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Message: [QUOTE="nelsonmuntz, post: 3983486, member: 833"] Nets vs. Bucks should be a great series. It is a relatively rare instance where each teams' best players will be going head to head. Antetokounmpo vs. Durant, Middleton vs. Harden, Holiday vs. Irving. The Bucks have the advantage in all three matchups athletically in part because of the relative age of the players, but the Nets trio is very skilled. Harden is a better shooter than Middleton and Durant is much better from outside than Giannis. I just don't like Kyrie, and don't think he is a superstar. He is a very talented, very selfish player and I think he is going to cost the Nets a couple of games. Lopez and Connaughton are good 4th and 5th starters for the Bucks. Lopez can still take over a game. While he is 33, he has played on bad teams that didn't go deep in the playoffs for most of his career so he doesn't have the mileage on his body of a typical 33 year old NBA big man. For the Nets, I like Joe Harris although it feels like the Big 3 forget about him sometimes. Griffin only plays about half the game. He has slowed down quite a bit in the last year. The Bucks have a big advantage on the bench. Portis, Tucker and Forbes are great complementary players. The Bucks will use PJ Tucker a lot on Harden and Durant to avoid foul trouble. Portis is strong on both ends and can provide a lot of minutes. Forbes' shooting has been insane, and is an X factor in the series. Bruce Brown and Shamet are basically just warm bodies on the court for the Nets. I don't know if Green is coming back or not. I don't think the fact that the Nets trio averaged 85.2 points per game in the first round is a positive. If the Nets can't spread the shots against the Celtics, they are going to have trouble doing it against the Bucks. The Bucks need to watch fouls, especially with Giannis. While the Nets are one of the best offenses in history, I am not sure how that will translate into a playoff series. This isn't running up the score in a mid-January game against the Bulls. I also wonder if the Nets have a great offense or just a few great offensive players. The Bucks play very good defense, so the Nets are going to have a hard time winning with 1-on-1 play. On the other end of the court, the Nets defense is really bad for a team that has designs on a championship. I think the Nets have the coaching advantage Nash and D'Antoni may not be as strong with the X's and O's as Budenholtzer, but they don't have Budenholtzer's track record of choking in playoff series. I like the Bucks in this series, but it is going to be a battle. The Bucks have been playing at a high level as a team for a few years, and Holiday will be an upgrade on Bledsoe as the Bucks go deeper into the playoffs. Ultimately though, I just don't see a team with a defense as bad as Brooklyn's beating another top team like the Bucks in a 7 game series. [/QUOTE]

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