No More Suspense In East, Where NBA Playoff Matchups Are Set

The top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks get the Orlando Magic, the No. 2 Toronto Rapters get the Brooklyn Nets, the No. 3 Boston Celtics will play the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat will meet in the 4-5 matchup with one of them being the, ahem, “home” team.

That means viewers at home have a couple of choices today and tomorrow: Go back to binge-watching Netflix NFLX as so many people did during the early days of the pandemic, or tune in to the Western Conference games being played today and tomorrow. There are four more games (of the 11 remaining seeding games) pitting a West team vs. a West team.

Of course, much remains to be determined in the West, where the battle for the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds is riveting. Whoever finishes ninth must defeat the eighth place team twice on Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), and whoever finishes 10th will rue the day that their owner decided that the play-in stage of the playoffs was limited to just two teams.

So, now that we know what the East matchups are, let’s have a look at how those teams fared against each other during the regular season.

MILWAUKEE VS. ORLANDO: The Bucks swept the season series 4-0, winning by margins of 32, 9, 11 and 17. So, yeah, it was not all that competitive. But when you have the league’s largest average margin of victory as Milwaukee does (10.4 points), these things tend to happen. Surprisingly, Giannis Antetokounmpo was not the leading scorer in all four games. He took that honor in the first two matchups, scoring 29 and 32, but Khris Middleton led Milwaukee in the third game with 21 (Giannis sat out with back soreness), and Brook Lopez had game-high honors in the final matchup with 23 (Giannis just missed a triple-double with 19 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists. Antetokounmpo averaged 26.6 points, 15.8 rebounds and 7.8 assists in the three games he played.

TORONTO VS. BROOKLYN: What will Masai say this time? For those who may not remember, Ujiri, the Raptors team president, was fined by the NBA for using a vulgarity during a rally outside the Air Canada Center in April, 2014. What exactly did he say? Well, it rhymes with luck. And speaking of luck, the Nets are going to need plenty of it to defeat a team that is defending its championship and has been getting especially stellar play in the bubble from Fred Van Vleet, who may become the most sought after free agent this offseason. Toronto has had little to play for in the bubble, being virtually locked in on the No. 2 seed, while Brooklyn has been assimilating a slew of new players into its lineup after injuries kept its two best players, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, from participating for most or all of the season. Toronto won the season series 3-1 with victory margins of 8, 19 and 1. The Nets won 101-91 in the final game before the All-Star break.

BOSTON VS. PHILADELPHIA: The teams will be meeting in the postseason for the 21st time, the most in NBA history. The absence of Ben Simmons will undoubtedly be detrimental for the 76ers, who had planned to use him as a power forward with Shake Milton taking over his former spot. Milton will not be the primary ballhandler while also defending Kemba Walker. During the regular season, the Sixers won by 14 on opening night, by 6 on Dec. 12 and by 11 on Jan. 9. Boston’s lone win came Feb. 9 when Jaylen Brown scored 32 points in a 116-95 victory without Walker in the lineup (Joel Embiid shot 1-for-11 for Philly, and Gordan Hayward did the same for Boston). Al Horford will be starting for the 76ers against his former team.

MIAMI VS. INDIANA: The Heat won all three games, and the teams will meet again Friday in the bubble. The victory margins were 1 (at Miami on Dec. 27; 14 (at Indianapolis on Jan. 8; and 22 (in the bubble on Aug. 10). In the most recent game, T.J. Warren of the Pacers came in averaging a bubble-leading 34.8 points but was held to just 12 by Jimmy Butler, who had 19 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and four steals. In the Jan. 8 game, Warren grabbed Butler’s arm on a drive midway through the third quarter, and the reaction by each player resulted in double-technicals. Butler fouled Warren on the next possession, Warren taunted him with some clapping after the call and got ejected. Butler blew kisses his way, Warren offered an obscene gesture in reply and both players got fined. Those two should keep this thing interesting.