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The Brooklyn Nets' 109-123 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of their first-round playoff matchup has set up a tantalizing second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. The two Eastern Conference heavyweights will lock horns at the Barclays Center on Saturday in Game 1 of the matchup on Saturday, June 5.
The Milwaukee Bucks will be confident about their chances of taking down the Brooklyn Nets 'Big 3', especially since Giannis Antetokounmpo and co. won the regular-season series 2-1.
2021 NBA Playoffs: 3 Factors that will aid the Brooklyn Nets in overcoming the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals
With Joel Embiid going down with injury and the Western Conference teams struggling to exert dominance, both the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets will fancy their chances of winning the championship.
The Nets have assembled an all-time roster, and here are three reasons why they can beat the mighty Milwaukee Bucks side in a seven-game series.
#3 Brooklyn Nets' impressive bench unit
Since the James Harden trade went through, the Brooklyn Nets' 'Big 3' has dominated the headlines. However, the good work done done by their bench unit has largely gone unnoticed. Bruce Brown, Nicolas Claxton, Landry Shamet and Jeff Green played a key role in their success in the regular season, and the Nets bench could be a deciding factor against the Bucks as well.
Green is currently out with injury, but there is hope that the veteran will be back for at least Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. The Brooklyn Nets had the fourth-best bench of the regular season, and they have been the third-best in the postseason so far.
#2 Milwaukee Bucks' poor three-point shooting defense
The Milwaukee Bucks have struggled to defend the three-point line since Mike Budenholzer took over. The Bucks conceded 38.6 three-point attempts per game during the course of the regular season, with their opponents shooting a healthy 38.4% on those attempts.
The Milwaukee Bucks have always focussed on packing the paint, not allowing easy layups and dunks. But that strategy backfired against the Miami Heat during last year's playoffs, as they crushed the Milwaukee Bucks 4-1.
This year could see a similar trend, with the Brooklyn Nets having ample shooters who can punish a vulnerable Bucks perimeter defense. The Nets shot 39% from downtown in the regular season, and they will feel confident going into the second-round matchup on the back of this statistic.
#1 The Brooklyn Nets' 'Big 3'
The Brooklyn Nets decided to put all their eggs in the basket for the 2020-21 season, trading for James Harden and forming a super team featuring the former MVP, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The trio combined to average a whopping 85.2 points in the first-round series against the Boston Celtics, including an all-time playoff-high 104 points in Game 4.
The Milwaukee Bucks can expect a lot of isolation plays in the series, as the Brooklyn Nets are averaging a postseason-high 37 isolations per game. Irving, Durant and Harden have been three of the top-4 most efficient isolation players so far, and it is going to be extremely difficult for the Milwaukee Bucks to contain them.
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