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Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks’ 16 game win streak came to an end on Saturday night, in a hard-fought effort against the Philadelphia 76ers in front of a loud crowd at Fiserv Forum. They returned to their winning ways by Sunday night. While the impressive run may be over, going undefeated in the month of February still pushed the Bucks to having the best record in the NBA right now, much less the top of the Eastern Conference standings. As Milwaukee continues to battle with the Boston Celtics for the top playoff spot, everything seems to be clicking on both sides of the floor for the Bucks as they inch closer to the finish line with 18 games left to play.
As the Bucks enter the home stretch on the heels of the big win streak, it may benefit Milwaukee to essentially enter a maintenance mode from here on out. Of the remaining 18 games, only four are against Central Division opponents, and seven are against Western Conference teams. It is very likely that Milwaukee will finish in the top three seeds in the East, and they currently have an 8-4 record in the division, which is used as the second seeding tiebreaker behind head-to-head games. The Bucks will see both Boston and Philadelphia one more time each, back-to-back on March 30 and April 2, so as long as they can win the games that matter most, and focus on keeping their team healthy and the offense rolling, they should be in good shape for the postseason. It’s a great place to be in, as all the pieces for a deep postseason run seem to be falling in place for Milwaukee. Here is what is in the immediate future.
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Tuesday, March 7 at Orlando (6 p.m., Bally Sports Wisconsin)
The final win of the Bucks’ 16-game streak came last week Wednesday, when they handedly knocked off the Orlando Magic, 139-117. It was their second win over Orlando this season, and they’ll look to sweep the season series with the Magic on Tuesday night, when they finish up a two-game road trip in Orlando. Last time around, Milwaukee used the newfound depth in their outside shooting game to sink 26 three-pointers to pull away with ease. Six Bucks players made at least three shots from beyond the arc, including a rare three makes from Giannis. It isn’t the gameplan most nights, but when Milwaukee can get hot shooting from the outside, they spread defenses far enough to allow Giannis to barrel through the lane for easy baskets. That diverse offense let Antetokounmpo lead the way with 31 points, and hopefully a repeat performance is in order to sweep the series.
Thursday, March 9 vs. Brooklyn (7 p.m., Bally Sports Wisconsin)
The Brooklyn Nets also fell to Milwaukee last week as part of a perfect February, and in similar fashion, Giannis led the scoring for Milwaukee with another 30+ point performance. It was 33 for the Greek Freak this time, in his first game back from dealing with the wrist injury that held him out of much of the All-Star Game. Milwaukee is 2-1 against the Nets this season, but following the massive deadline trades that sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix and Kyrie Irving to Dallas, the Nets are a completely different looking team trying to rebuild. A loud crowd at Fiserv Forum may be the difference maker as the Bucks look to close out the season series at home.
Saturday, March 11 at Golden State (7:30 p.m., ABC)
The week ends with another marquee matchup for the Bucks, this time beginning a west coast road trip against the Golden State Warriors on ABC. The Warriors are led by Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, and though Milwaukee won the first of the two-game series at Fiserv Forum, Golden State are two different teams depending on where they play. The Warriors have an impressive 27-7 record at home this season, but that’s counterbalanced by a 7-23 record on the road. This is the type of matchup that NBA fans pine for as a potential championship series, thanks to the star power involved between the two stacked lineups. That being said, though, it will take just about everything that the Bucks have on both sides of the ball in order to hand Golden State just their eighth home loss this season.
