Bucks finally clicking
The Milwaukee Bucks have come out on the other side of adversity in a major groove.
Losing four out of six was not ideal. Losing five straight was not, either. Nor fun.
For a time in the first 29 games of the season the Milwaukee Bucks not only lost games but they had a hard time winning them, too. Their record in close contests wasn’t great. They would go minutes at a time without scoring. Their defense would crack as they tried to incorporate different play styles.
The Bucks were 16-13 on Feb. 18, and those games represented 40% of the season. It wasn’t exactly a small sample size.
Yet each shootaround before those games, at night following them or the practices in-between, each player maintained it would be good for them in the long run. Adversity builds character and all such things. They insisted they were learning. They would be better.
“An NBA season as long as it is and as much talent as there is in this league, at some point you’re going to experience some adversity; very, very likely,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “And how you respond to that is critical. I think the responses comes on a couple different layers.
“Technically, what do you need to work on and do better, whether it be defensively or offensively. And just men
tally how are you going to respond when things don’t go your way. Your character. We talk about your character usually shows when you experience adversity and how do you respond.
“And in a playoff series there’s going to be ups and own within that shortened, heightened period of time. So I definitely think it’s not just players, there’s how do you deal with adversity in life and how do you respond. It’s important.
“Not always are you better because of it, but certainly the good teams and the teams that want to compete at a high level, they can turn adversity into a positive and be better when they come out on the other side.”
The Bucks, most assuredly, are on that other side of it.
Even if it’s not all that smooth. Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum against Boston was an example of that. The Bucks looked like a world beater for 30 minutes. They went up 25 on the Celtics, playing connected defensive and explosively on offense. Then for about the next 17 minutes, 30 seconds the offense dried up and the defense slipped.
It happens.
It’s happened at times during this eight-game winning streak.
But unlike at times earlier in the year, the Bucks managed to get multiple key stops to win the game. And in this current stretch of 13 wins out of 14 games, they have now found different ways to secure a victory.
“It’s a part of this team’s identity,” Bucks guard Pat Connaughton said. “We went through a tough stretch. And it’s a stretch nobody wants to go through. We didn’t want to go through it. I’m sure our fans didn’t want to see us go through it. But, it’s something that as you come out on the other end you become stronger from.
“And, you have that type of adversity to look back on if it rears its head at all at any point during the end of the season, the playoffs, or whatever. To have that experience and that knowledge that we went through it, we pulled ourselves through it and we’re actually better for it on the other side. I think is a huge growth step for this team and this group. I think it’s starting to show itself now.
Because I feel like we’re in a groove.”
In that groove there were the late stops against the Los Angeles Clippers. There was the game-winning shot by Jrue Holiday in Memphis. There was the short-handed comeback victory in overtime in Philadelphia.
They’ve ramped up the offense, too, scoring 133 points against Washington, 134 against New York and 140 against Indiana.
And now, the Bucks are in second place in the East as they pulled ahead of Brooklyn (30-15) in the loss column and a game behind Philadelphia (31-13). Utah (32-11) is the only other team with more wins and fewer losses.
Suddenly, the Bucks are again on in the conversation regarding the best teams in the league.
Well, maybe.
“Don’t worry about it. They don’t need to talk about us,” Antetokounmpo said earlier in the week. “We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, we just keep enjoying each other and keep playing to win game and playing the right way. We don’t play for people to talk about us.
“I kind of like it. I just want to be left alone. I never liked the light, you know the bright lights, I never liked people talking about us. I think it just adds pressure to me and my teammates to come in and do what we do. I kind of like maybe under the radar. We just come in and enjoy one another and enjoy playing basketball and just getting the job done.
“But yeah there’s going to be times where they talk about us, there’s going to be times they’re not going to talk about us but personally as I said I just like being under the radar.”
With four games remaining against Brooklyn and Philadelphia (all at home) and road contests against both Los Angeles teams and Golden State and Portland, the Bucks have every opportunity to be part of that conversation.
Yet even after the win over the Celtics, Antetokounmpo insisted that the day-to-day isn’t about the outcome, but continuing to stack building blocks and lessons toward the postseason.
So, if the Bucks have truly taken the past lessons and applied them as they say they have – and who can argue with the recent results – it only portends for better if they continue to learn while winning.
“I think it’s definitely a good thing that we’re in close games,” Middleton said Wednesday night. “You’d rather make it easier on yourself but each game is a learning experience.
“To go down, to lose that lead, to be able to have to defend, get a stop, defend to get a win, just winning different types of close games is going to be great for us going forward.”