Five teams that could beat the Milwaukee Bucks this season

The Milwaukee Bucks  are the best team in the National Basketball Association. With a record of 53 wins and nine losses, they are five games up on the Los Angeles Lakers (47-13) for the best record in the NBA.

On February 23 when the Washington Wizards lost 126-117 to the Chicago Bulls, the Bucks set the record for the team to have clinched a playoff spot the earliest in NBA history. The date of February 23 was two days earlier than when the Golden State Warriors clinched a playoff spot on February 25, 2017. It also only took the Bucks a record low 56 games to clinch a playoff spot. The Warriors had the previous record of 58 games (set in 2015-16 and again in 2016-17).

The Bucks currently have 20 games left in the regular season, and the question right now is do they have what it takes to join the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors (73-9) and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (72-10) as the only NBA teams ever to win 70 games in a season. Here are five teams that could beat the Bucks the rest of the way.

1) Los Angeles Lakers–The Bucks play in Los Angeles at the Staples Center on Friday. The Lakers need to be considered a threat anytime that LeBron James and Anthony Davis are on the court together.

2) Denver Nuggets–Milwaukee will play the second game of a back-to-back on March 9 when they play the Nuggets, who are third in the West at 41 wins and 20 losses. It is not out of the question that the Bucks may rest their star player Giannis Antetokounmpo against the Phoenix Suns the night before in order to prepare for Denver.

3) Boston Celtics–In their first game back from their three game Western Conference road trip on March 12, the Bucks will host a stingy Boston Celtics opponent. At 42-19, Boston is third in the East, and have been led recently by Jayson Tatum, who has a minimum of 32 points in each of his last five games. The Celtics play the Bucks again on April 5.

4) Miami Heat–The Heat gave the Bucks their last loss, a 105-89 win on March 2. Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder led Miami with 18 points each. Bam Adebayo had the double double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Miami plays Milwaukee on March 16.

5) Houston Rockets–Whenever James Harden and Russell Westbrook are on the court together, Houston is simply dangerous. At 39 wins and 21 losses, Houston is fourth in the West, and only lost 117-111 to Milwaukee to begin the season on October 24. The Bucks and Rockets play in Milwaukee on March 25.