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.
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.
