Linkage
2009/2010 NBA Season
vs.
50-31 (24-16 home)
45-36 (17-23 road)
April 14, 2010
TD Garden
7:00 PM
Radio: 620 WTMJ TV: FSN Wisconsin
Probable starters:
Rajon Rondo
PG
Brandon Jennings
Michael Finley
SG
John Salmons
Marquis Daniels
SF
Carlos Delfino
Glen Davis
PF
Luc Mbah a Moute
Rasheed Wallace
C
Kurt Thomas
(15th) 107.7 - OFFENSE - 104.7 (23rd)
(4th) 103.5 - DEFENSE - 103.0 (2nd)
(20th) 91.7 - PACE - 91.9 (19th)
CelticsBlog / Celtics Hub / Red's Army / Loy's Place
Head-to-head: Down and up and down and...
Milwaukee has felt the lowest of lows and highest of highs against Boston this season. They dropped the first matchup 98-89 in Boston in early December, not in itself a terrible result, but it was the ninth loss in ten games for the Bucks. Coincidentally, December was the team's only losing month of the year. By the next time these two met, Milwaukee was on its way to a tenth win in eleven games with a rousing 86-84 win at the BC barely more than a month ago. But just the other day, the Bucks lost a lot of steam dropping a 105-90 decision at home.
Boston #4 Milwaukee #?
The Celtics are locked into the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference after losing in Chicago (with Kevin Garnett) last night. You'll recall that the Bogut-less Bucks clinched a playoff spot by winning in Chicago exactly one week ago. So to recap: The Bucks beat the Bulls in Chicago, the Celtics beat the Bucks in Milwaukee, and the Bulls beat the Celtics in Chicago. Makes sense.
A different type of Chicago team showed up last night though, as Derrick Rose (career-high 39 points) and Kirk Hinrich (30 points) played some loopy good hoops. The Bulls will clinch with a win or Raptors loss tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, on the final night of the regular season the Bucks sit in sixth place, one game behind the Heat. Since Milwaukee holds the tiebreaker, they will leapfrog Miami for fifth place if they win in Boston and Miami loses at home to New Jersey. The Nets are what you might call road-weary (4-36 away), so don't count on the Bucks to move up even if they do manage a win tonight in Beantown. (UPDATE: Ira Winderman expects the Heat will be resting Wade, O'Neal and Haslem tonight, in part because of nagging injuries. But the Heat may also be considering their 3-1 record against Atlanta, as well as looking to avoid Cleveland's half of the East bracket).
Of course, the Celtics probably prefer to face the Bucks, so they wouldn't be terribly upset to lose this one. Then again, once it's on it's on and these teams aren't quite BFF's, so don't expect Boston to just lie down in the regular season finale in front of the home faithful.
Playoff scenarios! More fun than lottery scenarios.