On Sunday, the Bucks played their 41st game of the season, marking the halfway point. At 24-17, that’s a 48-win pace and four games off last year at this time (which was a 56-win pace). Pretty good considering the 2-8 start. Let’s look a little closer at the numbers:
Since I posted this, Milwaukee actually moved up a spot to 9th in net rating, according to Cleaning The Glass. Obviously, last year’s defense was largely terrible, with Doc Rivers only able to right the ship to an extent (CTG had them finishing 19th). The offense clicked basically from the season’s tip-off, but recall that the conversation around the Adrian Griffin-led Bucks was that they’d simply outscore opponents rather than play stifling defense.