On Monday afternoon, the NBA released the full 2019-20 schedule. Let’s take a closer look at 15 things you need to know about the Bucks’ 82-game slate for this upcoming season.
The 5 most interesting games
Bucks at Rockets — Thursday, Oct. 24 — aka Battle of the MVPs on Opening Night — The Bucks kick their season off on the road against 2018-19 NBA MVP runner-up James Harden and the Houston Rockets. The runner-up versus the 2018-19 NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Harden has made it very clear over the years that winning the MVP means a lot for him, and the Bucks put together a defensive game plan that teams infamously tried to replicate against Harden. Harden will be hellbent to open the season with a great performance, while Antetokounmpo and the Bucks try to prove last season was not a fluke.
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Bucks at Clippers — Wednesday, Nov. 6 — aka The REVENGE Game — The NBA’s increased player movement makes getting revenge a little bit more difficult than it used to be, so the Bucks will have to get it on Kawhi Leonard in a different city and a different jersey. Any of the Bucks’ matchups against the Raptors could be on this list, but that would have been dishonest. Leonard was the driving force behind the Bucks’ ultimate demise, so it is more about him than the team and city he played for last season.
Bucks at Pacers — Saturday, Nov. 16 — aka The Malcolm Brogdon Revenge Game — The Bucks’ split with Brogdon was seemingly quite amicable, but it was undoubtedly the biggest piece of controversy from this offseason in Milwaukee. Despite not mentioning playing more point guard while in Milwaukee, Brogdon told The Athletic he “definitely wanted to do it more” when he discussed the move to Indiana at the Las Vegas Summer League. He will get that opportunity in Indiana, especially with Victor Oladipo likely off the floor for the first few months of the season. Both sides will try to prove just how happy they are with their decision in the team’s first meeting this season.
Bucks at 76ers — Wednesday, Dec. 25 — aka The first Real Giannis Antetokounmpo Christmas Day game — The NBA has taken over Christmas Day. It is the league’s biggest regular-season stage and thus, its marquee players will always be heavily featured. The Bucks were given a Christmas Day before last season’s 60-win breakout because of Antetokounmpo’s transcendence and they will continue to play on Christmas Day for years to come for that same reason. Last year, the Bucks were not challenged as they dispatched the Knicks with relative ease, so this will be the first time we see Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in a true heavyweight matchup on Christmas Day.
Bucks at 76ers — Tuesday, April 7 — aka Who is the Eastern Conference’s best? — A whole lot could happen in the next seven months, but heading into this season, most view the Bucks and 76ers as the two best teams in the East. If it plays out that way, this game, with a little more than a week left in the season and just five games remaining for each team, could be massive for playoff matchups and the conference’s top spot heading into the playoffs. (The Bucks play the Celtics immediately before this game and the Nets twice in the final four games. Those two might ultimately take the spot for most interesting end-of-the-season game by the time April comes around.)
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The 4 facts you need to know
• The Bucks have 34 games on national television with four on ABC, 10 on TNT, 10 on ESPN and 10 on NBATV. That is the sixth-highest total of any team in the NBA.
• For the 2016-17 season, the Bucks had just nine nationally televised games. That was the third-fewest of any team in the NBA that season.
• Based on team over/under lines from Las Vegas, the Bucks have the league’s easiest schedule with opponents posting a .490 winning percentage. (h/t to Jared Dubin)
• The Bucks have 11 back-to-backs this season with seven being of the road-home variety and four road-road. The league average is 12.4 back-to-backs per team this season, an all-time low for the league.
The 3 losses you shouldn’t freak out about
Bucks vs. Cavaliers — Saturday, Dec. 14 — The travel from a game in Memphis on Friday night isn’t so bad, but maybe the back-to-back with travel encourages Mike Budenholzer to sit out Giannis Antetokounmpo against the struggling Cavaliers. Khris Middleton doesn’t shoot particularly well. Eric Bledsoe gets in foul trouble. Brook Lopez misses eight 3s. And somehow, the Bucks drop one to one of the worst teams in the league.
- The Narrative: The Bucks just locked Middleton up for five years, is he ever going to be good enough to take over games? If the Bucks can’t beat the lowly Cavaliers without Antetokounmpo, just how good can they actually be?
Bucks at Blazers — Saturday, Jan. 11 — The final game of a four-game West Coast road trip on a back-to-back is never an easy game, and this one could be particularly difficult with the Spurs, Warriors and Kings serving as the Bucks’ opponents in the first three games of the trip. The Bucks struggled to contain C.J. McCollum last season in Portland, and maybe that happens again. And maybe the Bucks have already lost two other games on the road trip. Gasp.
- The Narrative: If the Bucks can’t beat Western Conference teams, how can they truly be considered title contenders?
Bucks at Nuggets — Monday, March 9 — The Bucks’ sixth game in nine days. The second game of a road back-to-back. The second road back-to-back in those nine days. In altitude. Against one of the best teams in the NBA. This will be a ridiculously tough game for the Bucks. Last year, they beat the Nuggets in Denver on a road back-to-back at the end of a four-game West Coast road trip, so it can be done, but this is likely a game the Bucks lose in the end. And they’ll have lost it on national TV against one of the best teams in the league.
- The Narrative: How good are the Bucks? Can they win the big games? How deep can they actually make it in the playoffs?
The 2 toughest stretches
Games 1-15 — Thursday, Oct. 24 to Wednesday, Nov. 20 — It isn’t really the competition in the first month or so of the season for the Bucks, but rather the location of the games. That stretch features just five games at home. The Bucks certainly have more continuity than most teams in the league, so they should be able to handle not playing all that much at home early in the season, but that road-heavy of a schedule to start a season will be tough.
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Games 60-65 — Sunday, March 1 to Monday, March 9 — This is the tightest grouping of games for the Bucks. It isn’t quite the daunted five games in seven days of old, but it is six games in nine days. It starts with a road back-to-back in Charlotte and Miami. The Hornets aren’t likely going to be much this season, but the Heat have always given Antetokounmpo and the Bucks trouble. Then, the Bucks travel home for a game against the Pacers on Wednesday before flying out to Los Angeles for a prime-time Friday matchup against the Lakers before wrapping up with a road back-to-back in Phoenix and Denver. That is a whole bunch of travel and four playoff teams in nine days.
The 1 thing to remember
We don’t truly know anything at the moment. Games that look tough now might be easy in December because of an injury to a key player. Teams that were supposed to be bad might find unexpected chemistry and turn what looked like an easy game into a tough Tuesday night in February. Suspensions, injuries and load management all occur at random times throughout the season, which makes it very difficult to predict what games will actually be tough. Also, some teams just struggle against random teams. (Hello, 2018-19 Phoenix Suns!)
All in all, we can only guess what this season will look like or what parts of it will end up being important. But, it’s August and we’re still a few months away from actual NBA basketball, so let the conjecture fly.
(Photo of Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
