Milwaukee Bucks Earn Homecourt Advantage Throughout Playoffs

MILWAUKEE, WI — With a 128-122 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers Thursday night, Milwaukee has secured the best record in the NBA for the 2018-19 season, and has guaranteed home-court advantage for every playoff series they play in this season - including the NBA Finals should they make it that far.

According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Bucks accomplished this year's feat by regularly obliterating their opponents on the court: Milwaukee has won a staggering 45 games by 10 or more points. The Bucks are the eighth team with 45 double-digit wins in a season in NBA history. Each of the previous seven won the NBA title, according to ESPN.

Milwaukee's best seasonal record came in the 1970-71 season when basketball luminaries Lew Alcindor, Oscar Robertson along with Lucius Allen, Bob Dandridge and Jon McGlocklin went 66-16 en route to winning the NBA Championship.

Giannis Leads The Team

Six years ago in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks drafted a relative unknown player mired in the second-highest minor league of basketball in Greece.

The Bucks saw that the spindly 6-foot-9 power forward had an uncanny skill set: he was a surprisingly fluid ball handler, was an adept passer, was extremely creative as a playmaker, made stunning plays on defense, and had exceptional length, leaping ability, agility and foot speed - even for the NBA. These days, he's known in NBA circles as a "unicorn" - a player who can play all five positions on offense and defense at an elite level.

"The son of Nigerian immigrants, Antetokoumpo was a citizenship-less 18-year-old caught in the bureaucracy of Greek politics, known only to a handful of NBA scouts who were largely skeptical of the anonymous player's potential," Mike Schmitz of DraftExpress wrote in 2014.

His transformation from teen to tower of power took six years to fully manifest. He grew two inches in height, added more than 40 pounds in weight and muscle, and honed his game year after year.

From the 2013-14 season to the present, he's averaged more points per game, and collected more rebounds per game every year. He's He's a leading MVP candidate and the best player on a team with the best record in the NBA.