Skip Bayless isn’t completely backtracking on his Eastern Conference semifinals prediction but he might be starting to feel a little less confident in his initial take.
The “First Take” co-host picked the Boston Celtics to take down the Milwaukee Bucks in six games prior to the start of their second-round NBA playoff series. Bayless is sticking to that prediction, even though he admitted Wednesday morning that he was “horrified” by the Bucks’ Game 2 performance.
Milwaukee knocked down 20 (!) 3-pointers in its beatdown of Boston on Tuesday night. While it’s seemingly impossible to expect the Bucks to post that number of made treys on a nightly basis, Bayless fears what could happen if they continue to shoot the lights out of the gym.
"Jayson Tatum is missing in action. What has happened to him? What happened to Mamba Mentality? He looks more like a garden snake to me." — @RealSkipBayless pic.twitter.com/LsK4kLZXQG
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) May 1, 2019
The Eastern Conference’s top-seeded team is awfully tough to beat when it’s thriving from beyond the arc. This was often the case during the regular season, which saw Milwaukee post a 37.6 3-point percentage, the fourth-highest mark in the league. But for what it’s worth, the Celtics ranked second at 39.5 percent.
The bottom line is, Boston was flat-out bad in Game 2, which just might have been Kyrie Irving’s worst performance in a Celtics uniform. And given how they performed in Game 1, there really shouldn’t be too much concern for the C’s, even after getting their doors blown off.
The best-of-seven series will resume Friday night at TD Garden when the sides meet for Game 3.
