Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are the favorites to come out of the East. Reigning MVP Giannis is surrounded by excellent players like Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe, and Brook Lopez, who could give any team trouble on any night.
The Bucks clinched the first seed with a league-best 56-17 record. They faced off against the eighth seeded Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs. To everyone’s surprise, Nikola Vucevic led the Orlando Magic to defeat the Bucks in game 1.
Vucevic scored 35 points on an efficient 15-24 shooting night. Along with his scoring outburst, he also disrupted the Bucks’ offense by grabbing 13 boards and a steal. While the Magic team worked like a well-oiled machine on the court, the Bucks struggled a lot. Ultimately, that led to the Magic taking game 1 with a score of 122-110.
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The biggest factor that contributed in the loss was a poor shooting display from the charity stripe. The Bucks shot a meager 64.3% from the line, while Orlando shot 94.7. There was only one positive aspect from this match for the Bucks was that Giannis still dominated in his usual fashion.
Twitter Erupts as Magic Defeat the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1
Analysts and fans took to Twitter after the match to comment on the Bucks’ poor performance against an eighth seeded team.
As I keep saying, I just can't quite buy into Giannis and the Bucks.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) August 18, 2020
Well, didn't see that one coming. Magic got everything there to get from the shorthanded rotation. Tremendous effort.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) August 18, 2020
Guarantees in life:
Death
Taxes
Orlando Magic winning Game 1— Top Ball Coverage (@TopBallCoverage) August 18, 2020
Giannis after dropping 31/17/7 and losing to the Magic pic.twitter.com/m9t0nXYn59
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 18, 2020
Dominant performance by Nikola Vucevic, as the Magic control Game 1 and beat the Bucks, 122-110. Milwaukee will hope this loss has the same long-term outcome as Toronto losing to Orlando to open last year's playoffs — only to go on and win the championship.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) August 18, 2020
The Bucks lost to the Magic? pic.twitter.com/gBq9tbo7pa
— LAKERFANATICS (@LAKERFANATICS) August 18, 2020
Khris Middleton singing to Giannis in the locker room after his game 1 performance pic.twitter.com/lELgY68RYS
— Slaydro (@TheTrackMamba) August 18, 2020
Magic really did it.
Orlando takes down the Bucks to lead the series 1-0
Vuc:
33 PTS | 13 REBT-Ross:
18 PTS | 6 REBFultz:
15 PTS | 6 AST pic.twitter.com/FhCGomT6qh— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 18, 2020
The Magic defeat the Bucks 122-110 in Game 1 😳 pic.twitter.com/dfpexwAFiv
— ESPN (@espn) August 18, 2020
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Nikola Vucevic in today's win vs Bucks:
35 PTS
13 REB
15-24 FG
5-8 3PHe's the first Magic player with a 35/10 game in the playoffs since Dwight Howard in 2011. pic.twitter.com/RnzuyWJu3b
— StatMuse (@statmuse) August 18, 2020
There’s some dude out there who just lost a fortune on the Magic upsetting the Bucks
— Troydan (@Troydan) August 18, 2020
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