Bucks rumble in Expert’s Week 1 NBA Power Rankings
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Bucks rumble in Expert’s Week 1 NBA Power Rankings

The Milwaukee Bucks have been one of the surprise teams in the league, but not in a good way. Through five games of the season before their Saturday game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Bucks have a 1-5 record and are on a five-game losing streak.

The Bucks haven’t been playing good basketball lately, and because of that, they dropped massively in the latest power rankings after the first week of the season.

Stephen Noh of The Sporting News dropped Milwaukee from 7th to 14th in a new power ranking.

“The Bucks are missing Khris Middleton, but that still doesn’t explain how listless they’ve looked to start the year. They beat a depleted Philadelphia team, then lost to the Nets, Bulls and Celtics,” Noh wrote (at the time), they were 1-3).

“Giannis Antetokounmpo is still playing as one of the top stars in the league, but this roster is old and slow,” Noh noted. “They’ve tried different defenses, including an exciting 3-2 zone with Giannis up top, but their offensive defense remains a problem. They also haven’t been able to match the increased pace of the league.”

The Bucks haven’t been the team many expected them to be at this point in the season. Their offense and defense have not been great, as they rank 21st in points per game (111.0), 22nd in three-pointers (11.2), 25th in opponent points per game (119.6) and 21st in opponent fastbreak points per game .

Nothing is going right for the Bucks at the moment, and it looks like things could get ugly for them if they continue this trend.

The focal point of the team is Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is playing incredibly so far. He leads the team in points per game with 30.4 and rebounds per game with 11.6.

Star player and point guard Damian Lillard is also doing his job, averaging 23.2 points per game, 5.3 rebounds, 6.2 assists (leads the team) and shooting 41 percent from the field. His recent content Thursday wasn’t pretty as he recorded just four points, six assists, two rebounds and shot 8.3 percent from the field in 33 minutes.

The Bucks are not playing their brand of basketball right now. For the first time since the 2010-11 season, the Bucks are 1-4, and it was a team that included Brandon Jennings, Michael Redd, John Salmons, Larry Sanders and Drew Gooden, to name a few.

We’ll see if this Week 2 treats the Bucks a little better.

More money: Former NBA star blames Bucks’ Terrible Start squarely on Doc Rivers