After all this time, perhaps many of us simply forgot.
The Bucks led the NBA in defensive efficiency during the 2018–19 season, then earned the distinction again in 2019–20. After a dropoff to ninth-best during the 2020–21 regular season, Milwaukee clamped down when it mattered most, not only finishing with the league’s stoutest defense last postseason, but also winning the club’s first NBA championship in 50 years.
So, this season, with the Bucks falling to a pedestrian 14th in defensive efficiency—and ranking just 19th since January 1—it might have been fair to wonder whether Milwaukee’s iron curtain had curtailed some. Yet as we head into Game 2 of Bucks-Celtics, we’re talking again about how solid Milwaukee’s stoppers looked; it’s a key shift away from the conversations about Boston, which largely shut down Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the first round after finishing statistically as the league’s best defense this year.
