One year ago today, the Bucks lost Game 7 to the Hawks. At the time, you would not have been reckless to think that Milwaukee, which played the series without its best player and still almost came out on top, was primed to leap past Atlanta. Particularly after Atlanta was then immediately destroyed by Orlando over the course of a four-game sweep in the second round. An offseason in which the Bucks appeared to shore up weaknesses while the Hawks were busy being roundly maligned for paying Joe Johnson max money and otherwise staying very quiet reinforced the idea that the Bucks were on the upswing while the Hawks would be stuck as a harmless mid-level playoff team, at best.
Today, Johnson won Game 1 for Atlanta against the number one overall seed in the playoffs in Chicago, dropping 34 points and making all five of his threes (following up on a first-round series win against Orlando). After last season, it was nice that we could logically think that the Bucks could win 50 games. After this season, it's nice to be reminded that we really never know what to think.
Filed under: