Bucks' slide is leading to major impact on playoff seeding

Milwaukee dropped to 40-34 after Friday's 145-124 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, which put them firmly in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. The team is still four games ahead of the Hawks with eight games to play, probably an insurmountable lead, but Atlanta would have the tiebreaker after winning the season series over Milwaukee, 3-2.

More troubling is their slide into sixth. The Bucks are on track to face the third-place New York Knicks in the first round. During the regular season, the Knicks went 3-0 against the Bucks, winning 22 and then 34 points in their first two meetings. Friday, despite playing without All-Star Jalen Brunson and back guards Deuce McBride and Cameron Payne, the Knicks led for all but four minutes of a 116-107 win.

Milwaukee matches up poorly with the Knicks and their talented wing players. It hasn't beaten any of the top three teams in the Eastern Conference this season, going 0-3 against the Boston Celtics and 0-4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The team's best hope is climbing to fourth or fifth place and a matchup with the Indiana Pacers or Detroit Pistons.

That's what makes the last two games of the season crucial for Milwaukee. It faces the Pistons in a home-and-home series to close out the season. The Bucks beat the Pistons twice in the first 20 games of 2024-25, but Detroit has been a much better team since late December.

The silver lining for Milwaukee? They have a much easier schedule than Detroit down the stretch, with one game against the Philadelphia 76ers and two against the New Orleans Pelicans.

With Damian Lillard, who is out indefinitely, the Bucks might be doomed in the playoffs anyway. But to give themselves a chance, even with Lillard, the Bucks need to climb into fifth place. Otherwise, a fourth straight first-round exit could be inevitable.