On the surface, the look poised to make another deep run in the playoffs. The Bucks are just three years removed from their championship run, are still led by superstar , and added superstar guard to their lineup for good measure. Sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 47–28, it would be easy to think from just looking at the standings board that the Bucks season had been a relatively smooth ride thus far. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, that's not the case. Head coach Doc Rivers took over the Bucks mid-season after the team decided to
fire Adrian Griffin just 43 games into his tenure despite Milwaukee having one of the best records in the league at the time. While Rivers has kept the Bucks afloat, on Tuesday night after a loss against the lowly , he was open about the fact that his team needed to get better before the start of the postseason, especially when it came , as Eric Nehm detailed. "I think focus. I don’t know what it is, You know it’s funny, I’ve actually been sitting back and watching everything. Not just our players, but our travel crew, everything, and I’ve made a lot of notes. I will say that. I won’t share that. But we don’t bring the necessary professionalism, seriousness, on the road. That’s something that we can fix, and it’s something that we’re going to have to fix." — Doc Rivers The loss on Tuesday finished a 1–2 road trip for Milwaukee, pushing them to 18–20 on the season when playing away from the Fiserv Forum. The Bucks Will Need to Win Away from Home Come Playoff Time While the Bucks are in no way at risk of missing the postseason, their trip could wind up disappointingly brief if they can't clean up their act on the road. The essentially waltzed to the top seed in the Eastern Conference unchallenged this year, currently sitting a full 12 games clear of the Bucks in second place. If Milwaukee is going to make it back to the
NBA Finals, chances are they'll have to go through Boston, and going through Boston will mean needing to win in Boston, as the Celtics will have home-court advantage throughout their postseason run through the East. While stealing a game on the road in the playoffs is by no means unheard of, the Celtics have lost just three times all season while playing at the TD Garden, and given the Bucks recent road struggles, nabbing a game from the best home team in the league seems like a tall task. If Rivers wants to make adjustments to the way the Bucks carry themselves on the road, he'll have one more chance before the end of the regular season, with Milwaukee set to finish the year traveling to play the and .