The Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks will clash in one of the most entertaining series in the second round of the 2022 NBA playoffs. These two teams didn’t have many problems taking out their first-round rivals, with Boston sweeping the Brooklyn Nets and the Bucks easily beating the Chicago Bulls in five games.
Now, it’s time for them to battle it out and see who will face either the Miami Heat or Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals. This Sunday, the series will start at TD Garden, with the Celtics trying to extend their winning streak to five.
It seems like they have extra motivation coming into this series, as Marcus Smart mentioned the fact that the Bucks seemingly avoided the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs. The Brooklynites made it to the postseason as the 7th seed, meaning they would face the Celtics, who stole the 2nd seed from Milwaukee in the last games of the season.
Well, the newly-crowned Defensive Player of the Year had some things to say about it, throwing some shade at the Bucks for their decision, and making it clear there will be no shortcuts with the Celtics (9:00).
“It happened. We see it. I mean, it’s part of the game,” Smart said this week, via Heavy. “That was their choice. They decided to do that. That’s on them. We’re not worried about anybody but ourselves. We could care less what anybody else does. They’re the defending champs. So, they have every right to do whatever they please. And, if that means that they thought by doing that they didn’t need home court against us, or they weren’t too worried about us, that’s fine.
“We’ll go out, and we’ll play our game. We’ll let our game do the talking and see where it leads us.”
These two teams have a history together in recent times. Back in 2019, the Bucks dismantled the Celtics in this same round, marking the end of the Kyrie Irving-Celtics marriage. Many players from that series are still on these two teams and they’re ready to leave everything on the court to take one more step to the NBA championship.
Both Celtics and Bucks are inspired, come from winning their series with ease, have incredible players on their roster, and now it’s time to see who will prevail. The C’s’ Big 3 is healthy and ready to go, while Giannis Antetokounmpo won’t have Khris Middleton available for this series. That’s a big factor to keep in mind for this matchup, but the Bucks aren’t running away from anybody… Except for the Nets, maybe.
