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Milwaukee Bucks: Starting strong a regular occurrence throughout 2019-20 season

By Jordan Treske

BROOKLYN, NY - JANUARY 18: Brook Lopez #11, and Khris Middleton #22 of the Milwaukee Bucks hi-five each other during the game against the Brooklyn Nets on January 18, 2020 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2020 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
BROOKLYN, NY - JANUARY 18: Brook Lopez #11, and Khris Middleton #22 of the Milwaukee Bucks hi-five each other during the game against the Brooklyn Nets on January 18, 2020 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2020 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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No team has gotten off to better starts this season than the Milwaukee Bucks and we dive into how setting the tone early has helped them to get out to big early leads throughout the year.

Having now passed the halfway mark of the 2019-20 season, the Milwaukee Bucks’ flat-out dominance has properly come into focus, if that wasn’t the case already.

There are plenty of marks to point to, whether it’s their league-leading 39-6 record, their +12.6 point differential or their +12.0 net rating, that all point to how overwhelming this year’s Bucks team has been under reigning NBA Coach of the Year, Mike Budenholzer.

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This all isn’t new to what the Bucks have been under Budenholzer and his staff, but the staggering swiftness with which they have blitzed through opposing teams around the league has made the Bucks an even more imposing threat than they were last season, remarkably.

And a key ingredient, in a long line of many, behind the Bucks’ superiority has been getting down to work right away to set the tone for their performances.

Case in point, the Bucks have the highest net rating of any team in the league for first quarters at +18.6 points per 100 possessions. By raw plus-minus numbers, the Bucks are a +227 during their first quarters through their 45 games, which equates to 540 minutes. Standing behind the Bucks in that regard are the Miami Heat, who are a +159 in their first quarters, making for a difference of 68 points between the top two teams.

In the 31 games the Bucks have led their opponents at the end of the first quarter, they hold a 29-2 record. And those two losses came early in the season when they suffered uncharacteristic second half meltdowns to both the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics during the first week of the season.

It’s quite the difference to how last season’s Bucks squad started off their games during their 60-win campaign as they held a +6.2 net rating during first quarters (984 minutes), good for eighth in the league. That equated to a +149 when boiled down to raw plus-minus, which was tied for sixth along with the 42-win Orlando Magic.

With all of this in mind, the question can only be asked as to how the Bucks are so vastly improved and have worked on getting out to more consistent starts throughout this season.

Certainly, the Bucks having their starting unit out on the floor has been a huge help as their regular starting lineup has the second-highest net rating (+19.4 points per 100 possessions) of five-man units that have played over 200 minutes at this point in the season.

Of course, with the injuries to starters such as Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton, the Bucks have had to rely on players like Donte DiVincenzo and Ersan Ilyasova to fill in for the absences they’ve had within their starting lineup at various stretches throughout the year.

And some of those makeshift lineups have been able to perform near the same level of productivity as the Bucks’ starting uni, such as inserting DiVincenzo in Middleton’s spot alongside the team’s four other regular starters. That configuration has a +13.5 net rating across 112 minutes, which includes the 7-0 stretch when the Bucks were without their All-Star swingman.

But it goes beyond the Bucks’ starters as Budenholzer’s proclivity to roll out all-bench lineups has been a fixture during the latter half of first quarters. In recent instances, the Bucks’ bench mob has not just maintained, but reinforced their leads laid down by the starters, and veteran sharpshooter Kyle Korver summed it up perfectly to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Matt Velazquez on their overall resolve when they’re thrust out there:

"“Overall, this has happened a bunch of times throughout the season,” Korver said. “It’s a good group, we have a good feel for each other and we need it in games like this. (Antetokounmpo is) amazing, he’s the MVP, he’s going to get MVP again in my opinion, but we can’t just rely on him. We all have to be doing our part out there.”"

Bucks: Donte DiVincenzo’s warming up at the right time. dark. Next

The Bucks’ sterling first quarter play certainly looks to be an embodiment of the team’s overall way of being this season. The cohesion, the depth and overall consistency with which the Bucks have played with all along their roster has carried them to the top of the league for the second straight year.

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