After dropping the first two games of the season, most recently against the Chicago Bulls in a 132-125 loss, a pattern is emerging for the Milwaukee Bucks. 

In both of their first two losses, the Bucks have stayed competitive in the early part of the game and kept things close, but fallen apart after halftime. Against the Bulls things stayed far more competitive throughout the game and ended in a close margin, but the Bucks have so far shown an inability to manage tightly in the clutch.

As the clock ran down and the game entered crunch time, the Bucks were slowly but surely outpaced by the Bulls, who outscored Milwaukee 30-212 in the fourth quarter, and ran away with the game through grittier, tougher play and a better execution of timely opportunities.

The pattern emerging isn't lost on head coach Taylor Jenkins, who addressed the Bucks' crunch time issues after the loss.

"I think the nature of late games in the fourth; timely possessions, timely sequences... taking care of the ball a little bit. Coming up with some loose balls there, couple offensive rebounds kind of hurt us," Jenkins said (via Bucks). "When we're at our best, these guys need to be playing fast and free and self-organizing out there."

Playing with pace and quickness have the potential to be the Bucks' greatest strength, but that pace needs to show up late in the game when it matters most. 

Milwaukee's consistent dysfunction late in the game has proved to so far been their fatal flaw and while Jenkins himself has a role to play in organizing the team, he's also asking them to keep their composure independently of him when the game is on the line as well.

Their crunch time issues manifest in costly turnovers and a lack of seizing offensive rebounds that could keep the game's momentum swayed in their favor. Without taking advantage of opportunities that keep the ball in their hands, the Bucks will keep running into this wall of falling apart when the seconds tick down.

When mistakes like that pile up late in games like they have in the Bucks' first two losses, it makes any attempt at seizing back control that much harder and paring that with the Bucks' loss of pace as the game goes on means that maintaining or retaking a lead late in a game becomes an untenable situation. 

Jenkins' role late in games is to facilitate and draw up plays that help maintain Milwaukee's control of the score, but the players on the court have to follow suit and dictate the pace and tone of the game when there isn't much time left.

That so far hasn't been the case and Jenkins is certainly keen on cleaning up the Bucks' flaws in the clutch both offensively and defensively.