Bucks can make a little history with win over Cavaliers
There's little question the start of the Milwaukee Bucks' season is filled with difficult opponents.
After opening at Boston on Wednesday, the Bucks face Cleveland at home Friday. The Celtics and Cavaliers just happened to meet in last season's Eastern Conference Finals.
In the last 20 seasons, Milwaukee is just the fifth team to face the finalists from the same conference in its first two games, and the first in nine years.
The others -- Portland in 2002-03, Denver in 2004-05, Indiana in 2008-09 and Portland in 2008-09 -- all split their two games.
If the Bucks can knock off the Cavs at home, they'd be doing something nearly unprecedented. Since 1970-71 -- when conferences were formed -- only one team has played the two conference finalists from its own conference in the first two games and won both. The other team? The 1991-92 Bucks, which defeated Detroit and Chicago to open the season.
While Cleveland is largely considered to be the East's best team entering the season, hey, Milwaukee has won seven of its last eight home openers against Eastern Conference clubs.
The next couple of weeks doesn’t offer much respite for the Bucks, who will face Portland, a big winner in its opener over Phoenix, on Saturday, the Celtics and Hawks next week and the Thunder on Halloween to close out the month, with dates in Cleveland and San Antonio looming in early November as part of a four-game road trip.
It's a good opportunity for Milwaukee to make a statement early in the season, and likely Giannis Antetokounmpo will have a big say in how the Bucks fare.
In Wednesday's opener, Antetokounmpo had 37 points and 13 rebounds. Since 1989, he's the fifth player to post at least 37 points and 13 rebounds in a season opener, joining Michael Jordan and Karl Malone, who both did in 1989, Charles Barkley (1992) and Anthony Davis (2016).
Statistics courtesy STATS
