The Milwaukee Bucks continue to look the part of contenders

Tasked with being taken seriously as title threats, the Milwaukee Bucks have passed nearly every test with flying colors.

As the beginning of the 2018-19 NBA season fast approached, most everyone had put together a mental list of teams realistically capable of competing for the NBA title.

Of course, the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors made the cut, and so did others like the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors. But a team maybe only a handful of geniuses saw coming is the one that just so happens to be first in the Eastern Conference standings, the Milwaukee Bucks.

In all honesty, the Bucks were expected to improve on last season’s slightly underwhelming 44-win campaign. Brook Lopez was brought in as a floor-spacing center, and new coach Mike Budenholzer was expected to breath new life into an offense clearly performing well below its potential.

It’s not ridiculous to suggest that what Milwaukee has done over the first half of the season is nothing short of spectacular, with a top-five defensive rating to go along with the highest scoring offense in the entire NBA.

Budenholzer’s system has been a hand-in-glove fit with the Bucks’ roster, especially with the addition of Lopez. With snipers stationed all around the perimeter, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been given maximum space to operate in, creating a dilemma for opponents.

Do they double the Greek Freak and dare his teammates to hit shots? Or do they simply let Giannis get whatever he wants driving to the bucket?

Milwaukee ranks second in both 3-pointers made and attempted, behind only the trigger-happy Houston Rockets. This is a far cry from the 2017-18 season, where they ranked 27th and 25th in those categories, respectively.

As with any team on the rise, there are always games sprinkled throughout the 82-game season that carry just a little more weight to them. Those matchups — usually against the NBA’s elite — are viewed as measuring sticks, with the outcome serving as somewhat of an indicator of just how far said team is from realistically competing at the highest level.

Despite its lack of inexperience residing in the upper-echelon of teams, Milwaukee has taken each of those supposed tests in stride, making a convincing statement in quite a few of them.

There was the 23-point victory against Golden State in early November. They took care of the Cs rather easily in Boston by a score of 120-107. Wednesday night, they halted the red-hot Rockets at the Toyota Center, despite a furious late rally led by reigning MVP James Harden.

Regular season wins, no matter how impressive, should always be taken with a grain of salt. The effort level varies from game to game, while postseason play pits two teams against each other for the better part of two weeks, leaving more time for strategy instead of the usual singular film session (if that).

However, such truths don’t mean those victories come without value. For a team like the Bucks attempting to be taken seriously after years of mediocrity and futility, these types of games are all they really have until the playoffs begin, and at the bare minimum, they serve as an indicator that the deer, in fact, must be feared.