
MILWAUKEE — After Wednesday’s game, Brook Lopez called it beautiful basketball.
It isn’t always the easiest thing to describe because there is no set formula, but it tends to be the moments where there is an extra pass or an extra drive that unlocks something for a teammate and makes everyone in the crowd perk up as they hope for the resolution the play deserves.
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As the Milwaukee Bucks have stacked up 16 straight wins over the last month, those moments have happened with greater regularity. On Sunday, Khris Middleton started one by whipping a pass behind his back.
On Wednesday, it was a moment of creativity from Jevon Carter, doing something unexpected in the normal run of play.
As Jrue Holiday drove to the basket, Jevon Carter moved toward the right corner to free himself for a 3-point attempt. However, when the ball swung to him, Carter didn’t fire up a 3. Instead, he drove to the middle of the floor with his left hand.
As he dribbled across the floor, Carter put the ball behind his back and between his legs before dishing it back out to Grayson Allen on the left wing. Allen continued the attack and drove to the middle of the floor before finding Jrue Holiday open underneath the basket. Holiday looked ready to try a reverse layup underneath the basket, but when he got in the air, he drew two defenders and instead kicked it out to the left corner for a 3 from Carter, who nailed the triple.
The whole sequence drew oohs and aahs from the Fiserv Forum crowd and rightfully so. It was undeniably fun and a great example of how free the Bucks are playing offensively as they pile up wins right now. Carter’s 3 was one of a season-high 26 made 3-pointers in the Bucks’ 139-117 win over the Orlando Magic, Milwaukee’s 16th straight win.
“Making shots, moving the ball, playing good basketball, there was a lot of plays today where the ball moved a lot,” Giannis Antetokounmpo (31 points, seven rebounds, six assists) said after the game. “There was two or three drive-and-kicks to the paint, pass out with an extra pass for an open 3, like there were moments where we played really good basketball. Obviously, I feel like right now we’re playing fast. We’re playing together.”
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With 16 straight wins, the Bucks are now tied for the third-longest winning streak in franchise history and the 25th-longest winning streak in NBA history. Win streaks like this, obviously, are quite rare, but not so much in Milwaukee under Mike Budenholzer. Some of the Bucks’ best players have already done this. In the 2019-20 season, on their way to a 24-3 start to the season, Milwaukee put together an 18-game win streak in November and December of 2018 and that has made it approach this streak slightly differently.
“I shouldn’t say we’re not excited about the winning streak now or not proud of ourselves about it because it’s a hard thing to do to win that many games in this league with so many great teams, but we were definitely probably a little bit more excited,” Khris Middleton said of the differences between the two streaks, following the Bucks’ 14th win on Sunday. “I had never been through that before, so I think this time around it means something, but we know it’s all about winning a championship. We know there’s still a lot more basketball to be played.”
Middleton admitted that the Bucks were far more hyped about a winning streak that first time around and spent more time thinking about it and trying to keep it alive. Now, they’ve moved past such behavior.
“First of all, we’ve never been a part of that before,” Antetokounmpo added following the Bucks’ 15th win on Tuesday. “It’s hard not to be excited about it, not to be like,’Oh!’ This month (February), we didn’t lose a game. It’s hard. I think that was 2020. Yeah, it was 2020. We were a younger team, never been in that position before, so obviously we were very happy about it.
“Now at the end of the day, that year did we win a championship? We didn’t. But I can still tell my kids and my grandkids that we won 18 in a row. It’s a great story. But at the end of the day, it’s a better story when from these 15 games, you’re able to build good habits. Me personally, it’s great. It’s great. I’m not gonna lie. Being able to be a team that win 15 in a row, it’s a great feeling, but it doesn’t matter.”
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With the team’s recent history, it is hard to blame them for such a feeling. In their first season under Budenholzer, the Bucks won 60 games and made their first deep playoff run, but fell in the Eastern Conference finals to the Toronto Raptors. In his second season, the Bucks were a machine to start the season. They went 52-8 in their first 60 games of the season before the COVID-19 pandemic halted the season and they ultimately lost in the second round to the Miami Heat.
“Of course, it’s great, but it is a little different in that regard,” Brook Lopez said following the Bucks’ 16th win on Wednesday. “I think we kind of expect to be good, to be great with the group that we have, but we’re definitely proud of what we’re doing.”
And while the players that weren’t a part of the first streak in the 2019-20 season are enjoying themselves during this win streak and taking in being a part of something they haven’t experienced before, their thoughts tend to echo something much closer to the veterans around them than a fresh excitement over a new accomplishment.
“Winning’s always good,” Bucks guard Jrue Holiday (23 points, nine assists) said, following Tuesday’s game in Brooklyn. “When we hit nine the first time (to start the season), that was the longest (I had been a part of). I wasn’t on that team (that won 18 in a row). That’s when they were like winning 60 games a year. Yeah, they were better then.”
But Holiday’s words did not match his actual feelings. Holiday looked at the camera like Jim Halpert in the American television series, “The Office,” after that final statement.
The Bucks are not going to apologize for winning games. That is what they are trying to do every single night, but they also know that long winning streaks do not make them more or less suitable to be NBA champion at the end of the season.
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So, even if they haven’t been a part of this long of a winning streak, the Bucks, down to a man, are more focused on building toward their goals at the end of the season than keeping their current win streak alive. It just so happens to be a happy byproduct of focusing on the bigger picture at the moment.
(Photo of Pat Connaughton and Giannis Antetokounmpo: Gary Dineen / NBAE via Getty Images)
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