3 keys as Milwaukee Bucks wrap up season series with Orlando Magic

Following a win over the Orlando Magic on Tuesday to extend their win streak to four games, the Milwaukee Bucks will look to make it five straight against… *checks notes* the Orlando Magic?

Yes, the Bucks will wrap up their season series with the Magic tonight after playing them two days ago in a 17-point win. Milwaukee has won the prior three meetings with Orlando already this season, extending their regular season win streak against the Magic to 10 straight games.

The Bucks will head home after tonight’s game for three straight at Fiserv Forum, all of which will be against teams outside of play-in spots in their respective conferences. Although it’s early to standings watch too closely, this is a chance for the Bucks to begin to lock in a spot at the top of the Eastern Conference as they’re only two games out of first but that starts tonight against the Magic.

The Milwaukee Bucks need to avoid a letdown quarter against the Orlando Magic

This felt like a deja-vu moment when I wrote this headline and it’s because I’ve written this before this season against the same opponent!

In their first meeting against the Magic this season, the Bucks were outscored 37-21 in the fourth quarter to make a game that was all but sealed a lot closer than it needed to be. Well, something similar happened on Tuesday against the Magic when they went on a 19-0 run in the third quarter and made the game more interesting than it should have been.

The Bucks closed out both games and showed their championship mettle. In their second matchup, the Bucks were outscored 36-18 in the fourth but won 123-92 so it didn’t really matter anyway.

Those types of quarters are bound to happen in blowouts (it’s what Seth Partnow calls the “rubber band effect”), but it’s on Milwaukee to not let the game get close. It’s clear the Bucks are head and shoulders above the Magic, but they can’t take their foot off the gas (unless they’re already up by enough that it doesn’t matter if they’re outscored by nearly 20).

This is also somewhat expected as the Bucks continue to figure out their rotations and guys get more comfortable with each other after having missed so much time off. These upcoming games against non-playoff are going to be good opportunities to work on that cohesion.