Bucks Buzz: Monday March 3rd

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.  

Hot Recap Takes

Thursday: Pacers 101 Bucks 96 -  Remember how in the last game between these two teams I said it was encouraging how Roy Hibbert did not go off for a bevy points? Yeaaah that did not happen with this one as Hibbert had 24 points, 12 rebounds and a couple blocks being the difference for Indiana in this one. Paul George had another good night at the office with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists with a +17 PER. But what was encouraging is the Bucks fought again in this one playing competitive once again. Brandon Knight had a nice night at the office with 23 points on 10/20 shooting with five assists. Khris Middleton was also strong in this game with 22 points on 9/15 shooting. One of the first real ugly nights from Zaza Pachuila as he got dominated by Hibbert defensively as well missed seven shots. You don't want that from Mr. Zaza.

Saturday: Nets 107 Bucks 98 - Another competitive loss for Milwaukee where they got beat by Brooklyn's bench more so than anything else. Marcus Thornton is a Bucks killer. I swear he always go off when playing the Bucks. Thornton had 25 points making four threes on only 13 shots. The inexcusable stat line of the night is Andray Blatche having a 19 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. I mean I know Dre been good for Brooklyn but I would never expect that from him. Ramon Sessions continues his good start in his Milwaukee revival as he had 16 points with most of them coming from the free throw line. Giannis Antetokounmpo had a nice night with 12 points, three rebounds, assists and steals. Gianni just knows how to fill up the box score. Jeff Adrien deserves some dap for pulling down 10 rebounds, but honestly, someone needs to stop the interior scoring, please someone.

Why exactly did Colin Cowherd delete his Bucks tweet?   
This is not one of the more popular ESPN personalities, and he likes to do things to piss people off. He had this tweet about the Bucks.. "Ever watched a Bucks regular season game for a few minutes and wondered..am I the only person in America currently doing this?" Honestly, I find it kind of funny and in no way disrespectful. But obviously some people were mad, and then Colin deleted the tweet. Then he went full heel towards Bucks fans and sent out this one with a classic Bucks reply.

@ESPN_Colin yeah, that accidental delete button gets us every time.
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) March 3, 2014

Look to be mad about Cowherd's tweet is stupid. We know there are Bucks fans, and there is a loyal base just not a casual base. It was a simple attempt to rile up people and so many simpletons took the bait with complete ease. National media outside of the NBA diehards do not pay attention to the Bucks. Simple as that.

Links


Another week of #ALLGIANNISEVERYTHING where he kicked a soccer ball and won a fan a scooter which is awesome. Like that the city is moving him around to different places. I have to assume he will be at at a Brewers game or two. .

This is about how Giannis will not be the only Antetokounmpo in the league as Kostos is considered to be one of the best for 2016 and Thanasis Antetokounmpo will be drafted likely nice year.

What to watch
Sessions and Adrien are playing great for Milwaukee so far. I would have expected them to mail it in and they have done the complete opposite. I look forward to seeing how they do against two weaker teams in the NBA.

Upcoming schedule
Major week for the tank as Bucks host both Utah and Sacramento this week in two very winnable games. Could this be the chance for the first winning streak of the season?

Charlie.

Bucks Buzz: February 6 - A Family Reunion

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. New York (W): Bucks 101 Knicks 98 

I say this about every team the Bucks actually beat but how bad are the Knicks? Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith were chucking threes on their way to 36 and 30 points, respectively. The rest of their squad could only muster 32 points? Tim Hardaway was only 2-10 from the field and Raymond Felton was just 1-7. This really doesn't surprise me, it's just that I need to make fun of another team other than the Bucks. 

Speaking of those Bucks, this was easily the best game of the season for them. It was the first game Bucks' rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo got to play in front of his family. The Antetokounmpo's had some visa issues to work out but are now finally Stateside for good and now it seems as though Giannis will finally be able to relax and play ball (or, as Brandon Jennings would say: "just hoop"). Yanni played well in front of Mr. and Mrs. A (highlights below, the last up and under layup is unreal), scoring 15 points on 5-9 shooting and was 5-8 from the line. Further, I feel like he's going to forever be a Knicks killer, which we all should love.

Appropriate YouTube video: Giannis Highlights versus the Knicks. Chills for days.

His little brother Kosta is on the left. He's 16 and is 6'7". What do they feed these kids?

Welcome to Milwaukee, Antetokoumpo's!

Wednesday at Denver (L): Nuggets 110 Bucks 100

The energy was pretty good in this game, once again. They played a solid Nuggets team all the way through and didn't roll over after a bad third quarter. Small victories like this are nice to see when your team is 9-40. Larry Sanders had his best game of the season scoring 25 points (a new career high) and grabbing 15 rebounds in the losing effort. 

LARRY SANDERS! might have earned that stylization back after his recent stretch of games. He's averaging 13.4 points per game (57.7 percent from the floor) and 10.4 rebounds per game over his last five games. He fouled out of the game on Monday but, in typicaly Larry fashion, he got the crowd on their feet before he exited, nearly getting a technical in the process.

If you want him to be traded, you're doing it wrong. Many people will hopefully come back around on the 25 year old big man after this recent stretch.

Links

An article by Charles Gardner of the Journal-Sentinel about Giannis and his family being here for good. You can tell he's so happy now and it sounds like his family will be at every home game. Let's get those roots firmly planted in the 414. And for the love of God, draft his brother, Thanasis, in the 2014 draft to get them all in Milwaukee. (Ed. note: Can we get Kostas to Marquette please? Thanks. - CT) 

Here's a post from Fansided about the Bucks potentially having interest in the Cavaliers' Dion Waiters, who has fallen out of favor in Cleveland. I'm not sure how I feel about him. He doesn't have eye-popping numbers in his short career and is a bit of a head case. However, as long as they don't make a stupid trade to get him, I might be alright with it. He's the kind of guy the Bucks' might want to target. He's only 22 himself and could possibly turn it around in a new situation.

What to watch

One thing I'm going to keep my eye(s) on is the continuing play of LARRY SANDERS! and Khris Middleton. Those guys have been on-fire over the last handful of games. Middleton is shooting 58.3 percent from beyond the arc over his last five and is scoring 16.6 points per game over that stretch.

Sanders just needs to play within himself and keep everything else in check to have a large impact.

What's next?

The Bucks have just one game over the weekend as they'll host the Houston Rockets on Saturday night. This is a somewhat controversial night for Bucks' fans as it's "beard night" and the team is conveniently playing against NBA superstar James Harden, who's known for his beard. Additionally, it's going to be a "red out" night as the Bucks are giving away a red shirt with a beard on it to all fans. 

Think of it what you will.

Bucks Buzz: January 9 - Free K-Midd

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:

Tuesday vs. Golden State: Warriors 101 Bucks 80

Another night, another double-digit loss. The Bucks are now 7-27 on the season and after reports of a fight/shouting match going on between Larry Sanders and Gary Neal happening on Saturday night after their loss in Phoenix, the Bucks have ostensibly hit rock bottom. I'm going to withhold judgement on whether I think it's "rock bottom" or not because I think it can definitely get worse than it already is. 

Gary Neal is apparently being shopped now for any taker. Thank you, John Hammond and Herb Kohl. Some of us were worried that the Bucks would see all this bad PR from Larry Sanders and try to make him the scapegoat and move him. I applaud Larry trying to be a leader and beaking a veteran "leader" for being a chucker and just looking for his shot. Unfortunately, the Bucks are losing night in and night out so this looks really bad. Again, the timing for Sanders is bad as well so people are going to pile on him some more. I think he just wants the team to play cohesively and that hasn't happened hardly at all this year. 

As far as the game, it was your typical Bucks game this season. They hung around for the most part into the third quarter but before you know it, they're down by 15-20 points in the fourth quarter and it's suddenly game over. David Lee had a big night offensively but again showed me why that call him "Avid Lee" (no D) while trying to defend Ersan Ilyasova. 'Sova is anything but athletic and he was getting around Lee and getting to the basket. It was fairly entertaining. Ironically, watching Illy defend Lee was also a nightmare and probably set the game of basketball back a few days. Our boy Giannis had a nice night dishing the ball (five assists) but there's some concern that he's a little too passive when it comes to getting/taking shots. I wouldn't worry as he's young and still figuring things out but it's something to watch I suppose.

The Dubs had a really balanced effort overall and Steph Curry put on his show for the Milwaukee faithful. He makes some incredibly tough shots and really leaves you nearly speechless at times. Good to see the Warriors get back to playing good basketball, though. They were hanging back around the nine seed in the West before this epic road trip that the Warriors went on. They lost last night in Brooklyn, forfeiting their chance to be the first team to achieve a 7-0 road trip in NBA history. Now, after a 6-1 road trip, they're comfortably back in that six seed in the Western conference. 

Appropriate YouTube video: "Warrior Mentality"

This video isn't necessarily pertinent to the game itself but it's one of my all-time YouTube faves. These guys name off all the obscure Warriors' players that were on the team between playoff appearances. If you're a fan of randon trivia, it gets good. Trust me.

Links 

Here's a link to a story about the above mentioned argument between Sanders and Neal.

There's a SaveOurBucks.com t-shirt handout at Loaded Slate before the game on Friday against the Chicago Bulls. These are typically home games for the Bulls but maybe if word gets out about these free t-shirts, we can take back the Bradley Center from the FIBs and "Bulls fans". Just scroll down and read the OP's post for details. 

From Bucksketball: An article about OJ Mayo possibly going a little heavy on the mayo since he's been in Milwaukee. I recently questioned OJ's heart on twitter and the fact that he's plumped up a bit basically confirms my questioning. He was publicly called out by Rick Carlisle last year so this shouldn't surprise anyone.

What to watch

Obviously, be on the lookout for a Gary Neal trade sooner rather than later (good riddance) and as I touched on above, keep an on Giannis perhaps being more aggressive offensively. 

Also, can we get Khris Middleton back in the starting lineup? Jesus Martha. This guy clearly should be starting for the Bucks but Larry Drew has been starting Luke Ridnour instead. We've got nothing to lose at this point. He's been reduced to playing with the bench mob that typically consists of the likes of Mayo and Caron Butler. Yikes.

This isn't directly related to the Bucks but keep an eye on whether or not Jabari Parker, who is Mormon, goes on a two-year LDS mission trip after being drafted. I'd be on suicide watch if the Bucks took him and then he went on a mission. Who's a Mormon anyway?

What's next?

The Bucks take on the Bulls at the BC on Friday, get out there and show you're SaveOurBucks support. The Bulls will, once again, be trying to out-tank us so expect to see Joakim Noah and any other impact players sitting out this one.

Then, they'll travel to Oklahoma City on Saturday to get destroyed by Kevin Durant and the Thunder. I needn't say much else. The tank rolls on.

-Big Money