Predicting Milwaukee Bucks' record through tough stretch to begin the season

Game Four- Bucks @ Celtics

Game four is against the Boston Celtics, the reigning NBA champs. This would definitely be an awesome game from Milwaukee to try to sneak from the Celtics. However, they are still the team to beat in the NBA, and Milwaukee really struggled against Boston last year at times. It'd be easy to chalk this one up to a loss.

Kristaps Porzingis is injured, and with him out, that could make the Celtics a little bit more vulnerable.  So, while this isn't an automatic loss, for the purpose of this thought exercise, we're going to say that Milwaukee doesn't win this one since it is on the road.

2-2

Game Five - Bucks @ Grizzlies

The final game in the opening stretch for Milwaukee is a road game in Memphis. With Ja Morant back in the lineup, the Grizzlies are going to be a much-improved team this season. Yet, Milwaukee has always played well in Memphis, and this is not a gimme win for the Grizzlies.

Memphis was able to go out and draft Purdue 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, along with the return of Marcus Smart. Yet, I'm just not sure that Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo can be stopped by anyone in Memphis.

I'd expect Milwaukee to give Memphis a lot of trouble here, and I could see them leaving the Blues City with a victory.

3-2

Is that too realistic of an expectation?  Do Milwaukee Bucks fans expect their team to go better than 3-2 in the first five games?

 Probably.

But with a three-game road trip taking place right off the bat that stands up to no NBA Rhyme or Reason (I think about the Texas triangle), Milwaukee will want to work more on process than product.

What is probably more important in all of this is to make sure that a Doc Rivers offense and a Doc Rivers defense are something the team can utilize to their advantage.

This writer has the Bucks starting this season 3- 2. Could they go 4-1? Of course, if things get a little out of hand, you could even see the Bucks starting off this season 2-3 or 1-4.  But it is a marathon, not a sprint, and over 82 games Milwaukee has some really favorable stretches. 

As an overall prediction on the season, this writer thinks the Bucks will end up going 56-26 and will be the third seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Philadelphia and New York can probably expect to look pretty strong heading into the postseason. Still, if the Bucks can have some momentum heading into the playoffs, they can hopefully reverse this first-round playoff loss formula and make a deeper run toward an NBA championship.