MILWAUKEE — As a crestfallen crowd made its way out of Fiserv Forum on Saturday night, a fan yelled out, to no one in particular, “Just tank the f—ing season.”
It’s too early to start that sort of talk in earnest, but the vibes in Milwaukee continued to trend in the wrong direction after a last-second loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers dropped the Bucks to 1-5 for the first time since 2000-01.
The Bucks had this game won, or so they thought, when Damian Lillard hit a step-back jumper to reach 41 points on the night and give them a 113-112 lead with 10 seconds remaining. Down on the other end, however, Donovan Mitchell stole the show by draining a ridiculous jumper of his own with 0.3 seconds left to give the Cavs a dramatic 114-113 win.
The 2024-25 season is still less than two weeks old, but the Bucks are on their longest losing streak since 2021 and currently tied for last place in the Eastern Conference with the lowly Detroit Pistons. Among all teams, only the winless Utah Jazz have a worse record. In NBA history, just 36 out of the 187 teams (19.6%) to start a season 1-5 went on to make the playoffs.
The Bucks are far more talented than the Pistons or Jazz, as well as the majority of those previous 187 squads. They also have the Play-In Tournament at their disposal, which makes things a bit easier. There’s no real concern that they’ll actually miss the postseason, but their hopes of contending for a title look slim.
Already, the vultures are circling.
Inside the locker room, though, there remains a sense of calm — at least for now. No one’s happy, but the Bucks’ starting lineup has an average age of 30.8 years, and that’s without 33-year-old Khris Middleton, who remains sidelined as he works his way back from offseason ankle surgeries. They aren’t going to panic or throw in the towel this early.
“I don’t focus on the results,” said Giannis Antetokounmpo after another monster effort on Saturday — 34 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists — in defeat. “That’s not my job. My job is to focus on the things that I can do better as a basketball player, the things that I can control.
“I can’t control the outcome of the games. I can control things that happen within the game and you hope that the outcome is what you like. The things that happened within the game, they were good. Donovan Mitchell could miss the shot and we have a different story. I couldn’t control that shot.”
Ask around, and there’s no concerns about the team’s mentality or confidence.
“I think the guys’ mindset is great,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “You saw how we came out. That’s not the issue.”
Veteran forward Taurean Prince was adamant that there’s no frustration: “The expectations are still there. We’re still optimistic, we just gotta figure some things out.”
Antetokounmpo added, “I think we are headed towards the right direction.”
There are some metrics that would say the Bucks are better than their record. The starting lineup, even without Middleton, has a plus-5.5 net rating, and his return will solve a lot of issues. Of the four factors — effective field goal percentage, free throw rate, turnover percentage and offensive rebounding rate — they rank in the top-12 in all but the latter. Their recent schedule, in particular, has been tough, and they have a lot of home games coming up against bottom feeders.
The Bucks’ record will improve, as will their place in the standings. But this is a championship-or-bust situation. The ownership group has spent over $700 million in payroll and luxury tax bills since the start of the 2021-22 season and has one playoff series win to show for it, which co-owner Wes Edens recently called “incredibly frustrating.”
Thus far, the Bucks have not shown that they can compete at a championship level, and the quotes from Saturday about their actual on-court issues were far more illuminating than the ones about their attitude.
Rivers lamented that they “don’t sustain the game. We haven’t been able to sustain 48 minutes. We have these lulls where we don’t score, we don’t get stops.” Likewise, Prince called out the defense, which currently ranks 24th in the league: “On the defensive end we still have to have that camaraderie and that togetherness.”
The Bucks may be saying the right things, but actions speak louder than words. That fan is unlikely to get his wish of a full rebuild, but if the Bucks don’t start walking the walk, changes are certainly coming.
