The Bucks’ strange season continued this week with a pair of shocking upset losses.
It all started Tuesday when Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co. traveled to Washington, D.C. to take on the lowly Wizards, who had the second-worst record in the NBA at 14-61 heading into the contest.
As 12.5-point favorites, the Bucks fell behind late in the second quarter and would never gain the lead back, losing 117-113.
One bad loss isn’t enough to panic, but it would happen again 24 hours later.
On Wednesday, Milwaukee was a 12.5-point favorite for the second day in a row, this time against the Grizzlies at home.
The Grizzlies, who sat at 25-50 before Wednesday’s game, have nearly an entire roster of players out with injury, but that wasn’t enough to stop them from taking down the mighty Bucks.
Behind a big fourth quarter, the Grizzlies beat the Bucks 111-101 — a double-digit victory for the massive underdog.
With those two upset losses, the Bucks became just the sixth NBA team since 2000 to lose back-to-back games as a 12-point or more favorite, according to Action Network’s Evan Abrams.
The losses underscore what has been an odd 2023-24 campaign for the Bucks despite their shiny 47-29 record.
The Bucks are just 33-42-1 against the spread this season, the sixth-worst record ATS in basketball.
Even if they win out from here in their final six games, Milwaukee will fall short of their preseason over/under of 53.5 wins.
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The team fired head coach Adrian Griffin in January despite the Bucks’ 30-13 record, replacing him with Doc Rivers.
But they’ve been just mediocre since then, going 15-15 under Rivers.
Despite their underwhelming showing to date, the Bucks are tied with the Los Angeles Clippers (+750) for the third-best odds to win the NBA Finals at FanDuel Sportsbook.
