Milwaukee Bucks facing opportunity to consolidate East’s top spot early on

Having hit the front in the Eastern Conference standings, the Milwaukee Bucks now have a great opportunity to make that spot their own.

When the Milwaukee Bucks started the season at 2-2 through four games, there was an undoubted sense of anxiety that swept through the fanbase.

Over the 12 games that have followed, the Bucks have gone 11-1 over a difficult, road-heavy stretch in the schedule, and they have done so without Khris Middleton for a significant spell as he’s currently nursing a thigh injury.

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As a result, the Bucks are back at the top of the Eastern Conference standings, where they spent close to the entirety of last season.

That leaves Milwaukee with a 1.5 game lead over the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Toronto Raptors — three teams that seem to be dominating the wider early season discussion of the Eastern Conference. The Bucks are also two games up on the Philadelphia 76ers; i.e. the team that dominated the offseason Eastern Conference discourse.

Given the comparative challenges facing those teams over the early stages of the campaign, there’s every reason to be impressed by where the Bucks find themselves, even if their play hasn’t always been perfect.

As things stand, the Bucks are riding a seven-game winning streak, which leaves them tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the league’s longest active streak and sharing the unofficial title of hottest team in the NBA.

That bodes well when looking ahead as the Bucks are now facing a particularly friendly stretch of their season.

Only two of Milwaukee’s next 10 games come against teams that currently hold above .500 records, with those matchups being home clashes with the Utah Jazz and LA Clippers.

Speaking of home, only three Bucks games during that spell will take place away from Fiserv Forum, and even those particular clashes leave little to be feared. With road matchups against the Cleveland Cavaliers (5-11), Detroit Pistons (5-11), and Memphis Grizzlies (5-10), the Bucks can safely have their eyes set on further bolstering their stellar 8-2 road record.

With all of that taken into account, the Bucks are facing a real opportunity to kick on and potentially even open up something of a lead at the top of the East. At the very least, if they can take advantage of a favorable spell, Milwaukee should be able to gain a degree of separation from some of the Conference’s chasing pack.

In doing so, the Bucks’ regular season goals could quickly crystalize, much as was the case last year when the race for the no.1 seed became a double-header between the Bucks and Raptors.

Considering the immense pressure facing Milwaukee this season, that certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing. In a best case scenario, perhaps the early wins could pay off in again buying some more time for rest later in the year.

So far the Bucks have been taking care of business, and if they can continue to do that over this upcoming stretch, those kind of luxuries may be something they’ll again be able to give thought to come March and April.