The Milwaukee Bucks tied their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Brooklyn Nets, doing the dirty work against Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and co. Heading back to Brooklyn, things are even for Milwaukee, but not everybody is convinced that they figured things out and are a threat for the other three teams competing in the East.
Ryen Russillo recently joined The Bill Simmons Podcast to discuss the Bucks’ current moment. The analyst explains that beating the Nets could ‘trick’ everybody into thinking that the Bucks are better than they actually are.
“If there’s no Kyrie and there’s no Harden, as you’re alluding to, and the Bucks win this, the result I think will trick us into thinking the Bucks are something that they’re not.”
“I’m watching Giannis, and I’m going, why do you expect this to be different in any of these playoff series against good teams.”
It is not like he’s saying that a win over Brooklyn would be a fraud, but the Bucks look like they’re still struggling to get things going, just like they did in the past two seasons.
The Nets have three incredible players in Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, but KD struggled to win Game 4 without his two teammates. Milwaukee could take advantage of that and surprise the 2nd seed in the East, precisely what Russillo is saying.
The good news for Brooklyn is that Harden is returning to action for Game 5, trying to take a 3-2 lead in the series.
