Milwaukee, Denver wrap up No. 1 seeds in NBA playoffs

The road tothe NBA Finals now goes through Milwaukee. The road out of theWestern Conference goes through Denver, for the first timeever.

And therest of the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket isnow set as well.

The Buckswill have the No. 1 overall seed and home-court advantage for theentirety of their time in the NBA playoffs, after defeating Chicago105-92 on Wednesday night. Milwaukee is now 58-22 this season; noother team in the league can get to more than 57 wins.

“It’s justa credit to the players,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Theplayers have really stepped up. I think they’ve embraced thechallenge. Night in and night out in this league, it’s hard.There’s great opposition. ... To have the best record, it issomething that matters. It is important.”

The No. 1seed in the West was decided Wednesday night as well. The Nuggetswill have home-court throughout the West playoffs, after NewOrleans defeated Memphis in overtime — and took away the last bitof hope the Grizzlies had of catching the Nuggets for the top spotout West.

The Bucksare a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2020. Denver has neverpreviously been a No. 1 seed.

Boston(55-25) will be the No. 2 seed in the East, clinching thatWednesday by topping Toronto. That locks Philadelphia (52-27) intothe No. 3 seed and a likely first-round matchup with Brooklyn. TheNets (44-36) defeated Detroit and now need only one more win or oneMiami loss to clinch the No. 6 seed.

Anotherfirst-round Eastern Conference matchup was set earlier this week;No. 4 Cleveland will meet No. 5 New York. They’ll meet on eitherApril 15 or 16 for Game 1, with the NBA playoffs opening thatweekend.

Stillunclear in the East is the order of the teams headed to the play-intournament, which starts Tuesday.

Miami isthe leader and currently in seventh, ahead of the three otherplay-in bound teams — Atlanta, Toronto and Chicago. The winner ofthe No. 7 vs. No. 8 game on Tuesday (as it stands now, the matchupthere would be Atlanta at Miami) will draw Boston in Round 1; theother team to emerge from the East play-in tournament will openagainst the top-seeded Bucks.

Clinching aseed now gives some teams the chance to rest players before theplayoffs start, and in many cases, that figures to be welcomed. TheBucks won without Giannis Antetokounmpo on Wednesday and with KhrisMiddleton — who has battled injuries for much of the season —sidelined after eight minutes with a recurrence of knee pain.

“Now we getto take a breath,” Budenholzer said. “I have no idea what we’ll doFriday and Sunday.”

Chicagowill be on the road to open the play-in tournament; the Bulls arelocked into No. 10 in the East and will visit whichever teamfinishes ninth — Toronto or Atlanta.

And whenthe playoffs start for the Bucks, they’ll try to defy some recenttrends. There hasn’t been a No. 1 seed to win the East title sinceCleveland in 2016, and no team with the best regular-season recordhas gone on to win the NBA Finals since Golden State in 2017.

“I thinkwe’re ready, well-prepared,” Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said. “Ithink we’ve been through a lot … really excited to be going intothe postseason.”

WHAT’S LEFT

Most of the drama remains in the West, where Denver, Memphis,Sacramento and Phoenix have clinched playoff spots — and eightteams are still in the running for the six remaining playoff orplay-in berths.

Defending champion Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, theLos Angeles Lakers, New Orleans and Minnesota can do no worse thanmake the play-in tournament. Oklahoma City, Dallas and Utah are allvying for play-in berths.

For now, Golden State and the Clippers — both 42-38 — would bein the playoffs, while the Lakers, Pelicans, Timberwolves andThunder would have the play-in spots. The Clippers beat the Lakers(41-39) on Wednesday night.

Dallas helped itself Wednesday by topping Sacramento 123-119.The Mavericks (38-42) remained 11th, but are tied with No. 10Oklahoma City, both teams with two games left. Oklahoma City visitsUtah on Thursday, Dallas plays host to Chicago on Friday, and thenon Sunday the Thunder play host to Memphis while the Mavs entertainSan Antonio.

“At this point in the season, it is what it is in terms of thereality of the standings,” Mavs guard Kyrie Irving said. “We justhave to take it one minute at a time.”

New Orleans’ win assured the Pelicans of no worse than a play-inberth.

“Is this crazy or what?” Pelicans broadcaster Joel Meyers musedafter New Orleans’ overtime win.

Out West, expect the crazy to continue all the way through theregular-season finales on Sunday.