National Media Hatred Aimed at Milwaukee Fuels Bucks' Playoff Fire

[00:00:00] On this big episode of Milwaukee Bucks Beat, we're going to talk playoffs with the Milwaukee Bucks.

[00:00:05] Lots to talk about. Giannis' health, the absolute hatred from the national media. We're going to

[00:00:12] break down stats on what I think will happen. And also faith is coming from a shocking source.

[00:00:18] We'll talk about that and then I'll give you the breakdown of the series.

[00:00:22] All coming up next. Let's get going.

[00:00:30] Damian Lillard. Welcome to the cream city. Game time has arrived.

[00:00:37] You're listening to the Milwaukee Bucks Beat, sponsored by Hungry Lion Productions Video

[00:00:43] Production Services. Video production from start to finish. Hire them today at hungrylionproductions.com.

[00:00:52] And now here's your host, Michael Edwards. Welcome to Milwaukee Bucks Beat. I'm your

[00:00:57] host, Michael Edwards. We've got a good one for you today. We're going in depth.

[00:01:02] There are not going to be too many shows that are going to cover this series the way we are here.

[00:01:06] We are fans first. We're going to get into the first thing that everyone's worried about is

[00:01:12] Giannis Antetokounmpo who he's out. We all know, we all know the scenario by now. If

[00:01:18] you don't know it, you've probably been living under a rock. But my guess from what it

[00:01:23] sounds like he'll be back in game two or three. It sounds like he's not playing though.

[00:01:27] In game one, Peter Fagan was on WKLH in Milwaukee. That's the president of the

[00:01:32] Milwaukee Bucks. And here's what he had to say. You know, I'll tell you firsthand,

[00:01:36] he is super human. I think he'll be back before anybody thinks he's back. He definitely

[00:01:41] will not be back for Sunday. So we'll be playing short Giannis for game one,

[00:01:47] which is a big game to get out there and win when you're on your home court for game one.

[00:01:52] But you know, we expect Giannis to be back like in the playoffs. I'm not really sure when but

[00:01:59] I would say sooner versus later. So that's the first report we heard that Giannis is

[00:02:04] definitely going to be out. I had my doubts, you know, and I don't still know that that's

[00:02:09] actually confirmed. I think that's where they are right now as I record this on

[00:02:13] Thursday night. Giannis does have Wolverine-like qualities, but obviously

[00:02:18] having Giannis in that series is extremely vital. I mean, this season against the Pacers,

[00:02:23] Giannis averaged 42.2 points a game, 13 rebounds and five assists in five games.

[00:02:29] He has been their father. They can't stop him. If we go big against the Pacers,

[00:02:34] that's where you have the advantage. Obviously the Pacers advantage is running. And I think

[00:02:38] that's what the Bucks are spending their week working on. We also have Dame Lillard,

[00:02:43] it's a little banged up. He hasn't really been practicing, which obviously isn't your

[00:02:47] best bet. He has been doing the walkthroughs according to Doc Rivers. And then the one thing

[00:02:51] I haven't heard much about is AJ Green's status. And I don't want that to be overlooked

[00:02:56] because AJ Green is a force to be reckoned with. His last couple of weeks were a little rough,

[00:03:02] but ultimately if we can get healthy, I think we're going to be okay. Now,

[00:03:08] one of the things that I think is helping the Bucks right now is this reminds me of

[00:03:14] the All-Star break. And if you remember, just to kind of refresh your memory,

[00:03:17] during the All-Star break, everyone was taking a giant dump on the Bucks and the national media.

[00:03:23] Everybody was. They had no friends. You know, I'm biased, but obviously I think they might be

[00:03:29] the most hated team in the national press. And then you saw how the Bucks came out.

[00:03:34] You saw how they responded. That is one thing I can say about this team. When their back has

[00:03:39] been up against the wall, they have responded. And I think they're going to do that for this

[00:03:45] series. But I want to talk about the national media. This reminds me of the second Celtics

[00:03:50] game when we beat the pants off of them and the national media just kind of shrugged their

[00:03:54] shoulders. The Celtics are the darlings of the NBA. So, I mean, heaven forbid anyone

[00:04:00] say anything bad about them. But you know, the Bucks blew their doors off. And if you

[00:04:05] remember, go back, you can scroll. It was in early January. They were talking like the Bucks

[00:04:12] lost when they ended up winning. I think they were up almost 40 points at halftime and TNT

[00:04:16] cut away from the broadcast. So that hatred is back. We're going to start with one,

[00:04:21] Bill Simmons. The team that I am much, much more committed to right now is Milwaukee.

[00:04:28] Milwaukee looks so slow and unathletic against Orlando. I just, I don't see it with them.

[00:04:36] I don't. And I'm being hurt on top of it. Like, I don't know if I would have saw it if

[00:04:41] he was 100% healthy. I don't see it with those guys. I think they're,

[00:04:45] I think they're too old and too slow. And I think Bill Simmons is a Celtics fans,

[00:04:49] by the way. So what are you going to, what do you expect? I mean, what crap, right? I mean,

[00:04:54] that's just the tip of the iceberg. We're going to go into a whole bunch of stuff here

[00:04:57] and I'm going to respond to all of it. So that was the first one I saw. And I was like,

[00:05:02] okay, that's fun. And it's like personal, right? Like when they're saying these things,

[00:05:06] it seems, it seems like it's personal for them. Like who hurts you?

[00:05:12] I mean, Hey, you know what? The Miami Heat last year had a terrible regular season.

[00:05:18] And what did they do in the post season? They flipped the switch

[00:05:22] and they just destroyed everybody made it to the finals. Who's to say the Bucks can't do

[00:05:27] that with this team, with this veteran leadership, with this veteran coaching staff.

[00:05:31] That is also shit on by everyone, but these people know what they're doing.

[00:05:35] So I have faith until I see otherwise, you know, going knowing you have the home

[00:05:40] court locked up. What else do you have to play for? So talking about, you know,

[00:05:44] the books didn't look good in Orlando. You know what Bill Simmons,

[00:05:48] the game didn't mean jack shit to the Bucks. It meant everything to Orlando.

[00:05:53] Bleacher report did a grade for every team and the wizards who didn't have very many wins.

[00:06:00] I don't think they even broke 20 wins. I'm not going to look because it doesn't matter.

[00:06:04] They weren't a good team. They got a D minus. They gave the Bucks a D,

[00:06:08] the Milwaukee Bucks, a third seed going into the last day of the season.

[00:06:12] They were two seed. The bleacher report gave them a D. Here's JJ Reddick,

[00:06:17] Bucks hater and Doc Rivers hater. Here's what he had to say.

[00:06:21] My vote to Nikola Jokic for MVP, Luka Doncic in second, Shay Gilders-Alexander in third.

[00:06:29] I had Jason Tatum fourth in MVP and Jalen Brunson fifth in MVP.

[00:06:36] Janis was the other guy I gave consideration to just outside the top five.

[00:06:40] Wow. So Janis literally has one of the most historic seasons,

[00:06:45] the first player ever to shoot over 60% while averaging 30 points a game.

[00:06:50] No one has ever done that and you have him sixth on your list. Give me a break.

[00:06:56] Unbelievable. Kendrick Perkins, who we're going to be talking about later,

[00:07:01] he announced his, you know, all NBA first team. This was his actual vote that he actually

[00:07:07] voted Nikola Jokic, Jason Tatum, who's a fraud, Jalen Brunson, Luka Doncic deserves

[00:07:14] it and Shay Gilders-Alexander. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brunson, you could get rid of one of those.

[00:07:21] Doesn't put Janis in there. I mean, okay, okay buddy. Whatever you got to say there.

[00:07:30] It's laughable. It's laughable and it gets even better. I'm not even done.

[00:07:34] I'm not even close to being done yet. So I mean, because Janis averaged 30 points a game,

[00:07:42] 11.5 rebounds, six and a half assists while shooting over 60%. 64% is what they had him at.

[00:07:52] Jalen Brunson had 28.7, 3.6 rebounds a game, 6.7 assists. Janis almost had more assists than him

[00:07:59] and he's a guard. So I don't know. I don't know, man. And Doris Burke was doing the same

[00:08:05] thing. Doris Burke put the idea out that Jalen Brunson could take Janis' spot on the

[00:08:09] first team. Janis shot 60% and averaged over 30 points a game. The dude is literally having

[00:08:15] the best year he's ever had and he's won the MVP. How can you say any of this? It's Buck

[00:08:21] Slander. That's what it is. It is Milwaukee Buck Slander. Speaking of Slander, here's

[00:08:27] the fun one. ESPN and you know, the four letter network was coming. Here is what they

[00:08:32] had to say. And Tyrese Halliburton, he absolutely destroyed this Milwaukee team. They could

[00:08:39] athletically, they cannot, they have not been able to stay in front of these Pacers.

[00:08:44] That's the first part. I'm going to break this down into two points because that's Wode from

[00:08:48] ESPN who also does not like the box. He's never really spoken favorably of them, even

[00:08:55] in their championship year. So he talked about Tyrese Halliburton owning the box. Well,

[00:09:00] the first part of the season before the calendar new year. So in 2023,

[00:09:05] Tyrese Halliburton for spring months, he averaged 24.7 points against the bucks.

[00:09:10] He averaged over 30 points. Okay, cool. Now since the calendar year, since January 3rd,

[00:09:16] Tyrese Halliburton has averaged 16.9 points, 9.6 assists and 3.8 rebounds. He has not been

[00:09:23] good. He's been minus in a ton of games. I know he has an injury issue leg. I think it's

[00:09:28] a hamstring. But to say what he said, and by January 3rd, I think we were done playing them.

[00:09:35] So we are totally different team, totally different roster. We have Pat Bev, we have ball

[00:09:40] movement. We have, you know, Dame is playing. We're going to have playoff Chris. We're going

[00:09:44] to have playoff Dame. We've got Doc Rivers. We've got a coaching staff that, you know,

[00:09:48] when you look at where the bucks finished and we'll get into the data later, but the bucks

[00:09:53] have made some big improvements. And the other part is people like to talk about Doc's

[00:09:58] record. Well, if you look at our schedule, the second half of the season, it was the hardest in

[00:10:04] the East and the bucks held their own, I think. And when you bring a coach in like,

[00:10:10] it's just looking at those metrics is ridiculous. Like I hear people be like, oh, Doc is under

[00:10:15] 500 or you're like, you know what? Fine. They're about to find out. And if I'm wrong,

[00:10:21] I'm wrong. But I think what is happening here, you know, with all this hate, something big is

[00:10:27] going on in the Bucks locker room. Here's Stephen A. Smith. I'm glad y'all are here because

[00:10:31] I want to say this in front of your face. Where do without Yanis, Indiana's winning this

[00:10:37] series. They're going to beat Milwaukee. That's number one. Number two, when that happens,

[00:10:42] in my opinion, when that happens, I think the Milwaukee Bucks should take a strong hard look

[00:10:49] on using the asset that is Damian Lillard and moving him from Milwaukee to someplace else.

[00:10:56] I don't think he wants to be there. I don't think his plate looks like he wants to be there.

[00:11:01] And Stephen A continues. I'm simply saying what we fantasized about,

[00:11:06] what we anticipated about with the Milwaukee Bucks. I don't think ever existed. And I think

[00:11:11] it shows itself in this first round series. Well, that's going to be fun when the Bucks

[00:11:16] win this series in six games because I'm coming after him. I'm coming after all these.

[00:11:22] I'm saving the receipts for all you clowns. That's what I'm doing. And I'm sure all the

[00:11:25] Bucks fans are doing that too. Tyrese Halliburton is not the player he was. He is literally

[00:11:31] playing his first playoff game this Sunday. He has never made the playoffs because his teams

[00:11:35] have always been poverty. Okay. And the Bucks are taking this personally, the Bucks are seeing

[00:11:41] and hearing all of the crap that is being talked about them. I mean, I'm a competitive

[00:11:45] person. I'm no NBA player, but I can tell you they're not taking kindly to this.

[00:11:51] And Damon Lillard is happy in Milwaukee. He's literally addressed this. This is ESPN wanting

[00:11:58] to get a star out of Milwaukee because they're not in New York, they're not in LA, they're

[00:12:03] not in Miami, Boston. They're not in the big cities and they do this all the time. They're

[00:12:07] doing the same thing with Giannis. And as a Bucks fan, we're done. We're done listening to

[00:12:13] you. If you come here for the finals, don't expect a warm welcome. We will boo you. We're

[00:12:18] going to boo you to kind of land on this final thing. Bobby Portis is not even being considered

[00:12:22] for six men of the year. He's first in double doubles off the bench with 16. He's first

[00:12:28] in rebounds off the bench with 573. He's second in points off the bench, just barely missing

[00:12:35] out on first place by the way, because the final games of the season, he broke it,

[00:12:38] but he was a starter. So he wasn't eligible to beat it there. 82 out of 82 games played 78

[00:12:44] of them off the bench, 50.8% shooting top 30 among NBA award eligible players. And he shot

[00:12:51] 40.7% from three top 30 not even being considered for six men, not even the top three.

[00:13:01] Kevin O'Connor, Boston Celtics fan didn't even have Bobby Portis in the top three.

[00:13:07] He had Naz Reid, Malik Monk and Norman Powell. No Bobby Portis. Wow. So there's all the hate.

[00:13:14] Okay. And here's why I'm going to tell you the Bucks are winning this series. The Bucks are

[00:13:19] not losing the series. There is so much hate out there. This is where the Bucks, you know,

[00:13:25] they're the villains and they're going to, they're going to embrace this.

[00:13:28] I think you're going to see a lot from Bobby Portis, especially at home.

[00:13:32] You're going to see a lot from Pat Bev. You're going to see ball movement. You're going to see

[00:13:37] playoff Dame. You're going to see playoff Chris coming into his office, Mini Michael Jordan there

[00:13:43] from the mid-range. And before I go into the analytics, there was one positive thing I want

[00:13:51] to add. Cause the whole point is I'm a Bucks fan and so are you most likely. And the media

[00:13:57] is taking a giant dump on us and it's frustrating to hear. But then there was this one source,

[00:14:04] which I mentioned earlier, and there was some positive comments out of this man's mouth.

[00:14:10] Here's Kendrick Perkins. I'm not sleeping on this team to say, you know what, with a week

[00:14:16] of preparation, with all these veterans they have in the locker room, with Patrick Beverly

[00:14:21] being a leader and Doc putting them in the starting lineup, I strongly believe that Doc,

[00:14:27] Dave, uh, that he has on this pitch along with coach Rex, that they can figure out a game plan

[00:14:32] to put this team in position to be successful. I'm not counting this team out, not led by

[00:14:38] Damien Lillard. I will not. I appreciate that. Thank you, Kendrick Perkins. You are normally

[00:14:44] not my ally, but I'll take it. I appreciate that because this week has been brutal going

[00:14:51] on in the Twitter machine and seeing all this hate. My head's spinning off my neck. I mean,

[00:14:58] so many media outlets are just, they're not realizing that the regular season isn't that

[00:15:04] important. And ultimately, I mean, you want to win, you got a win to get in obviously, but

[00:15:08] it's not the playoffs. Look at the Miami Heat as a perfect example. Look at the Boston

[00:15:13] Celtics. They have a good regular season every year. And what do they do in the playoffs?

[00:15:18] They do nothing. This Bucs team is built for the playoffs. If I'm wrong, I will die on that hill.

[00:15:25] This Bucs team is built for the playoffs with a veteran leadership. If we're healthy,

[00:15:30] I don't think anyone's beating us. You can laugh at me now because if they lose, they lose.

[00:15:35] But I think on paper, the Bucs are that team. We saw flashes of it. And it's really

[00:15:43] going to come down to in this series, the Bucs taking smart shots because Doc has talked about

[00:15:48] this. Having bad shots is just as bad as having a turnover. And against a team like the Pacers,

[00:15:55] who pushes the ball down the court? Yeah, I mean, we're going to lose if we do that.

[00:16:00] So we have to be disciplined, take smart shots, work the shot clock, get this game into

[00:16:06] the mud, make them play our game. If we can do that, I think we're going to, we're going

[00:16:10] to play well. I'm not going to really get into the analytics too much, but I do have some numbers

[00:16:15] for you here that I think are enlightening. Now it's tough too when you have teams that,

[00:16:21] you know, played earlier in the season and now many months have gone by and this team

[00:16:25] is totally different. This Bucs team is different. This Pacers team is totally

[00:16:28] different. The bench that killed the Bucs from the Pacers, a lot of those players are gone.

[00:16:34] So they have Pascal Siakam. Fine, cool. But he's no Yanis stopper. He's good. But I mean,

[00:16:41] I'm not afraid of him. The Bucs aren't afraid of him. I'm breaking down the match up here.

[00:16:45] The strengths are the Pacers offense, obviously second in the league, strong three point

[00:16:50] shooting their ninth in percentage. But the thing is they don't put up a lot of shots

[00:16:54] and against the Bucs, they struggled. The Bucs did a good job on the three point defense

[00:16:59] and Bucs have a solid defense. I mean, they're 19th overall, but I think

[00:17:03] the second half of the season, their top, top 10, top 15, and their 11th three point

[00:17:09] shooting and their weaknesses are the Pacers defense is terrible, 24th in defensive rating.

[00:17:14] And the Bucs offense is a little less potent, but I think if the Bucs play the way that we

[00:17:20] know they can, they're going to be fine. The X factors obviously are going to be Yanis's health

[00:17:24] point blank. Yanis is averaging 42 on these clowns. So I think if he's healthy,

[00:17:30] I mean, we got them down low. We got the bigs. That's where the Bucs have the advantage.

[00:17:34] Damian Lillard's impact. Dame usually starts cold. He's not been himself all season.

[00:17:39] He had Tyrese Helleberten mock him at the in-season tournament.

[00:17:44] And it's time for Dame to show up. It's time for playoff Dame and we need to see him.

[00:17:49] I'm more talking Portland Trailblazers playoff Dame. We need to see him in Milwaukee.

[00:17:54] And then the coaching adjustments. This should be interesting because,

[00:17:58] you know how teams adjust defensively, especially the Bucs countering the Pacers

[00:18:01] offense are going to, it's going to be a huge, it's a huge factor.

[00:18:05] And all the analytics have crunched. It's going to be a close series. And I think the Pacers

[00:18:09] will get a couple of games and I think the Pacers have a clear offensive advantage.

[00:18:13] But if the Bucs can get this game in the mud, they can counter with a more stiffling

[00:18:17] defense. And I think the Pacers can score points, but so can the Bucs because the

[00:18:22] Pacers have no defense. And that's where I think this game will be one on defense,

[00:18:26] getting stops, getting turnovers. Free throws are a big factor. The Bucs had more free

[00:18:31] throws in the series between the two during the season. And though the NBA did change the

[00:18:36] rules a little bit, how they're calling fouls. I think free throws are going to be huge and

[00:18:40] we're going to need to hit them. And that three point shooting for the Bucs is a big one

[00:18:45] because the Pacers obviously can make threes, but they don't take up a lot of threes.

[00:18:50] While the Pacers have the offensive firepower, I think the experience,

[00:18:54] you know, this is potential dominance and you know, the potentially Bucs improved defense

[00:18:59] gives them a slight edge. And the Pacers offense concerns me a little bit, especially in transition.

[00:19:05] The series could go either way, but I'm going Bucs and six, especially if the Bucs are playing

[00:19:10] the type of offense that I think they can. If the Bucs struggle in scoring, that's where

[00:19:15] I'm a little nervous. And I think they'll have two games where Indiana gets the best of us.

[00:19:20] But best case scenario is Bucs get the first two at home. And then, you know, depending on

[00:19:25] like if Bucs win game one, maybe Yanis sits out game two and you need to give him more

[00:19:30] time to get healthy because a healthy Yanis this thing is over. We're going to Hulk mode.

[00:19:35] I'm excited for the series. I'm ready to do this. I'm ready to cheer.

[00:19:39] I'm ready to turn the haters off. I'm ready to see the Bucs react to all the hate and

[00:19:44] have a focus that they haven't had since the beginning of the second half of the

[00:19:48] season after the All-Star break. If that team comes out of the gates, it's going to be fun.

[00:19:53] So there it is. I appreciate you. Thanks for listening. We'll see you on the next one.