The Milwaukee Bucks are the NBA Cup champions. 

Is an NBA title next?

Too soon? Fine. We are just a little over a quarter of the way through the NBA season. And history—very recent history, as that’s all there is for the league’s fledgling in-season tournament—has not been kind to the Cup champs. The Los Angeles Lakers raised the first Cup trophy last season. They went 3–10 in the weeks after. 

Still, the Bucks are rolling. Tuesday’s win, a 97–81 beating of the Oklahoma City Thunder, won’t count in the league standings (fix that, NBA) but it was (unofficially) the Bucks’ fourth straight. Officially, Milwaukee is 12–3 since its hideous 2–8 start. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 26 points won’t count toward his season total (ditto, league) but his scoring (an NBA-best 32.7 points per game) and efficiency (61.4% from the floor) are career highs. 

“We’ve shown that the team we started the season as is not the team that we are now,” Damian Lillard said. “And it was never who we truly were.” 

Yeesh. That wasn’t a win. That was a statement. A back-and-forth first half ended with the Bucks squeezing out a one-point lead. By the end of the third quarter, it was 13. Antetokounmpo scored 12 points in the third, steamrolling past Lu Dort, Jalen Williams and every other defender Oklahoma City steered toward him. Lillard chipped in eight, connecting on two of his team-high five threes in the quarter. 

“There’s blunt force on offense,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They pump fastballs, and you’ve got to be able to hit 98.”

It’s been nearly five years since Antetokounmpo won his last league MVP. After claiming the in-season tournament MVP, he’s barreling toward another. Last season, Antetokounmpo became the first player in NBA history to shoot better than 60% on a 30 ppg season. He’s on the pace to do it again in this one. His three-point shot hasn’t developed but his midrange game has, with Antetokounmpo adding a selection of hooks, floaters and jumpers to his game. 

“His journey to becoming the superstar that he is is a tough one,” Lillard said. “So when you get to this point, you don’t want to stop. You’ve got to keep fighting for your position and where you’ve come. I think that’s who he is and that’s why he goes about things the way he does.”

Behind Antetokounmpo, the Bucks offense is humming. But it’s the defense that has pushed them back into the contender mix. Through 10 games, Milwaukee had a defensive rating of 115.7, per NBA.com. They were surrendering nearly 116 points per game. Over the last 15 games, the defensive rating improved to 110. Opponents are averaging 109.3 points per game. The Thunder entered the game eighth in the league in offensive rating. The 82 points Oklahoma City scored was a season low. 

“One of the guys, I think yesterday, said all they heard about was the defense of the other team,” coach Doc Rivers said. “That’s all they have heard for two days. I think that bothered guys.”

The Bucks will tell you they could see this coming. In October, following an eight-point loss to the Boston Celtics, I chatted with Lillard at his locker. “We’re going to get this right,” Lillard says confidently. A new defense put in by assistant coach Greg Buckner was taking time to stick. The chemistry between Lillard and Antetokounmpo was still a work in progress. But inside the Milwaukee locker room the confidence never wavered.

“If we go out there and do the small things,” Lillard said. “If we play together, we share the ball, make the right play, we trust our scouting report and our defensive coverages and our scheme, the more we’re able to put that together possession after possession and sustain it over 48 minutes.”

There have been tweaks. AJ Green, a three-point sniper, earned a bigger role in the rotation. Andre Jackson Jr., a defensive stopper, seized the starting slot opposite Lillard. And good shooters—Green, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis—who were struggling early in the season started making shots. 

“I think we are competing 1734505467,” Antetokounmpo said. “I think we are competing more. I feel like everybody understands that in order for us to be in a game or to win a game, we’ve got to compete more. Early this season, I felt like we had this mindset, just because we have great talent within the team, that things don’t just happen. Like guys just going to dribble the ball up and give us the ball. I’m going to go the other way and try to score. And that’s not what happened in the first 10 games.”

There was an NBA Finals-like celebration on the floor after the game Tuesday. But there will be no vacation after. As he headed toward the locker room, Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham—two-time Cup champion Darvin Ham, who helmed the Lakers last season—reminded those within earshot how far the team has to go. “We got 56 games left,” Ham said. “Nobody forget it.” 

Indeed, Milwaukee heads to Cleveland on Friday for a conference game far more consequential. Inside the Bucks locker room, boxes of Champagne remained unopened. Orders from the coaching staff. Saved, perhaps, for another day. One that counts.

“We’re going to improve and going to stay locked in,” Antetokounmpo said. “Because the job’s not done.”