Bucks turn up defense to cap undefeated February

Milwaukee held Brooklyn to 42 points in the second half, forcing five turnovers and outrebounding the Nets 35-18. Meanwhile Giannis Antetokounmpo had 18 points and 11 rebounds just after halftime, and the Bucks finished a 10-0 February with a 118-104 win.

The Bucks have the second-best defensive rating in the NBA this year, giving up 110 points per 100 possessions. But in February, they were even stingier, with a league-best defensive rating of 104.6. A lot of that is due to Milwaukee dominating the defensive glass, grabbing 78.9 percent of opponent's misses for the month. That's also a big reason they gave up the fewest fast break points.

Milwaukee doesn't get a lot of blocks or steals - they've been below-average in both during February. They simply stifle teams. Opposing teams shoot a league-low percentage against them, and then the Bucks deny offensive rebounds.
 
It's not just an undefeated February, but a 15-game win streak, the NBA's longest this season. Antetokounmpo has been awesome in that stretch, but Milwaukee won the three games before Tuesday night with the Greek Freak playing 10, seven and zero minutes.
During the streak, Milwaukee is outscoring its opponents by 12.4 points per game. Only three of the games have been decided by six points or less.

One of those six-point wins came against the Boston Celtics, who Milwaukee passed for first place in the Eastern Conference. Boston has had a historically-good offense this season, so we may get to see a true test of whether defense truly wins championships. It certainly wins a lot of games in February.