MILWAUKEE (AP) Khris Middleton might not have been available for the Eastern Conference finals even if the Milwaukee Bucks had made it that far.

The three-time All-Star missed the Bucks' last 10 games after spraining the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in Game 2 of a first-round series with the Chicago Bulls. Middleton sat out Milwaukee's entire second-round series with the Boston Celtics, who beat the Bucks in seven games and open the conference finals Tuesday in Miami.

"I don't know if I would have been ready for tomorrow," Middleton said Monday. "I don't know if I would have been ready if it went to Game 7. It was almost a day-by-day thing, just waking up and seeing how I felt, seeing if there's swelling in there, and there's a point where you have to make sure the ligament's completely healed."