Milwaukee Bucks Struggle to Find Footing as NBA Playoffs Approach

[00:00:00] Welcome to the show. I know it's been a minute, but here we are. We're back going over some stats

[00:00:05] Are you concerned about the Bucks? Well, I am too. We're gonna talk about it

[00:00:09] We're gonna look in the numbers

[00:00:11] Break it down

[00:00:13] Five games left in the season trying to lock up the two

[00:00:17] Let's go

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

[00:00:34] Sponsored by Hungry Lion Productions Video Production Services

[00:00:38] Video production from start to finish hire them today at HungryLionProductions.com

[00:00:45] And now here's your host Michael Edwards. Welcome to the Bucks Beat. I'm your host Michael Edwards

[00:00:52] Not much to say here a positive really

[00:00:55] Bucks are really struggling

[00:00:58] Playing three of the worst teams by record

[00:01:02] In the league and dropping all three

[00:01:05] Bucks lose to the Raptors who had lost 15 games in a row prior to playing the Bucks

[00:01:11] 117-111 Bucks just looked terrible. Yeah, this doesn't play

[00:01:15] Pep Bev is out

[00:01:17] Dane plays the whole second half. We're gonna go back to that one here, but

[00:01:21] Prior to that Bucks lose to the Grizzlies by 10

[00:01:23] 111-101

[00:01:25] and Bucks wizards

[00:01:27] Bucks lose by 4 117-113

[00:01:30] awful awful awful

[00:01:32] Bucks have dropped five of their last six

[00:01:36] Not looking good going into the playoffs

[00:01:39] So let's talk about that Raptors game

[00:01:42] And one of the things that is constant on social media and it's obnoxious

[00:01:48] Is people hating on dock rivers

[00:01:50] I don't get it, but

[00:01:52] Even I have family members that don't like him and I don't get it. He's a smart guy. He's a good coach

[00:01:59] The other coaches rated him one of the top 15 coaches of all time and

[00:02:03] There was a story I had heard where there were all all the NBA coaches were in a room and they're all kind of goofing around and talking

[00:02:10] And then anytime dock rivers talked everyone stopped and listened

[00:02:13] They really respect that man and other coaches know

[00:02:17] Right when you're in the industry like I'm in the film industry

[00:02:20] When other filmmakers talk I listen and

[00:02:22] I think it's the same thing. So he has a lot of respect

[00:02:25] Of NBA coaches who know what they're doing. So fans are not very fair

[00:02:30] But dock talks about the loss to the Raptors Grizzlies and wizards to me. That's inexcusable for all of us

[00:02:37] You know, as I told them I said this is on me. I got to figure out what we got to do

[00:02:42] Uh to play at a higher pace and everyone's always talking about how dock rivers throws his team under the bus

[00:02:49] And I think they're misunderstanding when he talks when he talks

[00:02:53] He's telling you what he saw. You don't know everything that's going on in the locker room. You don't know everything that's going on in the huddle

[00:03:00] My guess is he's telling them to do stuff and they're not doing the stuff. That's my guess

[00:03:04] He's not just gonna sit there and relax people put these losses on dock and

[00:03:09] granted there is a certain amount of ownership that comes when a team wins or loses

[00:03:15] And the coach has to play a part in that so I'm not saying that but

[00:03:18] Man, he's not out on the floor and I'm going to break some numbers down to kind of

[00:03:22] Back up what I'm about to say here. But this is not on dock

[00:03:27] Especially, you know bucks fans always want to blame somebody

[00:03:32] And it always seems to be the coach

[00:03:34] I mean, I know we love yonis. I know we love dame. I know we love chris and everyone but

[00:03:39] This is on the players

[00:03:41] And I've got numbers to back that up. I'm going to go into that later

[00:03:44] Dean lilor talks about where the bucks are right now, you know, it's it's a type of pain that

[00:03:50] Gets a team together, you know

[00:03:53] I just told brook I have an experience like losing three in a row at this point in the season to like three of the

[00:03:58] The worst teams by record

[00:04:01] In the league, but

[00:04:02] You know, I've had a similar experience a few times where it was like into the season you're like, man, what are we doing?

[00:04:07] You know, like what the hell is going on?

[00:04:11] And I think we all have that feeling

[00:04:14] you know, but it's not a lack of effort or care and

[00:04:17] Seems like it's just not bouncing our way right now

[00:04:19] We sometimes when you try so hard to turn it around you end up

[00:04:23] You know standing that that rut, you know, it continues to be a battle

[00:04:26] But you know, it's it's darkest before dawn and I think we just got to keep pushing forward. We know we capable of

[00:04:34] We know that this is unacceptable. You know what I'm saying?

[00:04:38] But it's not like we can go back and change the game at this point. So we gotta

[00:04:42] We got to get it together, you know, we got to

[00:04:45] Push it to where it needs to be, you know before the decision is done

[00:04:49] Well said by dame lilor. I like how I use the dark night quote darkest before the dawn

[00:04:54] The funny thing is that's how I kind of feel with the MVP race with the honest you, you know

[00:05:01] Taking a page from the dark night. You either die here or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

[00:05:06] And that's how yonis

[00:05:08] That's how I feel about yonis and the MVP race

[00:05:10] But back to this game, you know, dame lilor makes a good point is hey, you know what we're trying

[00:05:15] Like it's not lack of effort

[00:05:16] I don't see the frustration in the players and there's other interviews, but I'm only I'm gonna play one more clip

[00:05:22] Um from doc here, but in the interviews I saw the bucks don't look too worried and

[00:05:28] Granite this isn't the way you want to go into the playoffs and obviously

[00:05:32] So there's five games left and

[00:05:34] we're sitting here now where

[00:05:36] The bucks

[00:05:37] sit a game and a half ahead of the calves

[00:05:41] And that's not only for the two seed but that's for the central division title

[00:05:45] And they've won it five years in a row. It's kind of in jeopardy at this point to be honest

[00:05:48] I I don't know. I don't think the bucks care about seeding, but I do so we're gonna kind of move forward assuming

[00:05:54] We all care about the bucks getting the two here

[00:05:58] But the calves lose earlier today, which was a nice thing. I'm recording this on saturday

[00:06:03] Cavs lose to the lakers

[00:06:06] 1697 lakers are hot by the way right now

[00:06:09] But in the standings right now

[00:06:12] Going into the bucks next game against the nicks that'll be on sunday tomorrow as I record this

[00:06:17] A game I'm very nervous about

[00:06:20] Now bucks

[00:06:21] Bucks kind of have one up on the nicks though. So the button the nicks are I'm gonna kind of break this down here

[00:06:26] So bucks are in two

[00:06:27] obviously Celtic clinched the one already bucks are in two

[00:06:32] Cavaliers right behind a game and a half and then behind two games behind is the magic who we have two games left with already

[00:06:38] And then the nicks

[00:06:40] are also

[00:06:42] Two games back but the thing with the nicks is we have the tiebreaker over them

[00:06:45] So there are really three games back. So even if the nicks beat us

[00:06:50] It's gonna be tough for the nicks to get the two

[00:06:52] But right now it looks like don't sleep on the magic the magic comes in and beats us twice

[00:06:57] Depending on how others of the games go the magic could easily slide into two, which is insane

[00:07:02] So bucks have a tough run coming up here

[00:07:05] And I'm gonna go back to this game, but I'm just since I started talking about it

[00:07:08] I want to keep going

[00:07:09] Bucks have the nicks Celtics magic thunder and magic they have five games left

[00:07:14] We'll break that down later, but I wanted to kind of quickly talk about that

[00:07:17] Bucks losing these three games. They really screwed themselves

[00:07:20] They pretty much have the two locked up if they win these give me games and they you know

[00:07:25] Apparently there's no such thing as a give me game with this team

[00:07:28] This has been the least fun season

[00:07:30] That I have had with the bucks as a fan in a long time

[00:07:34] You know, we got chris and dame and brook and everything and I thought wow

[00:07:38] This is gonna be a really fun season. This season has not been fun

[00:07:42] I've not really enjoyed it. I mean, there's been some

[00:07:45] Signature wins and they've all we're gonna talk about that here in a second

[00:07:49] But first doc rivers talks about what he noticed during the buck's raptors game

[00:07:53] Listen the first quarter we miss

[00:07:55] Probably four or five wide open threes, right? But then the ball stopped moving

[00:08:00] And that's when you at least the tough shots

[00:08:03] Turnovers and them out running

[00:08:06] What they notice is the same thing we see

[00:08:09] For second quarter, they just pushed the ball at us every single time and we couldn't keep the ball in front of us

[00:08:16] So we just have to do a better job

[00:08:18] I have to do a better job of figuring out how to stop that and there's the responsibility people say doc doesn't take

[00:08:26] So put that in your cap jj reddick. So let's break this down

[00:08:30] I'd said and I mean life has happened for me

[00:08:33] So I haven't been able to record a podcast and honestly it's been kind of depressing anyway to be honest

[00:08:39] But I want to talk about those stats. I talked about in the last podcast. I didn't have a full sample

[00:08:44] And now I have something to really talk about here because I have the first 10 games out of the break

[00:08:50] Also break and then I have the last 11 games and there's some stuff that kind of stands out to me here

[00:08:56] There's not really any talk about individual performances here. This is about

[00:09:00] team performance

[00:09:02] So the first 10 out of the break

[00:09:04] They only gave up a hundred eight point a hundred eight points per game 108.6 to be exact

[00:09:09] That's really good. That's really really good

[00:09:13] That's usually top five in the league if you're that low if not

[00:09:18] And that's good

[00:09:20] And they had a five game four game stretch in there where they held an opponent under

[00:09:25] 100 points, which is amazing

[00:09:27] Some big wins in there too. I mean they beat minnesota philly

[00:09:31] charlotte twice chicago see and they're taking care of the teams

[00:09:34] They should take care of their the clippers, which was a big one

[00:09:37] We were missing some key players in that game too. We didn't play at full strength

[00:09:41] We didn't play with yonas. We still won that game golden states stomped us lakers

[00:09:45] The first time beat us and then we beat the clippers again

[00:09:49] And then sacramental stomped us so on that road coming out of the break. I'd said we needed to win six

[00:09:56] I think we won seven

[00:09:58] So that was good. So during that stretch the buck scored 112 points

[00:10:04] average 44.8 rebounds and

[00:10:07] One thing that really stood out to me was

[00:10:09] The ball movement was really good

[00:10:11] And that's what doc had talked about earlier in that clip. I just played the ball was moving people were open

[00:10:16] They were hitting shots

[00:10:18] Only 10 turnovers a game shooting 46 percent from the field 36 percent from three point land

[00:10:26] 78 percent from the free throw line

[00:10:29] And only given up about 16 files a game. Okay

[00:10:34] So now let's compare those numbers to the last 11 where

[00:10:38] The bucks have not looked good at all. They're five and six

[00:10:42] And they've lost five out of their last six

[00:10:45] So they come into philly beat philly beat phoenix lose a close one to boston beat brooklyn beat okc

[00:10:51] Which was maybe their best game of this season. They beat okc 118 and 93

[00:10:57] That was amazing that game after that game. I thought okay, we back

[00:11:02] We back

[00:11:04] I was wrong

[00:11:05] It happens a lot too. I'm wrong a lot. I'm not afraid to admit it

[00:11:09] Then we lose to the lakers which

[00:11:12] I don't want to put that one on the refs. I don't because it's not an excuse, but the roughing in that game was

[00:11:17] Horrible then the bucks lose to new orleans

[00:11:20] They go to Atlanta beat Atlanta and then here we are now they drop through in a row

[00:11:25] Washington, memphis, toronto all games bucks were double digit favorites in man. That's really depressing. So

[00:11:33] Here's something that kind of stands out to me though

[00:11:35] So they've given they've given up 113.6

[00:11:39] points and these last seven and these last 11

[00:11:43] They've given up 113.6 and these last 11

[00:11:48] That is

[00:11:50] significantly more

[00:11:51] than

[00:11:52] The first 10 and when they only gave up 108 points per game

[00:11:56] Now granite the bucks offense is improving

[00:11:59] here in these last 1116 points per game, but

[00:12:03] It's kind of known that when you play defense really hard your offense does suffer a little bit

[00:12:08] We're back to where we were with adrian griffin

[00:12:11] Under these last 11 games

[00:12:13] So I may you know want to take some onus off of adrian griffin because

[00:12:17] This team looks just like the adrian griffin coach team

[00:12:21] Everything that doc came in tried to change and it was working for a while

[00:12:25] But it's the players kind of going back to what i was saying before it is not the coaching staff

[00:12:31] I don't know why these players can't play the game together

[00:12:34] That doc is telling them to play they're not doing that

[00:12:38] They're giving up five more points a game

[00:12:40] You're gonna have to scoring four more points a game

[00:12:43] But defense is where it needs to be

[00:12:45] You know hat now granite

[00:12:47] You know everything else is pretty much the same the rebounds are up a little bit

[00:12:52] They're up about one so they're averaging 44 rebounds now. They're averaging 45.7

[00:12:58] So it's roughly not even a full one because it's 44.8

[00:13:01] assists are a little higher by three

[00:13:04] The steals are right on the same blocks are a little higher

[00:13:08] So when we look at some of these stats or scratching your head going

[00:13:11] How are they losing these games and it's it's because of defense?

[00:13:15] I mean, they're even shooting better

[00:13:17] They're almost shooting 48 from the field

[00:13:20] And they're staying steady at 36 percent. We'll round it up to 37 percent from three

[00:13:24] And they are giving up three more files a game too. So

[00:13:28] Games are starting to tighten up and some of these teams that have nothing to lose. They're

[00:13:32] They're kicking the box ass and it's not fun to watch

[00:13:35] Ultimately though, it comes down to defense the effort on defense

[00:13:40] The effort on defense is deciding the

[00:13:43] The final score

[00:13:44] That's it

[00:13:46] It's been frustrating as a fan to watch

[00:13:47] It really has been and when I looked at these numbers the main thing that stood out was

[00:13:52] You know, if you look at the quality of the opponents

[00:13:55] That we had those first 10 games

[00:13:57] And we got minnesota and they're philly and granite philly didn't have jollambead

[00:14:01] But I mean philly still good

[00:14:03] And then you had two against charlotte one against chicago

[00:14:05] But then you had the clips in there twice

[00:14:07] You had the lakers in there golden state sacramento. You're only giving up 108

[00:14:12] against those really good teams

[00:14:14] And then you play a bunch of crap teams

[00:14:16] I mean, so in this, you know, so we got philly. They're still good obviously phoenix is good boston

[00:14:21] But you got brooklyn

[00:14:23] You got atlanta washington memphis, toronto

[00:14:26] Granite you've got the lakers and they're playing really good right now

[00:14:29] Okay season there boston's in there, but there's

[00:14:32] You know, basically half the teams are not that great in the in the sample of 11

[00:14:38] It were giving up way more points

[00:14:40] So one of the things i've noticed too about this team is they do play to the level of their opponent

[00:14:44] There's some big signature wins on this team

[00:14:48] And there's some big signature losses too, but there's one thing I noticed that

[00:14:53] You know pace is obviously the big issue here for the box

[00:14:57] But the good news is the eastern conference teams

[00:15:00] Celtics are 27th and pace calves are 28th and pace nicks are 30th magix 24th heats 22nd

[00:15:07] So if you're looking at pace

[00:15:09] You may just be able to get away with not having to worry about it

[00:15:13] because

[00:15:15] The teams that

[00:15:16] That have you know good pace no pun intended the pacers

[00:15:21] Philly's not in the bottom 15 there

[00:15:24] Let's kind of talk about seedings here too because this is something that i'm

[00:15:28] I've been kind of keeping my eye on this one as it sits right now Celtics in one. They've got that locked up

[00:15:35] Bucks in two calves in three magican four nicks in five pacers and six and then

[00:15:42] For the play in

[00:15:44] It's heat sixers and bulls hawks

[00:15:48] My perfect scenario is bucks pacers in round one

[00:15:52] Then it's calves heat

[00:15:55] Is who the winner we would get

[00:15:57] and

[00:15:58] You know I can take Miami. It's the second round

[00:16:02] After there's some tape on them kind of seeing what they're doing and kind of how they're working at because they're not a fast-paced team

[00:16:09] Include and I think we can beat them too. I really do so that

[00:16:12] I'm not looking past anyone though, especially the way we're playing. I'm actually very concerned

[00:16:17] But the Celtics like here's what the Celtics could potentially face

[00:16:22] In round one they could have the joe lmb led 76ers. That's crazy. That's crazy

[00:16:29] That's crazy crazy crazy because there are you know is the Celtics the box in the sixers where the top three seeds going into the year

[00:16:35] I don't think that series is going four or five games. I think it's going at least six if not all seven

[00:16:41] Then the winner of that and I'm gonna assume the nicks are gonna win the nicks are scary as hell

[00:16:47] The nicks scare me and that's who we play next by the way

[00:16:50] the way the nicks have been playing

[00:16:52] I don't want to face them

[00:16:55] The way this bucks team has been playing

[00:16:59] Our perimeter defense needs to be locked in

[00:17:01] So the Celtics could potentially you know have the sixers in round one and the nicks in round two

[00:17:08] I don't know man

[00:17:10] I know people love the Celtics and I know I'm biased because I can't stay on them but

[00:17:16] If that does happen

[00:17:18] I don't see them making it to the conference finals

[00:17:21] You gotta beat some good teams and when you look at what the Celtics have done this year in crunch time

[00:17:26] What have they done?

[00:17:28] They've joked

[00:17:30] Especially Tatum

[00:17:32] He's a fraud

[00:17:33] He's not a clutch player

[00:17:35] Even their own fans will say it. So yeah, the Celtics are a great regular season team

[00:17:39] But so are the bucks the last four or five years

[00:17:43] And the playoffs is a totally different animal and that's where I'm putting my faith in dock rivers

[00:17:48] We're gonna keep our eye on the playoff chase here

[00:17:52] but um

[00:17:53] I mean I'm gonna make kind of a prediction here. I think the heat will actually move up to six

[00:17:59] So that first round matchup for the heat will be calves heat. My hope is that we do play the pacers in round one

[00:18:07] It'd be a nice little

[00:18:09] Revenge thing the bucks are good in revenge games by the way, they have been really good in revenge

[00:18:13] They've only lost one revenge game

[00:18:16] They've won, you know four or five of them. So

[00:18:19] That's a revenge series

[00:18:21] The pacers owned the bucks earlier in the year pacers don't look so hot right now and

[00:18:27] That's the way I like it really to be honest. I want to take them down

[00:18:31] I want I want the bucks to end their season

[00:18:34] That's very personal for me the way they booed dame at the all-star game and just the way their fans have been really crappy

[00:18:40] I think we owe them one say, you know pack their bags for cancun, but

[00:18:45] Bucks have a lot of worries though. So I shouldn't really be talking right now. Bucks have not played good

[00:18:50] Bucks play the nicks tomorrow

[00:18:52] I just hope they don't get blown out

[00:18:54] Here's the thing I've noticed about this team though. This is kind of my last thought here is

[00:18:58] The bucks play and I mentioned this earlier bucks play to their opponent

[00:19:02] So when they play a team that is you know

[00:19:05] A worthy opponent

[00:19:07] The bucks show up. They have shown up all year for the most part outside of a few games

[00:19:11] They have shown up

[00:19:13] But when the bucks play a team like the wizards, they struggle with the pistons the raptors

[00:19:18] Not so hot

[00:19:20] So the bucks don't play any teams under 500 the rest of the year. So I'm actually kind of relieved by that

[00:19:25] All right bucks

[00:19:27] Don't let us down. We need some w's we need to uh

[00:19:30] Win this game and coming up on their schedule here. I kind of mentioned it earlier

[00:19:33] But bucks have the nicks tomorrow at home

[00:19:37] The six o'clock start in Milwaukee

[00:19:39] Then they have the Celtics Celtics don't have much to play for so

[00:19:43] I don't really know who we're going to see on the floor for boss and if they're going to really

[00:19:47] risk any injury or whatnot so

[00:19:50] Then the bucks have the magic and that's the game they need they need that game bucks need to beat

[00:19:55] Matter of fact, if there's any games on the schedule

[00:19:58] That they really need they need to beat the nicks. They need to beat the magic one of those games

[00:20:04] And then the other games obviously if they can steal one of those final three

[00:20:08] Um, so it's nicks Celtics magic thunder

[00:20:12] And the magic to close the season in Orlando

[00:20:15] So let's hold our breath

[00:20:17] Hopefully the bucks will do what they we know they can do if they're the team that came out of the all-star break

[00:20:23] We're all gonna be good to go, but I appreciate you

[00:20:27] Thanks for listening. We will see you on the next one