn chain of victories (7 straight, 11 in 12 games) and had a strong run 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 one of the most athletic teams in the league. Furthermore, the Brooklyn infirmary is almost empty (only Yuta Watanabe is uncertain) while Khris Middleton shouldn’t play on the Milwaukee side.
A great opportunity for Kevin Durant’s band to add a landmark hit to their superb dynamic?
