A year after they clinched the worst-record in the league and in franchise history (15-67), the Milwaukee Bucks are headed back to the postseason. With their 96-73 win over the Brooklyn Nets, the Bucks registered their 40th victory of the season, locking them in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
A win for Milwaukee locked them into the playoffs because the team owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Boston Celtics, and also the conference-record advantage over the Nets (28-21 compared to 23-26).
"I think it was a team effort." Jason Kidd said after the game. "The guys executed the game plan from the start and played with a lot of energy. We could be critical and say that we missed a lot of shots that we normally would make, but guys didn't hang their heads. They continued to play on the defensive end.
"I think it feels great for those guys in the locker room to be able to obtain a goal, and that was to make the playoffs."
With a new head coach in Kidd -- who didn't leave Brooklyn on the greatest terms -- the Bucks became the first team since the 2009-10 Miami Heat to make the playoffs after having the league's worst-record. Kidd is also the first head coach in NBA history to take two different teams to the playoffs in his first two seasons as a head coach.
With two games left (Philadelphia tomorrow night and Boston Wednesday), the Bucks will keep their eyes on Chicago to see if they can manage to move Toronto out of the third seed. Although, that might be difficult because the Raptors still hold the tiebreaker over the Bulls since they're a division-winner.
Regardless, the Bucks still have work to do before this weekend's playoff opponent, no matter who they end up playing,
"The journey doesn’t stop there." Kidd said. "We’ve got two games, so our journey isn’t done. We’ve got a lot of room to get better before the playoffs start."