Milwaukee Bucks: 3 storylines to follow for remainder of regular season
By Dalton Sell
With 19 games left to play, the Milwaukee Bucks have officially entered the closing stretch of what has been an eventful 2020-21 regular season.
Looking back on it, It has been a headline-filled campaign for the Bucks dating all the way back to this past offseason. A few notables include multiple run-ins with COVID-19 protocols, injuries, and their consistent aggressiveness to upgrade the roster whenever possible.
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Yet, the main goal of winning an NBA championship has remained unchanged for this unit. In what has become the norm over the past three seasons, the Bucks remain a recurring name mentioned in the title-contending teams this year.
The Bucks certainly have some unfinished business heading into this year’s postseason, and the remainder of the regular season could ultimately shape just how far they can go.
With that being said, here are three storylines involving the Milwaukee Bucks to follow for the final few games of the regular season.
The Milwaukee Bucks are chasing the Eastern Conference’s top seed
Although this is the best version on paper of the Milwaukee Bucks that has been constructed during the Mike Budenholzer era, their record does not show for it.
After earning the league’s best record in each of the past two regular seasons, the Bucks find themselves in previously uncharted territory with a 33-20 record. That is good enough for the third spot in the Eastern Conference standings behind the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets. Currently sitting three games back of the top spot, the Bucks have some ground to gain if they will reclaim that top seed for a third consecutive year.
While Milwaukee will have to bank on Brooklyn and Philadelphia losing some of their upcoming games against other opponents, they will also have a pair of direct chances to move up in the standings. The Bucks have a two-game set with the 76ers on April 22 and 24 and a similar matchup with the Nets on May 2 and 4. Winning those games will be pivotal in their quest for the top seed, and they must take advantage.
If the playoffs were to start today, the Bucks would unquestionably have their backs up against the wall with the degree of difficulty presented. They would square off against the Charlotte Hornets in the first round, followed by a hypothetical matchup with Brooklyn in the semis and eventually Philadelphia in the East Finals.
That would certainly be a brutal road to reach the NBA Finals, and getting that top overall seed would make the pathway far easier to overcome. With that in mind, it will be a tall task for Milwaukee to leap over Philadelphia and Brooklyn in the standings, but far from impossible if this team can put together a solid run to close the season.