Even though it has been a bad year for Milwaukee thus far, Mitch Pratt and Charlie Tritschler will provide you with a bi-weekly update on the Bucks ranging from recaps, links and other neat stuff.
Quick Recap:
Monday vs. Los Angeles Clippers: Clippers 114 Bucks 86 -
The Bucks looked completely listless once again, for all intents and purposes. This was mainly due to Blake Griffin getting angry after Giannis poked the ball away from him after a whistle and then got angry. Griffin scored 11 points in the last few minutes of the second quarter and essentially took the wind out of the Bucks' proverbial sails.
It's unfortunate that this keeps happening even after coach Larry Drew seems to be harping about "energy" after every game. I'd rather not harp on coach Drew, given his situation, but it's becoming more and more apparent every night that he's PROBABLY not the best coach for the Bucks going forward.
Anyway, Khris Middleton got in the starting lineup again and had a solid game with 14 points on 7-15 shooting. Ersan, however, did not. Turkish Thunder had 16 points to lead the team (!!!) but he shot just 6 of 22 from the field. He needs to get it going.
Wednesday vs. Phoenix: L Suns 126 Bucks 117 -
For what it's worth, the Bucks played with much more life on Wednesday against Phoenix than they did on Monday night against the Clippers. They continued to fight and claw against a very well coached team that is on a roll. Suns' coach Jeff Hornacek was trying to limit some of his starters' minutes being that they were in the midst of a four games in five nights stretch but when he needed to put the Bucks away, he went back to Dragic and he was tremendous in the final minutes of the game.
Ersan Ilyasova had arguably his best game this year last night, scoring 27 points on 7-15 shooting. On Monday, he had just 16 points on 6-22 shooting. It seems like Ersan is just going to shoot his way back into stride this year. For some reason, I don't mind a chucking Ilyasova. He might be missing shots but, for the most part, he takes open shots which is something a few of the Bucks can't always say.
For what it's worth, the Bucks played with much more life on Wednesday against Phoenix than they did on Monday night against the Clippers. They continued to fight and claw against a very well coached team that is on a roll. Suns' coach Jeff Hornacek was trying to limit some of his starters' minutes being that they were in the midst of a four games in five nights stretch but when he needed to put the Bucks away, he went back to Dragic and he was tremendous in the final minutes of the game.
Ersan Ilyasova had arguably his best game this year last night, scoring 27 points on 7-15 shooting. On Monday, he had just 16 points on 6-22 shooting. It seems like Ersan is just going to shoot his way back into stride this year. For some reason, I don't mind a chucking Ilyasova. He might be missing shots but, for the most part, he takes open shots which is something a few of the Bucks can't always say.
Appropriate YouTube video: Giannis with a break away slam. You can never have too many Giannis highlights.
Links
Bucks' rookie standout, Giannis Antetokounmpo, has been named to the Rising Stars. Here is a link to an article about it on JSonline. The sky's the limit for this kid. I hope he goes down to New Orleans and scores 25 points.
This is a link to a story on Yahoo! about Doc Rivers being nice to Larry Drew because they're friends. He offers some words of encouragement for the first year coach.
Another post on SaveOurBucks.com. This time it asks who the Bucks' "Bob McGinn" is. Bob McGinn is seen almost as an "investigative" reporter when it comes to his Packer coverage. The Bucks really don't have a similar kind of reporter. My question in response is: what comes first, the chicken or the egg? No one cares about the Bucks but is that because they don't have a dogged reporter? I doubt it.
What to watch
The team's energy. It seems that this is going to be the difference between a competitive loss and a blowout loss every night. The team isn't good enough to accidentally beat anyone (as I've noted in the past) so they have to play their hardest every night to keep it close. You never want to accept losing.
What's next?
The Bucks will head to Orlando to face Tobias Harris and the Magic on Friday night. Then, they'll head up the Bible Belt to Memphis, TN and face off with the Grizzlies. The Magic game is huge for the tank as the Magic aren't that far behind in the Tank-a-thon this year. They haven't really taken the next step as many of us thought they would.
-Big Money
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