DETROIT -- The Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers will match up in the first round of the NBA playoffs for the second consecutive season.
All the Eastern Conference playoff seeds were secured Friday night, as the Bucks wrapped up the No. 5 spot with a 125-119 victory over the Detroit Pistons, while Indiana lost 129-115 to the Orlando Magic, snapping the Pacers' six-game win streak and locking them into the No. 4 seed.
It sets up a rematch from last season, when the Pacers defeated the Bucks in six games during their first-round series. Indiana dominated Milwaukee throughout 2023-24, going 8-3 in their 11 meetings, including the postseason.
The Bucks responded by winning three of their four games against the Pacers this season. Milwaukee also appears likely to have a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo for the postseason after a calf strain kept the two-time MVP from playing in any games during last season's playoff series.
"They've got two of the best players in the world," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said of the Bucks. "We're all too familiar with how lethal they are as a team. They've gotten better this year. They've got more depth. They've got more shooting."
The Pacers have been one of the NBA's strongest teams since Jan. 1. At 33-14, they have the fourth-best record in that span.
However, Antetokounmpo enters the playoffs putting up some of his best production of the season, averaging 31.8 points, 12.0 rebounds and 11.8 assists in his past six games.
"It's huge," Bucks coach Doc Rivers said before Friday's game about having Antetokounmpo healthy. "Giannis in the last three playoffs -- am I correct? -- has not played for the most part. So he wants to be healthy. I think everyone in this room would agree we're a better team when Giannis is healthy."
The Bucks are entering the series uncertain, however, about the status of star guard Damian Lillard, who missed his 13th straight game Friday with blood clots in his right calf.
Lillard has been on blood thinners, which have stabilized the clotting. That has made Rivers optimistic about Lillard's potential return for the playoffs, but the team won't know for certain until the clotting is completely gone.
Despite Lillard's absence, the Bucks have rallied to win seven straight games.
"We needed to go on a run," Rivers said after Friday's game. "We'd come back from that long road trip. ... We were still trying to figure it out, what lineups [we would have] without Dame and all that. But we have found ourselves, and we're playing terrific basketball. We're playing together. Giannis is trusting all his teammates. Him and Scoot [Kevin Porter Jr.] are starting to really have some chemistry together. We're doing a lot of things. There were so many individual great efforts."