This last week the Bucks played the 76er’s twice, and were able to beat them both times in a little Eastern Conference battle. The Bucks and 76er’s have been east rivals for a while, but especially recently with previous battles in the playoffs. Giannis and Joel Embiid continuously go at it on the court and it is really fun to watch. This time, Giannis and the Bucks were able to prevail both times. Giannis was attacking the rim all game while Brook Lopez was shooting the lights out from three. Since Giannis has been back, he has been scoring more and seems to be really healthy. I’m hoping he can continue to play like this through the playoffs soon so we can make a deep run. Jrue holiday was putting up decent numbers as well and passing as always. Khris Middleton played decent the first game with 24 points, but didn’t make one field goal the second game and only scored 4 points from free throws. He hasn’t been playing his best recently and I think he needs to improve this before the playoffs start. Let me know what you guys think in the comments!
Giannis Out; Bucks Still WIn
The past couple of weeks, Giannis has been out with a knee injury though was able to come back last night to play against the Hawks. Before that, the bucks played the Orlando magic and the Minnesota timberwolves. Though Giannis was out, we were able to secure the win in both of those games. Khris Middleton played well in these games scoring above 20 points in each game. The timberwolves game showed that we can have multiple players scoring effectively in a game. Khris Middleton had 27 points shooting 9-15, Brook Lopez had 18 points, Jrue Holiday had 15, Connaughton and Forbes both had 14 points and Bobby Portis scored 13. Our entire team was able to score against the timberwolves and it was a good game to watch. Last night against the Hawks was a good game all around as well. No one scored a big amount with points all around. Jrue had 24 though and was getting great passes off with 7 assists as well. Brook Lopez was hitting deep threes and also getting to the paint with strength which was nice to see. And Giannis came back scoring 15 points which isn’t bad considering he just came back from injury. If we can continue to play with consistency and get everyone to score, we can make a good playoff run and see the finals too. Let me know what you guys think!
The Bucks Without The Greek Freak
The past few games the bucks have played, we had Giannis sitting out and played a couple of good teams. We beat the kings without Giannis by one point, which I have no complaints about if our superstar was out and we got a win. We then lost both to the Warriors and the Mavericks. The game against the warriors was pretty embarrassing I would say. We had a decent lead throughout the game, but then of course Steph Curry wants to have a crazy shooting night and put up 41 points. Even with Jrue Holiday defending him, he can score on anybody with ease. So we almost won that game but came up short at the end. The game against the Mavs wasn’t much different. We played pretty well the first three quarters but then in the fourth we fell apart. Jrue Holiday was showing his offensive package though and it was really nice to see. Along with that Brook Lopez was having a vintage shooting night as well. He was shooting all over the mid-range, and also from three. It just wasn’t enough to get the win though. I feel like if Giannis was in, he would’ve been able to help with the length on defense because Porzingis is so tall and lengthy. Let me know what you guys think!
Bucks vs. Knicks/Rookie game
In a recent loss against the Knicks, it was our first loss in a while after having a big win streak. Although we took this loss, we didn’t have any of our starters in except for Brook, and had our rookies in and bench players. We didn’t lose by much and I must say I was actually kind of impressed by how our team played. Jordan Nwora was going off from the three point line. I’m glad we finally got to see him with some minutes because I believe he is going to be a special player. Thanasis Antentokounmpo was also going off and hit some crazy shots that I didn’t believe went in. Overall we learned a lot about our young players in this game and I think that they will be much better in the future and be great in fact. Let me know what you guys think and have any questions!
Bucks vs. Pacers/Bucks vs. Celtics
The Milwaukee Bucks have been on a roll recently with the last few games. This week we played the Boston Celtics and the Indiana Pacers, winning both games. The game against the pacers was wild, especially considering we didn’t have Giannis. We beat the pacers 113-140 without Giannis which is one of the best scoring games we’ve had. Kure Holiday had 28 points with 14 assists. This is one of the best performances I’ve seen from him not only on this team but his career in the NBA. He was passing the ball really well and shooting super consistently at shooting 11/15. Khris Middleton shot pretty well too with 25 points shooting 10/21, and Pat Connaughton with 20 points shooting 7-9. We made a lot of threes that game which helped a lot. Against the Celtics we started off really strong but couldn’t seem to score much in the 4th quarter. Giannis came back for this game but didn’t score much, so Khris Middleton took over and shot for 27 points and we won by 2 points. Overall the Bucks are playing much better and if we continue to play like this then we can make a deeper running in the playoffs and reach the finals. Let me know your guy’s thoughts!
Bucks vs. Wizards/Bucks vs. 76ers
The Milwaukee Bucks seem to be back to winning after the all-star break. This past week we played the wizards twice and the 76ers on Wednesday and got wins on all 3 games. Our games against the wizards were all around great games. We scored pretty efficiently and got a lot of stops on defense. As for the Philadelphia game, I’d say we got away with a win at that one. We shot a total of 39% from the field in that game, and our bench didn’t put up much numbers at all. Bobby Portis is usually someone on our bench we can rely on to score for us, but he ended up only making one out of eight shots taken all game. Giannis had a rough start but was able to move past that and score 32 points and 15 rebounds. He might as well have been the reason we won this game because no one was was really playing well.
In other news, the Milwaukee Bucks traded D.j. Augustine and D.j. Wilson to the Rockets, while we acquired P.j. Tucker and Rodion Kurucs. P.j Tucker I believe will be a great addition to the Bucks roster. I think we need some more big, gritty men in our roster with some muscle on. P.j Tucker has a lot of experience while also having a lot to give still. Defensively he is a powerhouse which we need. What do you guys think? Let me know!
All-Star Weekend Break
The bucks didn’t play this week and instead the all-star break occurred. I had the opportunity to watch all of the events and will be talking about that instead. To start at the skills challenge, I was quite surprised to see some of the contestants that were in it, and was most surprised by who won it. Coming into it I would’ve thought that Chris Paul or Luka Doncic would’ve won the skills challenge. But they both lost first. I was also surprised that someone like Robert Covington was even in the challenge, as I’ve never seen him with much skill other than shooting. Domantas Sabonis won the challenge beating every contestant which was surprising to me but I knew he was a capable passer. For the dunk contest there really isn’t anything to write home about. I feel as if I’ve seen the dunks before and they just weren’t that exciting. It’s hard to compare because of all the great dunkers in the past like Vince carter, Zach Lavine, Clyde Drexler and much more, so I just don’t expect anything great anymore I suppose. The all-star game in itself was quite fun to watch though. Steph curry was shooting per usual the whole night, while also winning the 3 pt contest, which I assumed would happen coming in. And for a great ending Giannis won all-star mvp which was nice to see. Overall it was nice to see the players have a break from the regular season, and I’m hoping Giannis and the Bucks will come back stronger than before! Let me know if you guys have anything to add or thoughts!
Bucks vs. Clippers/Nuggets/Grizzlies
We had two wins this week, and a loss. Our game against the Clippers was a solid win. We shot well, defended pretty well and overall deserved the win. Our other win was against the grizzlies. We should’ve won by a lot more honestly, but our defense was slacking hard in the second half which is why we won by only one point. This leads to the loss against the nuggets. It’s unfortunate to say that Brook Lopez has been falling apart on our team both defensively and offensively. He’s a big guy at the center position, but he settles for a 3 or a mid range jump shot too often. And on defense, he’s very slow and can’t defend any center that is a little bit athletic. Another player I’m having an issue with is D.J. Augustine. He’s a great ball handler, but that is literally it. He can’t shoot, cant penetrate to the basket and is a major liability on defense, especially when he gets switched up on someone 6’5 or taller. For some reason we’ve had him starting at point guard for a few games, and he really hasn’t made a contribution to our team except for giving up too many points to the other team, and occasionally making a shot. A huge issue with our team as well is that there isn’t any movement of anyone trying to get open on offense. What I see still is everyone standing around while one person tries to score. This was heavily exposed during the nuggets game. Although we did get a couple wins, we still need to fix these flaws if we want to make a playoff run. Let me know what you guys think about this and add any thoughts!
Bucks vs, SAC/ Bucks vs. MIN/ Bucks vs. NOP. 3 Game Win Streak.
The Bucks played 3 games this week, and successfully pulled off winning all 3 of them. It seems as if they were tired of losing and maybe a 5 game losing streak was what set them off. These teams aren’t great teams, but we made some adjustments that made the difference in those games to get the win. One of the biggest reasons the Bucks were so successful in these games was because they were hitting their shots much more consistently. Giannis wasn’t running the floor the whole game, in fact with Divincenzo running at point, it’s been seeming to work with our offense. He is a good scorer in himself but he is also a solid playmaker as well. Our defense is mostly the same, which is why we let other teams still score over 110 points against us. Against New Orleans it seemed as if we didn’t even have a center. Zion Williamson was bullying his way in the paint scoring over Brook Lopez easily. Brook was way too slow to be against Zion in the paint and it showed. He needs to be better at protecting the paint and quicker too. In my opinion I believe the Bucks need a new center that is quicker and has better defense in the paint that can stop quick dunkers. Our perimeter defense hasn’t improved much either which is going to be a problem come playoff time. I still believe that with coach Bud’s system, we won’t be a successful playoff team, and that we are better off hiring a different coach. Overall we were hitting our shots and Giannis was doing work in the paint and on defense to get us these wins! Let me know if you guys have any thoughts on this or anything you’d like to add!
Bucks vs. Raptors; Two game series Loss
Over the past few years, the Bucks and the Raptors have become more of a rivalry than ever before. Ever since they beat us in the Eastern conference finals in 2019, and then go on to win the NBA finals that year. It seems as if most of the times we play Toronto, they get the better of Milwaukee, and here’s why. We played Toronto twice this week, and lost both times. The bucks have a nice size advantage over the raptors, but they don’t seem to want to utilize that. Coach Mike Budenholzer has our offense set up to almost strictly shoot threes. Which is lethal at times, but we can’t rely on three pointers all game every game. The game plan is to give the ball to Giannis and have him run the floor, and against the raptors, he either ended up passing it out or taking a bad shot himself. Coach Bud doesn’t make any changes to the offense, even seeing these mistakes happen. He relies too much on threes, and needs to realize that we have a big team that can do damage in the paint too. Another issue is our defense, mostly at the first half of the game. Toronto got a lot of easy open shots in the first half, which is what gave them the early lead. Our defense looked really slow, as if no one cared to actually defend, specifically around the three point line. Come the second half, the team looked ready to play defense, but they were already down by too much to come back. If we can switch the offense up and have our defense ready to go right away, we can start to win games! Let me know if you guys have anything to add! Or thoughts!