Bucks know when they'll play, but not who in Eastern Finals
With Jimmy Butler leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 112-101 win against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, it sets up a Game 7 and solidifies the dates for the Conference Finals.
While the Milwaukee Bucks wait to see who they’ll play, they now know when — 7 p.m. Wednesday at home.
Bucks coverage will continue that night on WKTY 96.7 FM / 580 AM
Game 7 will be decided at 6 p.m. Sunday in Toronto. The Sixers did win Game 2 of this series on the road, 94-89, in an ugly contest in which neither team shot over 40 percent from the field.
The Bucks are 2-1 against Philadelphia this season, losing at home March 17 in a game where Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 52. Two weeks later the 24-year-old scored 45 in a 128-122 win at Philly.
Milwaukee is 3-1 against Toronto this season. Kawhi Leonard played in all but the first of those games — a Bucks win — but Marc Gasol didn’t play in any.
The Raptors are 1-2 against the Bucks with Leonard — the lone win came in Milwaukee, where Leonard and Siakam both scored 30 on 19-for-31 shooting, while Antetokounmpo had 43 points, 18 rebounds.
The 34-year-old Gasol has played the Bucks twice this season when he was on the Memphis Grizzlies, going 1-1 on a team that was 21-32 with him, before being traded.
It’s hard to gauge Gasol’s success against the Bucks, however. In the win, he shot 10 of 18 from the field and 6-for-12 from deep, scoring 29 points, as the Grizzlies won 116-113 in Milwaukee.
That Nov. 14 win also came in the midst of one of the hottest starts in the NBA, and nobody knew how Memphis opened the season 12-5. That game also kicked off a five-game winning streak for the Grizzlies.
It went south fast right after that and judging Gasol’s performance from there out wouldn’t be accurate.