Here’s the thing about the 2019-20 Milwaukee Bucks: They are a really, really good basketball team.
How good? Well, how about the fact that they have clinched a spot in the NBA playoffs ... on Feb. 23. Two months before the playoffs are scheduled to start in mid-April.
The Bucks officially punched their ticket on Sunday, despite not playing a game that day. Instead, the team watched as the ninth-place Washington Wizards fell 126-117 to the Chicago Bulls, pushing the Wizards 27.5 games back with 27 games to play.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s JR Radcliffe, that’s the earliest a team has clinched the playoffs in the history of the current format, besting the 2017 Warriors’ mark of Feb.