The Bucks are out and Raptors/Celtics heats up

I made a prediction that the Milwaukee Bucks would win the entire tournament about 2 weeks ago. Their track record and performance thus far in the playoffs convinced me that they were the team to beat... and then they got not just beat, but dominated by the 5th ranked Miami Heat.

I was totally wrong in my prediction and I wasn't alone. The Milwaukee Bucks were favorites by Las Vegas odds for every single game in the series except for the last one.

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The Bucks did what I have come to expect of them in game 5: They came out looking like the number one team and ended the first quarter up by 9 only to completely blow it in the 2nd quarter and then never looked like they had a chance for the rest of the game. Their 3 pt percentage was as embarrassing as ever with the combined effort on the Milwaukee side going 9-33 from 3 pt land and they weren't much better in general shooting just over 35% in all non free-throw field goals. They couldn't even do free throws correctly, managing just over 70% from the line.

It almost seemed like they were not even trying to win after falling behind in the 2nd. The fact that they only lost by 9 points suggests that Miami put on the brakes after they were convinced they were going to win.

Not having star player Giannis Antetokounmpo on the court due to a sprained ankle didn't help, but the Bucks seemed to not have any wind in their sails and had resigned to failure by the middle of the 2nd quarter.

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On the other side of things the Celtics and Raptors playoff is the first of the year to go to game 7. You may recall that Boston won the first two games of the series and looked like they were going to cruise to a final four spot. Then Toronto seemed to figure them out and won the next 2. It has been a back and forth battle and last night's game was no exception. The game went to double overtime in a very bizarre fashion when the first OT saw just 8 point scored by both sides only to have the 2nd OT be a very different story with Toronto barely edging out the Celtics by 3 points.

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It seems as though the experts over in Vegas don't really know how to call this one because Toronto has been favored in a majority of the contests, but obviously they lost 3 of them.

The upcoming game later this week could end up being one of the best that we see for the entire playoffs and if you have a chance to it and aren't turned off by the all the social justice that goes on during the games, this is an important one to watch. I know I will be up on Friday to see it!