Unlike his FOX Sports 1 colleague Nick Wright, Colin Cowherd liked the Boston Celtics’ chances of advancing to the Eastern Conference finals before the second round of the NBA playoffs even got underway.
His prediction is looking pretty good thus far.
Prior to Game 1 between the Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, Cowherd liked Boston’s chances of winning the best-of-seven series due to its advantage in playoff experience. Low and behold, Kyrie Irving and Al Horford were the Celtics’ two best players in their series-opening rout of the Bucks.
During Tuesday’s edition of “The Herd” on FS1, Cowherd tacked on another reason why he believes Boston will get past Milwaukee. Despite the Bucks’ roster being relatively deep, Cowherd believes it lacks something that’s essential to reaching the NBA Finals.
"Do you know what Jordan’s record was in the playoffs before Scottie Pippen arrived? 1-9… The Bucks 2nd best player is Khris Middleton… If he’s your number 2… you’re not winning the title and I don’t think you’re winning this series." — @ColinCowherd pic.twitter.com/li4r24Q2VD
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) April 29, 2019
This Bucks team has shades of the 2014-15 Hawks, whose good-but-not-great cast of role players helped Atlanta corral the No. 1 seed. Those Hawks were strong enough to reach the Eastern Conference finals, but they ultimately were steamrolled by a Cleveland Cavaliers team that was far more talented and really turned things on in the postseason. Similar to that dynamic, the Bucks had a far better regular season than the Celtics, but Boston appears to finally be making the most of its loaded roster.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is much better than any player on that Hawks team, but the supporting casts are pretty on par. And unless the Greek Freak plays like an MVP on a nightly basis, they might suffer similar exits.
