[A note from Matt and Ian: for those of you who are regular visitors to Detroit Bad Boys, you no doubt know of the up-and-coming Milwaukee Bucks blog, Milwaukee Bucks Diary, through our numerous exchanges over the past month. Well, as fate would have it, the Boys in Blue are now matched against those same Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, and we've asked Ty over at Bucks Diary to provide his list of five "keys to the series" for the Bucks. The results were off the script -- which we'd expect from a blog described by those who know as a "Diary of a Mad Bucks Fan" -- and that's exactly the reason we're readers of Bucks Diary. Game on.]
I was graciously invited to guest write a "Bucks Five Keys to Victory" post for Detroit Bad Boys. I was honored to do so. After a lot of thought on the matter, I sat down and started to compose. I finished a couple of my "Keys" ... something about how Joe Smith had to outplay McDyess, how TJ Ford had to continue his productive play… blah blah blah...when all of a sudden I realized the whole concept was ridiculously delusional. (That thought coincided with NBA TV's highlights of the Spurs-Kings massacre, I think). With a couple punches on my keyboard the article was gone… but my intellectual honesty was restored.
Sanity says the Bucks have no chance – NO CHANCE -- under any credible scenario to even make this a competitive series, let alone win the series. No, Bucksfans, I haven't been invited into Piston Nation and gone native, either. I'm just facing reality. The Bucks cannot win. In fact, I can't even conceive how it would happen, let alone believe that it will. So you have nothing to worry about, Bad Boys. There is no way my Bucks will prevail.
The reason for it is pretty simple. The NBA postseason structure absolutely prevents upsets of this magnitude. (Can you even think of an historic NBA upset?) If you defeat another basketball team in four out of seven games played, I contend it was never an upset at all: you had the better team going in. And in this series even Milwaukee Bucks Diary has to admit the Bucks have the much worse team. Much worse.
Even if every member of the Bucks plays up to his abilities (which some of them have not done in many months – Hi, Jamaal), or even if every Buck reaches a level of play higher than any reached all season… the Bucks still cannot defeat the Pistons. It pains me to write it, but its reality. I don't think my boys even have a chance to make any of the games -– with the possible exception of Game Three -– a close outcome. To be honest, I am worried the Bucks will be blown out so badly in this series that it will have a negative impact on next season. That would be disastrous.
[Thanks again to Ty -- be sure to check out Bucks Diary throughout the series for the other side's perspective, and keep an eye out for another guest post by those guys before all the venison is cooked. ]