Milwaukee Bucks

StaTuesday: The Bucks' 15-game win streak by the numbers

Published Dec. 10, 2019 2:57 p.m. ET

Tuesday marks one month since the beginning of the Milwaukee Bucks’ winning streak, which now sits at 15 games.

It started way back on Nov. 10 with a two-point win over Oklahoma City. Since then, the Bucks have knocked off Chicago (twice), Indiana, Atlanta (twice), Portland, Detroit, Utah (twice), Cleveland, Charlotte, New York, Los Angeles Clippers and Orlando.

It’s the fourth-longest winning streak in team history. A win over New Orleans on Wednesday would put it into a tie for second alongside a pair of 16-game streaks from Oct. 24-Nov. 25, 1970 and Feb. 28-Oct. 13, 1973, the latter obviously occurring over two seasons.

The longest streak was also during that 1970-71 season, 20 straight wins from Feb. 6-March 8, 1971. Interestingly, the Bucks then lost five of their final six regular-season games but still won the NBA championship.

If the Bucks can beat the Pelicans and also win in Memphis on Friday, they’ll tie for the 10th-longest winning streak this century. Since 2000-01, no team has had a winning streak of longer than 17 games in the same season since 2014, when two teams pulled off 19-game streaks (including one coached by Mike Budenholzer).

LONGEST WINNING STREAKS SINCE 2000-01 SEASON

TEAM	GAMES	DATES
Warriors	28	4/9/15-12/11/15
Heat	27	2/3/13-3/25/13
Rockets	22	1/29/08-3/16/08
Celtics	19	11/15/08-12/23/08
Spurs	19	2/26/14-4/2/14
Hawks	19	12/27/14-1/31/15
Suns	17	12/29/06-1/28/07
Mavericks	17	1/27/07-3/11/07
Clippers	17	11/28/12-12/30/12
Rockets	17	1/28/18-3/7/18

Here’s Milwaukee’s averages since Nov. 10 along with their rank among NBA teams during that span:

Points per game: 121.0 (1)

Field-goal percentage: 49.4% (2)

3-point field-goal percentage: 36.2% (15)

Free throws: 18.1 (10th)

Free-throw attempts: 24.9 (6th)

Rebounds: 51.8 (1)

Plus/minus: 16.1 (1)

Offensive Rating: 115.8 (3)

Defensive Rating: 100.2 (1)

Net Rating: 15.6 (1)

Rebounding percentage: 53.3% (2)

Effective field-goal percentage: 56.9% (2)

True shooting percentage: 59.6% (3)

Pace: 104.57 (2)

Opponent effective field-goal percentage: 48.5% (T1)

Fastbreak points: 18.7 (2)

Points in the paint: 56.3 (1)

Opponent second-chance points: 10.0 (1)

Opponent points in the paint: 40.4 (T1)

In other worse, there’s a good reason why Milwaukee has won 15 in a row. The Bucks are playing well in every conceivable facet of the game.

Unsurprisingly, Giannis Antetokounmpo has led the way for the Bucks during the streak. He’s averaging 31.9 points, 12.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting 55.9% from the field and 33.7% from 3 in the 15 games. But while he gets the headlines, it really has been a team effort. Seven other players are averaging at least eight points per game during that span and another seven (with some overlap) are averaging at least four rebounds.

BUCKS STATS DURING 15-GAME WIN STREAK

PLAYER	G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	FG%	3%
G. Antetokounmpo	15	30.9	31.9	12.7	4.5	55.9	33.7
Middleton	8	22.4	15.4	5.6	4.1	52.7	38.7
Bledsoe	15	27.5	14.1	4.5	6.4	47.6	35.7
B. Lopez	13	26.0	10.4	5.2	1.1	41.6	30.6
DiVincenzo	15	23.5	9.8	4.6	1.7	44.4	32.2
Matthews	15	24.5	9.3	2.5	1.9	44.6	41.8
Hill	13	20.0	8.8	2.9	3.5	52.1	47.4
Ilyasova	13	15.0	8.0	4.2	0.6	55.7	36.0
Wilson	7	15.7	7.4	3.0	1.0	56.8	40.9
Brown	10	19.7	6.3	5.1	2.0	39.3	38.7
Connaughton	15	18.3	5.9	4.6	2.1	56.9	35.7
R. Lopez	15	14.0	5.4	3.1	0.7	48.5	38.5
Bender	3	9.7	5.0	1.0	0.3	75.0	100
T. Antetokounmpo	3	6.0	4.0	0.3	1.0	62.5	50.0
Korver	12	15.1	3.8	1.5	1.2	28.0	27.3
Mason	2	5.1	2.0	0.0	1.0	25.0	50.0

Yeah, at some point Milwaukee is going to lose and maybe even in back-to-back games (that happened only once last season. But the odds seem pretty good that this year’s Bucks – who are 21-3, an .875 winning percentage – will beat out the 1970-71 team (66-16, .805) for most wins in franchise history.

Maybe they’ll even surpass that squad for longest winning streak, too.