With the NBA set to announce their return-to-play and continue the 2019-20 season, the Milwaukee Bucks’ potential remaining schedule will test them in time for the postseason.
The NBA, and Milwaukee Bucks basketball, appears to be on its way back.
As has been reported on extensively by the likes of ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA is slated to make its return at Walt Disney World to continue the 2019-20 season with 22 teams and a potential play-in tournament, pending a league owners vote on Thursday afternoon.
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While plenty of details still have to get ironed out as to how the testing of players will be done, the regular season will be finished, albeit in some abridged fashion.
As Yahoo! Sports’ Vincent Goodwill reported Wednesday afternoon, the league plans on resuming the current schedule as planned for eight more games and bypass contests that were originally planned against teams that aren’t making the trip to Orlando.
How that will affect for the Bucks for the remainder of their 2019-20 campaign is a big question.
With only teams who are in the playoff mix returning, there will be no easy games when the NBA resumes, and the Milwaukee Bucks will be tested before the postseason.
As was originally scheduled and set for the month of March, the next eight opponents for the Bucks were as follows: The Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, and the Wizards again.
Of course, both the Warriors and the Pistons will be among the eight teams that will be staying home under this restarting of the season. So, under the scenario that Goodwill relayed, the Bucks will have contests against the Dallas Mavericks as well as the reigning NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors, to make up for those tilts against Golden State and Detroit.
While this is yet to be finalized, that eight-game slate is certainly full of tests for a Bucks team that has their sights set on winning an NBA championship that has obviously taken on a whole new line of adversity.
Certainly, having a number of East playoff teams such as the Celtics, Heat, and Raptors will give the Bucks an early look into a potential playoff series as all three, from Toronto, Boston to Miami, are seeded in that order in the East at this time. Add in the fact that the Bucks have suffered losses to both the Celtics and the Heat on two occasions and it adds a little more flavor to those respective matchups as well.
As far as the Bucks’ Western Conference opponents go, a date with the Houston Rockets will give us all another rematch between the two most recent MVP’s, Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden, and a chapter in their still-simmering rivalry.
The Grizzlies, meanwhile, could be in the thick of a meaty playoff race and be subject to the play-in tournament scenario that may arise with the ninth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers currently 3.5 games back of Memphis. And the Mavericks, of course, played the Bucks’ foil when they broke up their 18-game winning streak back in mid-December.
With the exception of the Wizards, who are 4.5 games back of the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic in the East, the Bucks are obviously not going to face any teams far out of the playoff race such as the Warriors or Pistons under how the schedule would have gone as planned.
That obviously puts the Bucks in position to get back into their rhythm as many of their remaining games will come against teams they’ll likely have to get past to reach this year’s Finals or even win an NBA championship.
At the same time, being away from a daily routine, being out of prime game shape and so many other factors for more than four-and-a-half months can’t be ignored in this unprecedented return and will obviously influence how they will respond to such a long layoff.
As has been the case all season long, this incredible set of circumstances will make for a fascinating watch as the Bucks prepare to get on with their championship pursuit. And they will certainly be challenged from the beginning of their long-awaited return.