The Golden State Warriors were undefeated and headed to Milwaukee for a December game. At The Bradley Center, the Bucks were already calling their shot, as team staffers set out green T-shirts that read, simply, “24-1.”

It was absurd. The Warriors were off to a historic start (and finished 2015-16 at 73-9.) Yet here are the 9-15 Bucks acting like they expect to be the ones to end the streak, just as they did back in 1972 when the Lakers arrived after 33 wins in a row.

It only made any sense because of the Clutch Crew, a group of 100 fans given free seats in the lower level of the arena and charged with creating a playoff atmosphere — no matter what.

Ten years earlier, few teams – especially one like the Warriors, who of course set the mark for most wins in a single season – would have feared a trip to Milwaukee. It should have been just another stop on a march through the league.

Not on this night, not this time.

By the end of the night, the leader of that raucous fan section, Ben Fink, could only pause and take it all in as Michael Carter-Williams slammed home a breakaway dagger of a dunk.

The Bucks did snap the Warriors’ streak, with a 108-85 victory, and the Bucks’ crowd was all the talk after the game. The Clutch Crew had officially made it.

“That felt like we won the championship,” Fink said. “It was really special. I think that it was just one of those indescribable moments … It was a special night, one that I’ll never forget.”

To get to that point, though, wasn’t easy.

The Bucks were in the midst of an identity crisis. The 2008-09 season had just come to an end, and the Bucks were once again last in the East’s Central Division. Their attendance ranked near the bottom of the NBA. The Bradley Center lacked any semblance of an atmosphere. There had to be a way to get the fans engaged.

Something needed to change, and Andrew Bogut had an idea.

Bogut, the former No. 1 overall pick from Australia, grew up watching — and later playing in front of — unrestrained crowds that are commonplace in the international game. Even though college basketball touts impressive atmospheres, those kind of environments never seemed to develop at NBA arenas. Bogut wanted to do his part to make an impact in the arena, so he went to the team with an idea.

“He wanted (the fans) to have a little bit more of that kind of European or international soccer flare, that sort of atmosphere, and energy in the building,” Bucks Chief Marketing Officer Dustin Godsey said.

To make that happen, Bogut volunteered to buy 100 tickets in the lower level — seats in neighboring sections currently sell for around $90 — and personally select the most die-hard Bucks fans based on auditions. After three rounds of tryouts, the Bucks selected the passionate fans willing to stand and scream for an entire game. The section would be called the Squad 6 – his number with the Bucks.

For the following three seasons with the Bucks, Bogut took ownership of the Squad 6. He’d interact with the fans after games and acknowledged them from the court. Squad 6 did its part too. What was just 100 fans on a typical week night truly made a difference when they were carrying the energy for the entire arena.

NBA teams quickly took notice.

In the first year of the fan section, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted a since-deleted compliment; according to The New York Times, Cuban called the Bucks’ section the “most fun fans I have seen on the road EVER.”

The Bucks and Houston — with the Red Rowdies — were the first NBA teams to have a club-sponsored fan section. Their successes have led to Atlanta, Indiana, Memphis, Minnesota, Portland and San Antonio adopting similar models for fan engagement. Other teams, though, like Detroit and Denver, have struggled to make fan sections catch on.

The Pistons, for example, held tryouts for their cheering section, but only 11 fans showed up and the idea was eventually abandoned.

The support from within the Milwaukee organization helped the fan section thrive where other teams failed. The Bucks made it part of the game operations and entertainment team. Still, they didn’t want to script traditions, preferring for chants like the post-tipoff “Milwaukee” cheer to develop organically.

The Clutch Crew often gets compared to a student section in college basketball. Fink, having grown up playing soccer, prefers to align the atmosphere with more of a European soccer feel. The Clutch Crew doesn’t pick a specific player to taunt, like you’d sometimes see in college; it instead opts to focus on chants and cheers that encourage the Bucks rather than disparage the opponent. In the fourth quarter, they’ll break out tifos — giant banners borrowed straight from European soccer — with different messages all with the mission of hyping up the rest of the arena.

“I was already used to seeing a lot of that,” Fink said. “So I already had a good background, just taking pieces from other teams.”

Over the years, the Bucks have hosted representatives from NBA teams and have been open to passing on suggestions to make the idea catch on in other small-to-medium NBA markets.

“Certainly, it was something that other teams kind of saw what was going on here, and kind of put their own spin on it,” Godsey said. “I think other teams have had different uses for it, different needs from us at the time. We had problems, weren’t always the biggest, so for us, as we were trying to build up a culture and an atmosphere in the building, it really filled a role there.”

This idea still had to be sustainable beyond Bogut for it to work. He got the idea started, and bought the tickets. To show how serious the Bucks were about the Clutch Crew, the team employed someone to lead the group’s day-by-day and game-night operations. Since the 2014-15 season, that leader has been Fink – a longtime Bucks fan who grew up watching Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson.

“My responsibilities have grown every year,” Fink said. “I get more and more responsibilities as far as sending tickets out, making decisions, gaining people on the list. Overall, my responsibilities are finding members and finding fans that want to participate in the section itself. That evolves from tryouts every year to just word of mouth, and finding people that have a lot of enthusiasm for the Bucks.”

The Clutch Crew has over 600 members who participate on a rotating basis to be among the 100 fans in the section on game night. Each of those 600 fans had to audition to qualify for the group and there is a waiting list to be a part of it. The tickets are still free — which differs from Houston’s for-purchase spots for the Rowdies section — and attendance is mandatory.

When Bogut left Milwaukee, Ersan İlyasova took over. Then, it was former head coach Jason Kidd who kept the section going. After a few name changes, Harley Davidson is sponsoring the group with the official title: “Harley Davidson Clutch Crew.” The staying power of the section has been undeniable, and it should continue as the Bucks move into a new arena next season. The Bucks say they are committed to not let the idea drift away as a one-off fad.

“I think what really has made it a success is just everybody internally was into it. It was something that came from the basketball side,” Godsey said.

“Then, as we’ve changed ownership in the last few years and gone through, they’ve recognized this as being a part of what it is, so it had that support from the beginning, and then has been allowed to kind of build and create its own culture, which I think is what has to happen.”

There’s always room to grow, and Fink would love to see the section’s capacity increased. He’s constantly getting approached by fans eager to join. Still, as he looks back at the big games and memorable moments, he can’t help but be excited about the Clutch Crew’s future and the desire be even better.

“It motivates me and the members to always bring it 110 percent every game because we have got to make that noise,” Fink said.