Bucks Reacts Survey: Do you even want to make the play-in?

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Giannis returned to the Bucks’ lineup last night, but it wasn’t enough to take down the East’s current second seed. Monday’s defeat caps off a three-game losing streak that has them eight games under .500 with 22 games remaining, exactly where they were when Giannis’ most recent injury occurred on January 23rd. They’re 3.5 games back of Charlotte (with whom they hold a tiebreaker) for 10th and four games behind Atlanta (who the Bucks could gain the tiebreaker over with a victory tomorrow) for ninth. Orlando and Miami (season series with each is tied 1-1) are 5.5 games ahead.

Not impossible hills to climb, but ones that only get harder the further back they slip as the season gets closer to its conclusion. This all begs the question: do we, as fans, even want a play-in/playoff spot at this point? Unfortunately, losing/tanking doesn’t really help Milwaukee, as they’re pretty certain to finish no ”better” than 10th in the lotto standings, especially with a healthy Giannis. Chicago, Memphis, and Dallas are “ahead” of them because they leaned into tanking post-deadline while Giannis-less Milwaukee was surprisingly thriving. So… what are they playing for here?