I’m not here this morning to suggest that the Milwaukee Bucks had a purposeful strategy behind the timing of their Covid outbreak. They just happened to be in the front rank of the wave of cases that swept the league over the past few weeks. However, being the first ones majorly in the NBA’s health & safety protocols comes with the lagged benefit of being among the first teams getting their players back and ready to play.
We saw the first results of that on Christmas Day with an down-and-down-and-then-way-up performance from the Bucks over a Covid-hobbled Boston Celtics squad.