You can only do so many deep dives. How about something dumb and shallow?
To say the least, I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to schedules. For the sports I follow, unveiling days are one of the highlights of the season itself. Seeing a fresh new slate of games is like Christmas morning, waking up to tons of presents under the tree. Some gifts may end up being disappointing, others can be gems, but unwrapping everything to see what you received is apart of the fun.
Speaking of Christmas…
The first announced matchup in the Bucks 2022-23 schedule was for Christmas Day, against the Cetlics in Boston. And with a 5 ET tip-off time, it doesn’t overlap with the Packers this time around! After 3 years, the Bucks have finally graduated past the “Dave Pasch 2:30 ET game.”
After a long, physical, warlike 7-game series last spring, a rematch between 2 teams that despise each other doesn’t exactly exude the holiday spirit. As a fan, the last thing I wanted to spend my Christmas doing was getting emotionally wrapped up in a battle with a rival I’m tired of seeing. Losing on Christmas isn’t fun, but a loss here would leave a bitter taste for weeks.
One thing I can’t say is that it won’t be entertaining. These two teams squared off last Christmas, and in a game where the Bucks completed a 19-point comeback, it was one of the more memorable games of the year. And that was before the postseason bad blood. There’s a reason the NBA chose to run it back.
This will be the first of 3 matchups featuring the last 2 eastern conference champions. All will be on national tv, with one on March 30. The other, continuing the trend of ironic holiday games, will be on Valentine’s Day.
Some may say…
After the Celtics, the Sixers pose the biggest threat to the Bucks in the east. While that’s up for debate, what’s not is that they’re the Bucks’ opponent to open the season, on October 20.
Mid-October last year was one filled with good feelings, reminiscing, and handed out jewelry, a luxury the Bucks won’t have this year. They won’t even get to open the national season, instead having to wait 2 days, before debuting in a hostile Philadelphia.
The Bucks only saw the Embiid/Harden Sixers once last season (albeit in a classic), so it still does carry some fresh energy to it. After 2nd round flameouts, both teams enter having something to prove, with preseason expectations sky high. Overall, it adds up to the formula of an intriguing early season game.
Moreover, Giannis and Embiid showdowns are always competitive, and arguably the most entertaining of Giannis’ personal rivalries. These games seem to bring out the best in each other, with both dropping 40-pieces on the other in each head-to-head in 2022. Both finished top 3 in MVP voting last season, so one can only imagine the stakes these matchups will have on an award race. Depending on how the league shakes out, the final one, a Saturday primetime game on March 4, could even go as far as deciding a winner.
A rivalry renewed…
Basketball fans that don’t follow either team closely may not see it, but Bucks-Heat is a cemented rivalry. It’s under the radar (having only 1/4 games on national tv last season certainly doesn’t help), and both have other primary enemies at the moment, but it still is hotly contested. Back-to-back playoff series, and recurrently great battles will do that.
It’s a rivalry of situational similarities and differences.
Miami is (in the NBA, where it’s so important) a large market team that can consistently field a contender through attracting big name free agents; Milwaukee isn’t. Milwaukee is (in the NBA, where it’s so important) built around a generational superstar that can consistently keep the team a contender for years to come; Miami isn’t.
Both feel they’re underrated nationally, but have achieved resembling amounts of success recently.
These teams would make anyone longing for 90’s basketball shed a tier of joy, seeing how scrappy, defensive-minded, and unified they remain. These fanbases would make anyone longing for pettiness shed a tier of joy, as Heat fans spam Bucks pages with Giannis jersey swaps, and Bucks fans spam Heat pages with the Jimmy Butler/Bryn Forbes playoff graphics.
It’s only fitting then that this matchup finally gets a headline game on ABC, on January 14. Today, in the age of streaming, the difference in access between a game on basic cable vs. over-the-air television is trivial; you could say wanting one is petty. Unless of course, you live in the 90’s, and pick up signals with an antenna on your roof.
Potential Finals previews…
The Bucks are championship contenders, and so any matchups with elite teams from the west will be tied along in a “future finals” storyline. Don’t lie though, it is kind of fun to endulge the idea of June series with some of these opponents. Specifically with the finals, you can look ahead to significant games against teams you don’t compulsively hate, focusing on the actual hoops.
Dallas Mavericks, November 27/December 9. We won’t get another late season ABC game with them this year, but two national tv spots will suffice. At one point it was just nice to see Luka vs Giannis, but after a 50+ win season from Dallas, culminating in a trip to the WCF, they’ve emerged as serious threats.
We never got to see Kobe vs LeBron battle under the Finals lights, but we may have a legitimate chance at seeing the faces of this generation do so. The offense had always been there, but building a firm defense with old friend/foe Jason Kidd propelled them to the next level. Regardless, Dallas always manages to start the season slow, so we may not see the best version of them for either matchup. As soon as we aren’t robbed of it on paper, and actually get to see both superstars active (which wasn’t the case for one matchup last year).
Golden State Warriors, December 13/March 11. They are the gold standard in basketball, the team that everyone aims to be compared to. A Finals featuring the last 2 NBA champions have only happened 5 times in NBA history, so a potential series would be historic.
For many fans, a Bucks-Warriors series would be a dream matchup. Generational superstars, elite all-stars, quality role players, all foiling each other in a two-way back-and-forth for the ages. The regular season matchups always leave people wondering what could be, but no collision course had ever occurred despite their overlapping success.
At the very least we’ll get to wonder again, with a mid-season matchup in Milwaukee, and a Saturday night March showdown in the bay, just like last year. Let’s face it though. If the Bucks ever get back, this’ll most likely be the team they’ll see. Now that their dynasty has been reignited, it probably will outlive us all.
Memphis Grizzlies, December 15/April 7. The meteoric rise of Ja Morant and the Grizzlies last season has drawn some comparisons to a young Giannis leading an up-and-coming Bucks team into title contention. 56 wins this past season for Memphis (tied for the most in their franchise history), and only just getting started. Their primarily young core, now with a taste of the playoffs, are hungry, and continuing to improve.
The leap Memphis took was rewarded with 28 scheduled national tv games (up from 11 last year), including adding both Bucks games. A series between these teams, with superstars who’ve embraced their markets like the last generation hasn’t, would almost be validating to watch. Plus it would be fun to see Budeholzer go up against a protege.
Los Angeles Clippers, February 2/February 10. Looking at the actual results, you would think a Bucks-Clippers finals is not something based in reality. Thankfully, this is a section full of hypotheticals, so we can talk about the fully-healthy Clippers, a team theoretically on the level of the 1996 Bulls and 2017 Warriors combined.
They have some great names making up their depth. They should have the return of 2 superstars. Giannis deserves a chance of a redemption series against Kawhi, to put the 2019 ECF (that for some reason is still randomly brought up) narratives to bed.
In a landscape always talking about the Warriors, Lakers, and Celtics of the world, emphasizing the Curry’s, LeBron’s, and Durant’s of the world, it would be the perfect anti-establishment finals, one that remains intriguing to most fans but slightly irks the national media. After all, no superstars have been less willing to embrace the soap opera aspect of basketball like Giannis and Kawhi.
Can it happen? Sure, but both teams need to stay healthy. Can the Clippers stay healthy for the 8-day stretch where we see them twice?
Phoenix Suns, February 26/March 14. Remember those fun 2 weeks in July last year? Imagine doing that again.
Yes, both teams are in tough spots after game 7 embarrassments, but imagine the redemption arc if both get back to see each other. Neither are completely dead in the water, bringing back their cores for another season.
You’re telling me, after the classics these teams made together, you wouldn’t want to see part 2? At the very least, we have to see Ayton try to guard Giannis again.
Other fun matchups…
Minnesota Timberwolves (first matchup November 4) Might be a little premature to put them in the “Finals previews tier,” but it could be the case very soon. No team transformed more than Minnesota this past offseason, adding multi-time DPOY Rudy Gobert to a developing core. Last season, Anthony Edwards brought the excitement back to a city longing for a run of basketball success, so one can only imagine the energy in the building when the Bucks come to town early in the season, facing a team gauging their potential.
Cleveland Cavaliers (first matchup November 16) If there’s one team I believe can challenge the Bucks’ hold of the Central division, it’s Cleveland. They’ve built excellently around all-star Darius Garland, surrounding him with an elite defense. Even in just two full-strength matchups last season, the Cavs seem to get the upper hand, finding a way to neutralize Giannis and the Bucks offense well. Scariest of all, they have time on their side.
Denver Nuggets (first matchup January 25) The last 2 (4 if you count by season) MVPs square off, do I even need to say anything else?
(Ok I do, because for some reason, NEITHER game is on national tv. Imagine having Duncan and Shaq face off at the height of their primes, and choosing to air Mavericks/Wizards instead because we need to know “who won the Juwan Howard/Christian Laettner trade?” That’s what the NBA’s decided to do, airing Nets-Sixers instead (headling their newly created “rivalry week,” because Ben Simmons’ drama definitely translates to good basketball. Hopefully it can compensate for what may become the hollowed-out musk of a contender.)
Finally…
I’ve said it before, but once again; take it all in. It’s another season where more than 1/3 of Bucks games will be on national tv, where our team will be given the leading spotlight. These are the good times, so sit back, and enjoy this perk of the Giannis era while it lasts, because it may not happen again. As the Spurs (who, in a rebuild, look ahead to their sole national tv game this season) can attest to, nothing lasts forever.
We aren’t handed games in the cellar like the Lakers and Knicks are.