Milwaukee needs to figure out how to make a series of it in Game 2

The Milwaukee Bucks aren’t supposed to be here. We need to remember that, and they need to get past it.

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The Bucks had the worst record in the league last season, and though most concluded that what should have been a middling 2013-14 Milwaukee team underachieved, nobody thought that entering this campaign a combination of competent coaching and execution would result in a playoff berth. Had prognosticators known prior to 2014-15 that rookie Jabari Parker would tear his ACL after only 25 games and that Larry Sanders would walk away from the team after just a few contests more, they would have completely written Milwaukee’s postseason hopes off.

Instead, the Bucks put it all together under Jason Kidd. A top five defense featuring a cadre of tilting, long-armed colts with rays set to “FLUMMOX.” A 31-23 record, at one point, with a still-impressive .500 mark to end the campaign with. The franchise managed to deal its arguable best player in Brandon Knight after the midseason point for a completely different type of ball dominating guard in Michael Carter-Williams, and not fall completely off the mark in response. Yes, the team struggled with MCW either injured or running the show, and they also dropped Game 1 of its first round pairing with the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, but by and large these 83 games have been an accomplishment.

Now comes the tricky bit.

There is a fantastic chance that Parker, Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 2014 Rookie of the Year and eventual cap flexibility could provide the Bucks with a star-heavy foundation that could pull it from the ranks of the mediocre. As things stand now, though, Milwaukee is right back in the same situation that Bucks fans correctly carped about for years. Instead of bottoming out for a second consecutive season, the team is parked in the middle of the NBA’s bracket. This season’s emergence is just as unexpected as last season’s deadening fall to the bottom, as all manner of co-incidences abound for a team that on paper should feel rather unremarkable. Not terrible, just stuck in the middle. Again.

This is why the Bucks have to grab a game or two, starting with Monday’s Game 2 matchup in Chicago. The team has to streamline its attack on both ends and work toward life as something other than an afterthought. The Chicago Bulls are talented, deep, and at best a championship contender – but they’ve also established absolutely nothing in terms of identity in what has been an injury-plagued season. Milwaukee has to take advantage of this.

In Game 1 Derrick Rose was allowed to dive into offensive sets far too early in possessions for Milwaukee’s tastes. Whether the Bulls were taking the ball out of the net or whether it was during the second quarter that saw the Bucks shoot just 29 percent from the floor, Rose dictated on his own terms in the opener on his way to a 23-point, seven-assist night; worked in just 29 minutes of play. Following the game Bucks coach Jason Kidd said he’d “live with” Rose’s three three-point makes, which is understandable, but he cannot afford the ways in which Rose scored those other 14 points.

The Bucks managed the NBA’s fourth-best defense in 2014-15, and the team doesn’t need a locked-in system to succeed on that end. It’s true that even the long-armed Carter-Williams still has his communication issues defensively, and that reserve veteran Jerryd Bayless prefers a consistent theme behind him, but the Bucks can think on the fly early in a possession. Especially if Rose fancies himself a consistent three-point threat, which the 28 percent-shooting Bulls point guard most certainly is not.

The Bucks are three-point threats. Despite the team’s crummy, 26th-ranked offense during the regular season, the team finished seventh in three-point percentage this year. Milwaukee made just a quarter of its three-point attempts in Game 1, as the Bulls again influenced the course of action – Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau’s defense willed the Bucks into a series of long, uncontested two-pointers that just weren’t going to cut it.

Milwaukee wasn’t actually all that bad at knocking in the long twos, and the team did get to the line a surprising 26 times (making just 17) in the loss, but Milwaukee can do much better against a Bulls defense that fell by the wayside in 2014-15.

Little boxes need to be checked. Bayless can’t play along O.J. Mayo, with the Bucks’ backcourt being moved out in shifts. MCW needs to spend more time on the court against Bulls reserve Aaron Brooks, a game if diminutive point guard who was already flummoxed once in 2014-15 by Carter-Williams in a regular season Bucks win over Chicago earlier in April. The Bulls run hot and cold – the team’s offense at times can remind of the Rose-less waste that was the team’s 2012-2014 run, even with Rose on the court. If Milwaukee can dive into its defensive sets with alacrity, and not repeat the early-Game 1 shootout action that Kidd called “fool’s gold” after the loss, then Chicago could have a game on its hands.

Not a close, “we’re both shooting for 60 in a half”-game. A real one. A Central Division bruiser. A slugfest. In short, the only way Milwaukee can win.

And a better way to eventually groom that stable of potential-future stars, after a season spent eschewing the long-term rebuild. The Bucks earned that postseason berth, and now the team needs execute as its position calls for.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops