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The Milwaukee Bucks averted disaster Tuesday night. Thanks to their 115-92 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of their first-round series in the 2024 NBA Playoffs, Doc Rivers and his squad are still alive in the postseason with a chance to force Game 7 with another win.
With another do-or-die coming up for the Bucks, the focus on injured stars Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo gets even more amplified. At the moment, there is no certain date when either Lillard or Antetokounmpo will be able to return to action. Even Rivers has no concrete idea about it but he said he feels that it’s going to happen sooner than later.
“I don’t know how to answer that. I know I hope. I think they’re very, very, very close,” Rivers said after the Bucks’ 115-92 win in Game 4 when asked about the statuses of Milwaukee’s power duo (h/t Eric Nehm of The Athletic).
The Pacers still have the series lead with three wins already in the bag, but the Bucks have momentum. While Milwaukee showed in Game 5 that it can get the job done minus Dame Time and the Greek Freak, the Bucks will always have a drastically higher floor and ceiling when both stars are healthy and in uniform.
Antekounmpo has yet to see action in the 2024 NBA Playoffs because of a calf issue, while Lillard missed the last two Bucks games due to an Achilles injury he suffered back in Game 3 on the road. Lillard is still the Bucks’ leading scorer in the playoffs with 32.3 points to his name, but he’s also shooting just 41.5 percent from the field in the series.
The Bucks were able to buy Lillard and Antetokounmpo some more time to recover from their respective injuries by crushing Indiana in Game 4, thanks to a concerted effort that was led by the pair of Khris Middleton and Bobby Portis. Middleton had 29 points in Game 5 with four 3-pointers, 12 rebounds, and five assists, while Portis started and fired 29 points as well. Portis went 14/24 from the field with 10 rebounds, and assist, and a steal. Another player who seriously stepped up for Milwaukee amid the absences of the team’s top two stars was Malik Beasley, with the former Florida State Seminoles star chipping in 18 points on 7/11 shooting from the floor.
Can the Bucks survive another game without Lillard and Antetokounmpo?
Lillard’s and Antetokounpo’s injuries have changed the complexion of the Pacers-Bucks series. This was supposed to be a series dominated by Milwaukee, which looked like it when the Bucks won Game 1 by a large margin. But Indiana has proven to be a tough customer for Milwaukee.
Notwithstanding the Bucks’ Game 5 win, Milwaukee is still in deep trouble. For one, Game 6 will take place back in Indiana. There is also the question of whether guys like Portis and Beasley would be able to sustain the form they had in Game 5. Plus Middleton and Beverley may not still be at 100% after entering Game 5 with injury designations.
The instant cure for the Bucks’ malaise is both Lillar and Antetokounmpo returning in Game 6, but that’s not an easy call to make for either player. In any case, the Bucks have to prepare for Thursday’s game as though both stars will not play and hope that the healthy bodies on their roster will come out firing on all cylinders again.
More must-reads:
- Timberwolves chew up Nuggets to force Game 7
- Cavaliers could be forced to choose between star guard pairing
- The 'Most career 40-point playoff games' quiz
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