BOSTON -- These Eastern Conference semifinals between the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks would be the first test of whether the Bucks were real. Skeptics wondered whether a regular-season juggernaut that had never won a playoff series could rise to the occasion against a Boston team that came within a game of the Finals last year -- and reintegrated a superstar point guard who hit one of the greatest clutch shots in NBA history to cinch the 2016 Finals.
Boston's blowout win in Game 1, 123-102, was catnip for Milwaukee skeptics. The Bucks heard it.