The second round of the NBA playoffs will get up and running on Sunday with the Boston Celtics hosting the Milwaukee Bucks in the first game.
The Bucks remain without Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo is set to continue doing most of the heavy lifting offensively. Bookmaker Bovada has the odds at +110 for Giannis to finish as the game’s top scorer. The odds are at +130 for Jayson Tatum to score the most points and at +500 for Jaylen Brown to lead all scorers.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 30th, 6:30 P.M. (EST)
This might feel like the first playoff game of the year for both sides after they dominated their opponents in the first round. Boston swept Brooklyn 4-0 and Milwaukee ended Chicago’s season with a 4-1 series win.
The two teams have seen each other quite a lot in recent postseasons and they have developed a nice rivalry. The last match-up was in 2019 and Milwaukee won the series 4-1. Can Boston avenge the defeat and take down the reigning champions?
The Celtics should be full of confidence after needing only four games to get past Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The team had an outstanding finish to the regular season and it looks like they haven’t had any problems carrying their form into the playoffs.
There were some chemistry issues early in the campaign between Tatum and Brown, but they managed to figure things out over the course of the season and both showed off impressive form in the first round combining for 51 points per game.
Milwaukee didn’t miss Middleton a lot during the opening round but they would no doubt like to have him available as it would give them another scoring option. Boston has previously done well defensively against Giannis and the team will need to get some extra scoring if Giannis is locked up.
Antetokounmpo had a pretty quiet series by his standards against the Bulls but still ended up averaging a 29-13.6 line. He went for back-to-back 30-point performances to close out the series just as Chicago had built up a bit of momentum. Milwaukee’s leader can be a one-man wrecking crew when he’s in the mood and Boston has to make sure that Giannis doesn’t get going straight away by getting easy buckets early in the game.
It’s a very tough match-up for the C’s, but with the home fans behind them, they should fancy their chances of continuing their postseason winning streak.
