Learning from last season’s playoff collapse
As the Bucks usher in a new season that is filled with the highest of hopes, it’s only fitting to look at how last season ended for them in the Great White North.
That stinging feeling that came about in the immediate aftermath of the Bucks’ Conference Finals collapse has only strengthened over the course of a long offseason. It was perhaps Bucks All-Star swingman Khris Middleton who put it best when discussing what he has learned from stewing on the end of his and the team’s season last year during his Media Day session last month:
"“It’s never over until you actually complete it. To go back and think about that series, the plays that they made, the winning plays, the desperation that they played with at times, and that we didn’t. It’s something we’ve got to continue to do, we had it for most of the season and that series, but it’s got to be for the whole season, 48 minutes a game, and that’s how they played.”"
Given that the Bucks are setting the table for a similar run in hopes of coming out of the East, reflecting on the opportunity they squandered last year when up 2-0 on the Raptors through the first two games in the Conference Finals is one way for them to move forward.
It’ll be another thing to watch how this year’s Bucks executes under great pressure, that is if they’re able to reach the same heights as they did last season.