What Happens If Milwaukee Bucks Keep Winning?

The Bucks Can Make The Playoffs

The idea that the Bucks could recover and make the playoffs seemed like a foreign concept just days ago. According to FiveThirtyEight’s playoff odds, Milwaukee had just an 18 percent chance to make the playoffs one week ago.

Those odds have now doubled to 37 percent as the Bucks have put Charlotte and Miami in the rear-view mirror and leapt towards Detroit, Chicago and Indiana.

That isn’t to say the Bucks are a lock for the postseason, nor even that it is likely that they will be suiting up past April 12. But what was a whisper of a dream just days ago is now something that can be understood, and the path to realization is coming into focus before their feet.

Helping the Bucks’ cause has been the collapse of the teams around them in the standings. The New York Knicks and Charlotte Hornets are a combined 11-34 since New Year’s Eve and both are almost assuredly out of the playoff race.

The Knicks are embroiled in organization and public relations disaster, and the Hornets are unable to get production out of any big other than Cody Zeller, who is in and out of the lineup with injuries.

While each has talent to lean on, their rate of decay and the uphill climb before each seems too great to overcome.

The Miami Heat are the opposite of dying, as they have won 14 of their last 16, including 13 games in a row, to re-enter the playoff mix following an 11-30 run. That streak included two wins over the Bucks.

Miami could still defy the odds and fight past Milwaukee once again, but their run seems more an aligning of the stars and not a sustainable flight path.

Milwaukee will both need to continue winning and see either Chicago or Detroit falter. With the locker room drama in Chicago and the inconsistencies of Detroit’s stars, both are possible if not likely.

That could see a more consistent Milwaukee team take the step back to the postseason despite the loss of Jabari Parker.