MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Bucks are annoying.

They may prefer to hear they are great or that they are undoubtedly a playoff team. But at this moment, there might not be a greater compliment for what the Bucks have done in recent weeks. If you listen to the rest of the league, they will tell you the same thing. Over the last few weeks, several teams have struggled to keep their mouths shut after going head-to-head with the brash young team from Milwaukee.

First, it was the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Bucks have gone toe-to-toe with the defending champs three times this season – beating them 118-101 in their first meeting Nov. 29. That drubbing didn’t sit well with Cavaliers star Kyrie Irving. He let ESPN’s Dave McMenamin know when he was asked about potentially facing the Bucks in the playoffs.

“It would be great to go four games against them,” Irving said. “I’m fired up to go against them every time now, for real. Ever since they kicked our [expletive] in Milwaukee, it’s been personal, and it’s going to continue to be personal.”

Next, it was the Washington Wizards.

In a strange scheduling quirk, the Bucks played the Wizards in back-to-back games around Christmas. Milwaukee dominated the Wizards 123-96 in the first matchup, then fell to the Wizards 107-102 three days later.

With less than six minutes left in the second meeting, Wizards forward Markieff Morris gave Giannis Antetokounmpo a shove while pursuing a loose ball. The shove sent Antetokounmpo flying into the Wizards’ bench. After the game, the face of the Wizards’ franchise John Wall revealed why he might have done the same thing.

“We felt like they whooped us badly,” Wall said. “But also you’re just up 20 or 30 points, keeping your star player in trying to get his numbers we kind of didn’t like that. We took that personal.”

“We didn’t have (anything) written on the board. We didn’t say too much. It was a lot more chippie, a lot more trash-talking than it was in the past.”

Finally, it was the Oklahoma City Thunder.

When asked about what bothers teams most about the Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan offered up the team’s defense as a possibility.

“Their uniqueness is the ability to do two things on defense,” Donovan said. “It's the ability to be disruptive - really pack and load the paint up - and then when you pass it out, their length and athleticism to not only get out there, but to also contain the ball back off the dribble again. They're a disruptive team, in terms of how they play defensively.”

There is no doubting the Bucks ability to bother teams defensively. Milwaukee is currently in the top ten in defensive efficiency and plays an unorthodox defensive scheme that teams rarely see. But that doesn’t seem like the type of thing that would regularly provoke post-game comments from opponents.

Antetokounmpo has a theory of his own.

“We’re a unique team because we play hard every night,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’re young. We know we’re going to have slow starts - and sometimes in the third quarter too – but we play hard no matter what.”

“Some teams – some good teams – think that we’re going to give up or quit while we’re taking punches first, but we keep coming.”

It doesn’t seem like a never-say-quit attitude or the ability to comeback against teams would upset NBA players. So, why are they annoyed? Is it just the result on the scoreboard?

The Bucks have recorded ten double-digit victories this season, the fifth-most among Eastern Conference teams. Their 17-point win against the Cavaliers was the second largest margin of defeat for Cleveland this season. Their 27-point win over the Wizards? That was Washington’s largest defeat.

A sleepy Wednesday in Milwaukee is no longer an easy game and that, for many teams, is annoying. And it may become even more serious in the coming years. A meeting with the Bucks will turn from a game you can’t overlook to a game you circle at the start of the month.