Bucks win three straight; Doc Rivers' Defensive Overhaul Propels Milwaukee Bucks into Eastern Conference Contention

[00:00:00] The Bucks are back and so are we. The All Star Break is over.

[00:00:03] And this looks like a brand new team.

[00:00:05] We're going to break down the last three games of our Milwaukee Bucks.

[00:00:08] We're going to talk about the defense. We're going to talk about the bench.

[00:00:11] We're going to go into that 10 game sample we talked about.

[00:00:14] We're three games in. Let's get into it.

[00:00:30] You're listening to the Milwaukee Bucks Beat, sponsored by

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[00:00:40] Hire them today at HungryLionProductions.com.

[00:00:44] And now here's your host, Michael Edwards.

[00:00:48] Welcome to the show. You're listening to Milwaukee Bucks Beat.

[00:00:50] I'm Michael Edwards.

[00:00:52] I'm excited to be talking about our Milwaukee Bucks today.

[00:00:55] What a turnaround.

[00:00:56] And I don't want to say it, but I'm going to.

[00:01:00] Told you so.

[00:01:02] I don't enjoy saying that, but in this case, I kind of do.

[00:01:05] There's been a lot of hate out there in the social stratosphere

[00:01:11] about our Milwaukee Bucks.

[00:01:13] And now we hear crickets.

[00:01:15] It's been quiet at the four letter network

[00:01:18] and all the other pundits have been pretty quiet these last three games.

[00:01:22] Bucks win last night, beat the Charlotte Hornets one 23 to 85.

[00:01:28] And that final score is not indicative of the game.

[00:01:32] The Bucks kicked their ass.

[00:01:34] The Bucks gave up 26 points in the first half.

[00:01:38] I mean, it's 58 to 26 at halftime.

[00:01:42] The Scrubs came in the fourth quarter

[00:01:44] and the Charlotte Hornets put up 36 on the fourth.

[00:01:48] And these Milwaukee Bucks howl to team.

[00:01:51] And I don't care about the talent.

[00:01:53] The NBA is talented.

[00:01:55] I mean, look at the game before the break.

[00:01:58] The Bucks lost to essentially a G league team.

[00:02:01] But there's a lot of talent out there in the NBA.

[00:02:03] So I don't think you can cherry pick and say, oh, these guys are that or whatever.

[00:02:06] If they're in the NBA, they're good.

[00:02:08] Full stop.

[00:02:09] So Bucks shoot 51 percent in this game, 40 percent from three.

[00:02:14] And the thing that I am noticing is, you know, hands are up in the air

[00:02:20] and balls are being tipped and loose balls are being dough for

[00:02:24] and this team has an energy that we had not seen under coach Griffin.

[00:02:30] So first, let me start this by saying all the people that are like,

[00:02:33] oh, why did you fire your coach?

[00:02:36] This is why look at this team now, compare and contrast.

[00:02:40] Our roster hasn't changed that much.

[00:02:43] But for the most part, this is the same team that we've had this whole season.

[00:02:47] And look at what we're getting out of them.

[00:02:49] And speaking of defense, Coach Doc Rivers talks about how the Bucks

[00:02:52] have slowed teams down.

[00:02:54] I thought we were very physical or our thoughts, our hands were active.

[00:02:58] Our deflections over the last four or five games have just skyrocketed.

[00:03:02] And, you know, we talked about it like, how don't we have a lot of deflections?

[00:03:07] When that fast went long, so we should get our fingertips on a lot of balls

[00:03:12] and that slows fast teams down.

[00:03:13] And I think we're doing that.

[00:03:15] Coaching philosophy is everything on this team.

[00:03:17] You can see the difference in these players

[00:03:20] and you can see they're buying into it and you can feel another pep in their step.

[00:03:24] Obviously, they just had like a six day break.

[00:03:26] Some of these players did.

[00:03:28] And I think that's refresh and that's how we all work as humans.

[00:03:32] And one of the things that JJ Reddick criticized Coach

[00:03:35] Doc Rivers about was making excuses.

[00:03:39] Well, here's the reason for the Bucks turnaround.

[00:03:42] Doc Rivers talks about that post game.

[00:03:44] I think health is the biggest difference.

[00:03:45] You know, everybody's playing other than Chris, you know,

[00:03:49] I think that's one.

[00:03:50] I think our guys understand since the break, we don't have a lot of time.

[00:03:56] And so we have to get to it and our guys are starting to do that.

[00:03:59] And speaking of our guys, our bench has really come up big, especially Bobby and Pat.

[00:04:05] Now, those are two people.

[00:04:06] I'm going to, you know, get in front of this here.

[00:04:09] I've been rough on both of them.

[00:04:10] When I graded them, I gave them both a C minus.

[00:04:13] And rightfully so, they have played like crap.

[00:04:16] But oh, my.

[00:04:18] What an Alstar break and do for your mind and your body.

[00:04:22] Janus talks about the play of Bobby Portis.

[00:04:26] Like we need him every single night to do what he does to come out of the bench,

[00:04:30] be aggressive, get his post touches, move the ball, play aggressive,

[00:04:34] defensively on the pick and roll.

[00:04:36] And the way he works the defense like he's going to he's going to be open.

[00:04:40] You know, you see there's going to be the trail threes from the top of the key

[00:04:44] or even walk the dunk at all.

[00:04:45] He's going to get his post touches like, you know, those things will come.

[00:04:48] The more energy he puts into the game, the more he's going to get back out of the game.

[00:04:52] So I feel like the last eight games has been putting energy into the game.

[00:04:54] And as I say, it's been hoping and he has since the Alstar break.

[00:04:59] Bobby is average 17.3 points, six rebounds about to assist a game.

[00:05:06] You know, shooting clip is above 50.

[00:05:09] I'm going to break these down against Minnesota.

[00:05:11] He shot almost 54 percent against Philly.

[00:05:14] He shot we're going to round these up 46 percent and against

[00:05:19] Charlotte last night, he shot 56 percent.

[00:05:24] And from three, he didn't have any.

[00:05:26] He was over two against Minnesota, but then against Philly.

[00:05:30] He was three for four 75 percent and he was 50 percent last night.

[00:05:34] If Bobby Portis plays like this the rest of the year.

[00:05:38] Good luck.

[00:05:40] Good luck to any team playing us because, you know, you can't double

[00:05:44] Yanis, you can't double Dame and double Bobby at the same time.

[00:05:49] The math doesn't work, right?

[00:05:51] So you're going to have to pick and choose and you've got Beasley out there

[00:05:54] and you're going to get Chris back and you got Brooke out there.

[00:05:59] And all the people are saying, oh, the bucks are trash.

[00:06:01] The books don't have players.

[00:06:02] Well, OK.

[00:06:06] And speaking of our bench, kind of going to the segment here,

[00:06:10] the other person I was a little rough on is Pat Connington, who's,

[00:06:15] you know, I gotta say he's played really good.

[00:06:17] So Pat has average day points for rebounds and to assists since the break.

[00:06:21] Now those may not be crazy numbers, but he's shooting against Minnesota.

[00:06:28] He shot 60 percent Philly 75 percent and last night 44 percent.

[00:06:33] So those are all really good numbers.

[00:06:36] Lots of rebounds, lots of hustles.

[00:06:38] He had a really nice dunk last night, too.

[00:06:40] It's nice to see that Pat back.

[00:06:42] You know, you can get engaged in the world changes for you, I guess,

[00:06:46] for Pat Connington and I, you know, I appreciate the effort he's brought

[00:06:50] in and Yanis talks about Pat Connington's effort.

[00:06:52] One of the smartest players on the team, one Pat plays well.

[00:06:58] It's contagious.

[00:06:59] It's an energy contagious like I was saying this in the bench

[00:07:02] the fourth quarter, seven pad is moving the ball and making the right pass

[00:07:05] and shooting the ball and being aggressive and tapping it off to the dunk.

[00:07:09] Like whenever he plays without energy because so smart,

[00:07:11] it's contagious people play with that energy.

[00:07:13] You know, like usually you don't see a lot of players

[00:07:15] I can do that for their team, but Pat is one of those guys.

[00:07:19] So I love the energy that Pat's playing with.

[00:07:21] This team is trending in the right direction.

[00:07:23] They are on pace right now to be the hottest team post all-star break.

[00:07:28] It's still pretty early.

[00:07:29] The sample size is only three games.

[00:07:31] So I'm not going to get ahead of that.

[00:07:33] But if they stay on this pace and they have,

[00:07:35] and we'll talk about their schedule later, but coming up,

[00:07:38] they have a couple games that they I don't want to say they're

[00:07:41] must win games, but they're games that they should just take care of business.

[00:07:45] Right. Speaking of taking care of business,

[00:07:47] the Dame and Yanis two man game is something we've all been

[00:07:50] kind of monitoring as fans throughout the year.

[00:07:52] And there have been moments, there have been flashes.

[00:07:55] And it's something that I think is vital to this team.

[00:07:59] I mean, doc had talked about, you know, 80 percent of the offense

[00:08:02] is going to be going through these two.

[00:08:05] Doc talks about where the two are on their two man game.

[00:08:07] They're just starting to connect.

[00:08:09] They're starting to see each other.

[00:08:11] It's funny that one on the post where he turned, you could see it.

[00:08:15] I could see it.

[00:08:17] You know, I play point and but I didn't know Damesaw.

[00:08:20] And you could tell he was just trying to set it up more.

[00:08:22] So those are good signs for us moving forward.

[00:08:26] Still, their two man game is still good,

[00:08:28] not to the great level yet, but all the other things you can see

[00:08:31] coming for sure.

[00:08:32] And that's the scary part about this Milwaukee Bucks team.

[00:08:35] We're not there yet and we're running teams over.

[00:08:39] I mean, OK, there are some stinkers in there

[00:08:41] and this team is definitely not perfect.

[00:08:43] Look at some of their signature wins this year.

[00:08:46] But the Boston Celtics stomped them.

[00:08:50] They beat the pants off of the former champions, the Denver Nuggets.

[00:08:56] That was a gratifying win.

[00:08:58] Then they go out, come out of the All-Star break, beat a really,

[00:09:01] really, really good Minnesota Timberwolves team.

[00:09:05] And the sense of urgency on this team is apparent.

[00:09:08] You can see it.

[00:09:09] This is where they were trending when the media was jumping on them,

[00:09:12] saying, oh, they're three and seven under dock rivers.

[00:09:15] Well, those people weren't watching the game.

[00:09:18] And that's what I was talking about in my last podcast is there's two types

[00:09:21] of people. There's people who watch Bucks games from start to finish

[00:09:25] and people who look at the box score.

[00:09:27] You're not going to be able to see the things that you need to see

[00:09:30] when you're just checking the box score.

[00:09:32] Did they win or did they lose?

[00:09:34] You know, obviously losing socks, but we saw this team trending

[00:09:37] in the right direction and they're starting to really put it together.

[00:09:41] And the scary thing for other teams, not for us, obviously,

[00:09:45] the scary thing is we're not quite where we are going to plateau yet.

[00:09:51] We're still, you know, charting up.

[00:09:55] And Chris Middleton's out.

[00:09:58] And this defense is now, you know, wearing teams down

[00:10:04] and they're not having the track meet that they were having under Coach Griffin.

[00:10:08] So I think it's safe to say now

[00:10:12] in the Milwaukee Bucks are sitting right now.

[00:10:15] You're going to want to sit down for this one.

[00:10:17] The Bucks have the number two defense in the NBA

[00:10:22] since January 24th in the post-Griffin era.

[00:10:26] Wow. Number two, they're also number four

[00:10:30] in defensive rebound percentage number two

[00:10:33] in transition points allowed and number seven

[00:10:36] in the fewest points in the paint allowed.

[00:10:39] Yeah, we're back.

[00:10:41] Milwaukee Bucks basketball is back.

[00:10:45] And our previous games, you know, we not to gloss over them.

[00:10:49] I mean, there's obviously meat and potatoes to dig into.

[00:10:53] But I mean, our last three games, the Bucks have looked like the Bucks.

[00:10:59] They stomped the Sixers, you know, OK, you know what?

[00:11:03] Joellen Bied is not there.

[00:11:04] Seventy Sixers get stomped one 19 to 98 Bucks win that one.

[00:11:10] And then the really big one.

[00:11:11] I mean, this is a big game on Friday, February 23rd.

[00:11:15] Bucks come out of the break on the road.

[00:11:17] And at the time, the number one team in the West, now they're tied for one.

[00:11:22] Minnesota Timberwolves, number one defense in the league.

[00:11:25] Really good team.

[00:11:27] We're quality players.

[00:11:29] Well coached Bucks win that one one 12 to one 07.

[00:11:33] They have a late surge in the third quarter where they just go off.

[00:11:37] And then, you know, they held the Timberwolves.

[00:11:40] And that was a tough one because the Bucks had a decent lead

[00:11:43] going into the fourth quarter and Timberwolves came back.

[00:11:46] And the Bucks, you thought, OK, we got them stomped out.

[00:11:49] Timberwolves had a, you know, consecutive trips with three pointers

[00:11:52] and made it a one possession game.

[00:11:54] And then Dame comes down, knocks in a nice midrange jumper with nine point

[00:11:59] two left point there is baby that one's over.

[00:12:03] So Bucks looking really good and Doc Rivers

[00:12:07] promise to try to make the Bucks live up to their statement of fearing the deer.

[00:12:13] He said, if you want to figure the deer, you actually have to figure the deer.

[00:12:16] Well, we're getting there.

[00:12:17] And my last podcast I talked about everyone taking a breath,

[00:12:20] calm down and let's just do a 10 game sample.

[00:12:23] OK, we're three games into that 10 game sample.

[00:12:27] We're going to talk a little bit about that.

[00:12:29] So in these three games so far and again, it's a small sample.

[00:12:31] We're not even halfway there yet, but we've got some good numbers for you.

[00:12:36] So the Bucks in these three games have held their opponent to 96 points.

[00:12:41] That is amazing.

[00:12:43] And the Milwaukee Bucks defensive rating as of February 23rd

[00:12:48] coming out of the All-Star break 101.1.

[00:12:53] Pretty good to say it the least, it's pretty good.

[00:12:58] I mean, obviously they're not going to be able to keep that pace up, are they?

[00:13:01] But I mean, if they do, nobody's beating them.

[00:13:04] But you know, you're going to see that number shift.

[00:13:07] But I think as long as they can hold teams under one 10,

[00:13:11] there's no question they should be winning games.

[00:13:13] They've been averaging 118 points in these three games, 48 rebounds.

[00:13:18] The really big key, though, is their shooting has been above 50 percent,

[00:13:23] 51 percent they shot 47 against Minnesota, which is good

[00:13:29] against especially against a team that's defense is elite as the Tim Wolves

[00:13:34] and then against Philly, 54 percent and Charlotte, 51 percent.

[00:13:37] But the Charlotte games not even a full sample

[00:13:40] because the fourth quarter were scrubs.

[00:13:43] So Bucks set a record, I think, or tied a record.

[00:13:47] Twenty six points and a half all they gave up against Charlotte.

[00:13:51] And we see them again on Thursday and I'm pretty sure they're going to be pissed.

[00:13:55] So you don't want to take them lightly, finish them off, go for the sweep on the year

[00:14:00] and then the really big game, Chicago Bulls back to back on Friday.

[00:14:06] And I don't think we're going to see Chris Middleton and either of those games.

[00:14:10] Bucks looking good, though.

[00:14:11] Their numbers are looking really good.

[00:14:13] From three point land on these three games are shooting 38 percent.

[00:14:16] I'll take it.

[00:14:18] It's not awesome, but the one thing I'm really noticing, though,

[00:14:22] and you're not going to see this on a stat sheet.

[00:14:24] And this is just kind of the eye test.

[00:14:26] This is not without me like lifting up the hood and digging into the numbers

[00:14:29] and whatnot, but Dame Lillard is obviously a key to this team's success.

[00:14:34] And he hadn't been really playing, you know, quote, Dame ball consistently.

[00:14:39] And then he goes and has the all star, you know, break that he has

[00:14:42] and plays good, gets the MVP wins the three point contest.

[00:14:46] And I kind of talked about, you know what?

[00:14:48] He was with the coaches.

[00:14:50] And I think one of the things they talked about was, you know,

[00:14:53] damn, how do you get yourself going in a game when you're not shooting well?

[00:14:57] So he comes out, you know, of the Minnesota game, not shooting the greatest.

[00:15:01] And I noticed he's driving the lane a lot.

[00:15:03] Well, then he starts hitting shots, crazy shots like his feet aren't

[00:15:06] even facing the basket and he's making shots off of a pick from Brooke Lopez.

[00:15:12] Amazing.

[00:15:13] And then I watched the fill a game and Dame is missing shots, driving the lane.

[00:15:20] Start hitting shots.

[00:15:22] I almost feel like he uses the driving the lane to get him going.

[00:15:26] And hey, you know what?

[00:15:27] If it works for him, that's great.

[00:15:30] I mean, he was hot in that first first half against Philly, though.

[00:15:33] But.

[00:15:35] I think he's figured this out.

[00:15:36] I think he is comfortable.

[00:15:38] I think he feels like, OK, I'm a member of the Milwaukee Bucks now.

[00:15:42] He's here.

[00:15:43] They know where they need to be.

[00:15:45] They know what they need to not be doing.

[00:15:48] This is the team.

[00:15:49] I mean, and we're still trending in the right direction.

[00:15:52] We're not even where we're going to land.

[00:15:55] I like it.

[00:15:56] So Bucks have the Hornets tomorrow, depending on when you listen to this

[00:16:00] Thursday, they have them bucks five o'clock Milwaukee time.

[00:16:03] And then a late one in Milwaukee, nine o'clock game in Milwaukee,

[00:16:10] Milwaukee time, I should say, the games in Chicago play the bulls.

[00:16:14] And this is where we're going to see what the Bucks are really made out of

[00:16:17] because coming out of that bulls game, they have the Clippers at home

[00:16:21] in Milwaukee, then the Bucks go on the road for another West Coast road

[00:16:26] trip in order.

[00:16:28] It's the Warriors, the Lakers, the Clippers and the Kings.

[00:16:33] Now, the good thing about these games, there is no back to backs in there.

[00:16:37] Bucks play the Warriors on Wednesday, March 6th.

[00:16:41] And they have a day off, play the Lakers and they have a day off, play the Clippers.

[00:16:45] So they're going to be staying in LA for that.

[00:16:46] So hopefully they can show up and then they have a day off

[00:16:50] and then go to Sacramento and then they have a day off

[00:16:53] and they come back home against the Sixers.

[00:16:57] And then the Bucks have the Suns and the Celtics.

[00:16:59] So we're going to see what this team is made out of.

[00:17:03] I'd kind of set a six and four record.

[00:17:08] And I thought that could be seven and three in these 10.

[00:17:11] So let's see.

[00:17:12] So 10 games will end with the Kings game for that sample we're looking at.

[00:17:17] And we'll see what this team is made of so far, so good, right?

[00:17:20] Out of the break.

[00:17:21] Hope the Bucks can keep the intensity.

[00:17:24] Let's go Bucks.

[00:17:26] I appreciate you.

[00:17:27] We will see you on the next one.