Bucks schedule takeaways: When are key matchups against East's best? (2024)

On Thursday, the NBA released the full schedule for all 30 teams for the 2024-25 season. That means Milwaukee Bucks fans can now see when and where the team will play all 80 of its currently scheduled games and try to look for patterns or trends that might stick out.

Two games are to be determined as flexibility based on NBA Cup results, but each schedule always features certain stretches that will be tougher or easier, as well as notable games and events. With the full schedule released, here are three takeaways from the games that have been laid out two months before the ball is tipped on the Bucks’ opening night on Oct. 23.

No Christmas game

Since the NBA started scheduling five games on Christmas and televising those games nationally in 2008, the league has used that day to showcase its best players and teams. For the past six seasons, with Giannis Antetokounmpo leading the way and the Bucks usually near the top of the Eastern Conference standings, the Bucks have played on Christmas. That is not the case in 2024-25.

AfterThe Athletic’s Shams Charania broke the news of this season’s Christmas slate late last week, the Bucks’ two-time NBA MVP shared his thoughts on X.

No Christmas game?! 😂😂

See Also

Rivalries, returns and Christmas day matchups: NBA games you can't miss in 2024-25NBA Schedule: Top 10 Revenge Games For 2024-25 SeasonKnicks 2024-25 Schedule: Top Games, Championship Odds and Record Predictions2024-25 NBA schedule: Which teams have most nationally televised games, and the reasoning behind it

— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) August 9, 2024

It’s quite notable the Bucks weren’t selected to play on Christmas. Antetokounmpo is the only player to finish top five in NBA MVP voting in each of the last six seasons. The eight-time All-NBA forward finished last season with the fifth-most popular jersey, according to the NBA, and he will be the only player in the top five in jersey sales from last season to not play on Christmas, with Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Victor Wembanyama all hitting the court Dec. 25.

In his exclusive offseason interview with The Athletic, Bucks general manager Jon Horst made it clear that he believes the Bucks are still the class of the Eastern Conference, but with the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers scheduled to play on Christmas and the Bucks sitting on the sideline, it appears the Bucks might enter the season with something to prove.

Matchups against the East’s best

Speaking of those three teams…

The top of the East has gotten stronger this offseason. Last season, the schedule release focus centered around dates with the Celtics, but now it’s worth considering the series of games against the three other teams viewed as the top contenders in the East.

The Celtics, along with the Miami Heat, have been the Bucks’ strongest and most regular competition over the last six seasons as Antetokounmpo developed into a perennial MVP candidate and the Bucks developed into a perennial contender. After struggling to put together a special postseason, the Celtics finally capitalized on their regular-season success and won an NBA championship in June.

With essentially their entire roster returning, the Celtics will start the season as the favorite to win the 2024-25 championship as well, so each of their three games against the Bucks will be seen as measuring stick games for Milwaukee. All of those games will come before the calendar turns to 2025:

• Monday, Oct. 28: Bucks at Celtics, 6:30 p.m. CT
• Sunday, Nov. 10: Celtics at Bucks, 2:30 p.m. CT
• Friday, Dec. 6: Bucks at Celtics, 6:30 p.m. CT

The Knicks’ and 76ers’ offseason moves have added two new teams to the discussion for best in the East.

Adding Paul George to the duo of Joel Embid and Tyrese Maxey gave the 76ers a big three capable of competing with the best teams in the league and put them on the shortlist of potential contenders to represent the East in the NBA Finals. After the season opener on Oct. 23 in Philadelphia, the Bucks will take on the 76ers three more times:

• Sunday, Jan. 19: 76ers at Bucks, 6 p.m. CT
• Sunday, Feb. 9: 76ers at Bucks, 1 p.m. CT
• Thursday, Apr. 3: Bucks at 76ers, 6:30 p.m. CT

Last season, for the first time since 2013, the Knicks won 50 games, and they’ve added Mikal Bridges to further strengthen their roster. New York lost center Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but the Knicks’ bevy of versatile wings should make them a difficult team to play. Here are their three matchups against the Bucks:

• Friday, Nov. 8: Bucks at Knicks, 6:30 p.m. CT
• Sunday, Jan. 12: Bucks at Knicks, 2 p.m. CT
• Friday, March 28: Knicks at Bucks, 6:30 p.m. CT

Those 10 games will be among the Bucks’ most important matchups of the regular season as the team tries to figure out how it matches up against the rest of the best teams in the conference and potentially see what could give them problems in the postseason. It is worth noting two of those 10 games come on back-to-backs — Oct. 28 in Boston, Nov. 8 in New York — and six of their 10 matchups against those three teams occur on the road.

While those three teams will draw most of the attention from Bucks fans, the Indiana Pacers eliminated the Bucks from last season’s playoffs in six games and took four out of five games in the regular season, including the semifinals of the In-Season Tournament. The Bucks will have a chance to enact a bit of revenge for the first time in Milwaukee on Nov. 22 and then face their Central Division rivals in Indianapolis on Dec. 31 and March 11. The regular-season series ends in Milwaukee on March 15.

Potential problem areas

Before a home-heavy stretch in November, the Bucks play six of their first nine games on the road, including games on the road against each of the Celtics, Sixers and Knicks. The Bucks are going to be tested early and often this season before settling into a stretch against easier teams, largely at home, in the middle of November. That is just one of three road-heavy parts of the Bucks’ schedule that may end up being difficult to navigate.

One of the toughest parts of each season is the time between the halfway point of the season (the 41st game) and the All-Star Break, which ends up being the 54th game for the Bucks this season. This season, nine of those 13 games for the Bucks will be on the road. On top of that, all four home games will be part of a back-to-back in some way, which means there is a real possibility the Bucks will spend just seven of the 22 days leading up to the All-Star break sleeping in their own beds.

The final road-heavy stretch to worry about will be the Bucks’ longest road trip of the season, a five-game western trip near the end of March. Starting March 18 in Los Angeles, the Bucks will play the L.A. Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets across in 10 days. Before embarking on that trip, the Bucks have seven straight games against playoff teams from last season, which will make for a difficult March.

For more information on NBA tickets, click here.

(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard: Benny Sieu / USA Today)

Eric Nehm is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Milwaukee Bucks. Previously, he covered the Bucks at ESPN Milwaukee and wrote the book "100 Things Bucks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." Nehm was named NSMA's 2022 Wisconsin Sports Writer of the Year. Follow Eric on Twitter @eric_nehm