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The Milwaukee Bucks hold on to defeat the San Antonio Spurs, 125-121



The Milwaukee Bucks hold on to defeat the San Antonio Spurs, 125-121

Hey what it do welcome to another new episode of lock on bucks on today’s show we finally got to see that jannis out of the kmo Victor wanyama line or matchup and trust me when I say it did not disappoint the Bucs beat the Spurs 125

To 121 and Giannis went crazy he had 44 points 14 rebounds and seven assists we’re going to discuss the Battle of those two unicorns as well as take a look at the match up as a whole take a look at the bugs defense because they might have left some some questions

Still answered with this performance tonight plus discuss some uh Jay Crowder injury news that we heard during the lineup tonight all of that and more coming up next you are locked on bucks your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every

Day you are locked on bucks part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I’m Camille Davis and you can catch me weekly on the technical file podcast as well as cheese head TVs carry the G and MK joining me is the longtime voice of the Pod and founder of Brew

Hop.com Frank Madden we appreciate you for tuning in and thank you for making locked on bucks your first listen every single day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as on YouTube and today’s episode is brought to you by LinkedIn LinkedIn jobs helps you find the qualified candidates

That you want to talk to faster so post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon NBA again that’s linkedin.com lockon NBA to post your job for free terms and conditions do apply now as I mentioned during the first matchup between the Bucks and the Spurs here in Milwaukee

Wanyama did not play so we did not get to see the Battle of these two unicorns but tonight in San Antonio Victor wanyama and Y DMO were definitely the headline and they did not disappoint especially in the second half as I mentioned Giannis had 44 points 14

Rebounds seven assists shot 67% from the field it’s his fifth 40th point game of the season meanwhile Victor wiama in limited minutes that he did push in this game he had 27 points nine rebounds five blocks and finish with 55% shooting from the field seeing the two of them go at

It was quite fine Frank I gotta admit yeah I mean it it’s kind of hard to describe you know wemi to someone who like doesn’t watch basketball right I think all of us that have watched a lot of basketball and then you see him you know when he’s playing well and he’s

Guaranteed to do something every game that you feel like you just have never seen somebody who can reach like he reaches or you know move like he moves um he’s just a one of one right and and we’re used to that ourselves being Bucks fans watching Giannis for the last

Decade and seeing him move and and do things in ways that no one else in the history of sport has done and I think with Victor just because he is just so freakishly tall that it’s even weirder and stranger and I I think I think it’s probably easier for someone

Who doesn’t watch basketball to understand how weird uh Victor is because he is so much bigger than everybody else on the floor and you see him stand next to Brook Lopez and you know dwarf Brooke who’s a you know 7 foot 280 PB Splash Mountain of a man so

Um yeah I mean I think that you know this was kind of the we were joking here before the pot I mean this was kind of like the classic bucks 23 24 win in that it was underwhelming and frustrating in so many ways you know you’re playing

It’s lit the team with the worst Point differential in basketball they’ve won two games at home all year long and somehow you know you defend so poorly that again this young team starts to get energy they start to feel positive the crowd gets into it in that third quarter

It really felt like a home crowd that had like only seen two wins all year because they were like holy crap we’re in this game this is fun this is cool wemi is doing cool stuff that matchup between Victor and Giannis was beginning to flash and you started to really feel

The energy as those two guys clearly also wanted to go at each other um so it ended up being I think you know a great spectacle um but if you’re talking about you know what does it say about the Milwaukee Bucks this season I think it

Again showed that like they can kind of grind out these wins against teams that are clearly inferior to them it was reminiscent of that home win against the Wizards where they left Landry shamut wide wide wide wide wide wide wide open for a potential I think it was tying

Three in the waning seconds and shamut like literally didn’t realize he was as open as he was that’s probably the main reason he missed it in this game we saw was Trey Jones I guess it was in the corner off just a you know Mistake by

The Bucks sending two at the ball wide wide open Corner three couldn’t have asked for a better look to tie it he misses it and that was it uh in the final seconds of this game but um you said it Camille let’s start with some of

The positives right yeah wmi and and uh and Giannis and you know Giannis uh has has said nothing but positive things about Victor um I think there’s some history of of when before he came to the NBA I think I thought he heard that like he had a Giannis Jersey at one point

Wherever it might be so clearly I think they respect each other’s games and Yannis had nice things to say about him in the postgame interview but between the lines Giannis wanted to you know Murder Victor on the floor and Victor obviously wanted to do stuff to Giannis Brooke uh

Anybody else that was in his way and sure enough whether it was that you know self alup off the backboard from Victor that round the back into the Brook Lopez facial where he basically didn’t even jump like he put Brooke on a poster without even jumping that’s the

Strangest thing with with wimi and watching him play like he doesn’t have to jump to dunk and he’s getting posters right um so he made some incredible plays he had the big three uh late in the fourth quarter um although you know you still feel like he’s a guy that

You’re happy to see taking threes at 29% for the year was two for eight tonight um but but you know credit to Giannis I mean talking about threes and being happy the guys take threes man the two most improbable threes of this season so far with Giannis hitting I think it was

Consecutive threes y um when the Bucks were down and you know basically brought them back and then had two more three-point plays going right at Victor’s chest which is exactly what you need to do the only thing he didn’t do was on that final possession where he

Just bulldozed into wemi when they had a chance up three to to close it out and Victor made a great recovery to to block giannis’s dunk attempt with the left hand but um but yeah I mean as far as like people who bought tickets to this game for that matchup they went home

Very happy if you’re the Spurs Spurs fans you’re not expecting a win anyway so I’m sure they went home totally fine with seeing what Victor was able to do and you know again living up to to a lot of his hype um but on the flip side they

Also got to see wanis is who he is 44 points 14 rebounds um I think a couple steals will block um you know again it seems like in the last 24 hours we’ve seen Giannis kind of like it was some mean mugging tonight especially after some of the dunks but

He had kind of some pretty funny comments um almost like kind of like almost like he’s seeing all this chaos and Bs around him right now and he’s just sort of saying you know what I’m gonna control what I can control I’m going to go play super hard I’m going to

Dunk on people I’m going to make the right play and I’m going to sleep sleep well at night knowing I did what I can and I’m not going to let it frustrate me I’m not going to get mad um and that kind of was a little bit of the vibe

That we’ve gotten from him in these last two games in the post game last night where he had some kind of funny comments about oh he’s gonna you know stay up all night thinking about Tyrese Halbert and all that stuff so I don’t know it’s a

Weird place I think the Bucks are in kind of a weird place right now um but to quote Giannis a couple years ago when he was in Tampa you may remember the video Camille when he was in Tampa playing the Raptors pregame and he just went on as like I’m getting old and

Weird uh Soliloquy and uh I don’t know it feels like a little bit of that vibe in the last 24 hours but when he’s doing what he’s doing putting up monster numbers and you know tonight basically carrying the Bucks to a much needed albeit um not particularly impressive

Win again you just got to start with Giannis and say thank goodness you got him absolutely because Jan has made it fun at least through the stressful moments of wondering how are this how is this five wins Spurs team keeping up uh with the bucks at this point but this

Was the second of a back toback and I did figure coming into this game at the very least that the Bucs would play with really great energy given the fact that they had just come off of back-to-back losses to the Pacers and I think they did start the game with pretty good

Energy I was surprised to see Chris midleton starting in this game his first back-to-back so far this season although he didn’t play in the second half and the bugs definitely did miss his presence there in that second half especially especially at the start of the fourth quarter I mentioned it before

On here but I do enjoy at the start of the quarters when jannis and Dam both sitting letting Chris still kind of be out there with some of the other bench guys or other starters and in this game without Chris opening the fourth quarter Griff really wrote out a lineup of Cam

Pign Malik Beasley Marjan bamp Pat conon and Brook Lopez and somehow they were only outscored by like three during their their two and a half three minutes that they spent together on campaign just conspir Conjuring up fouls to to get some free throws those were pretty

Damn that helped a lot actually and the Bucks needed all the help they could get and as we mentioned they leave San Antonio with the win which was much needed so I don’t want to you know disregard that or downplay that but their defensive effort still leaves a

Bit to be desired as mentioned this is a 51 Spurs team and they were hanging in there until the very end with this Bucks team that has Championship expectations so I want to dive into the question around is the current level of play defensively good enough for this team

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League so go to lock on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel talked about the bugs defense now our good friend Camille I feel like a therapy ad read is a really like really fitting way to lead into a

Discussion of the Bucks defense when you said new year new me I was thinking new year new D but no new year no new defense for the Milwaukee Bucks and we are I think I think I think help is going to be getting some more customers thanks to Bucks fans having to watch

This defense night night out they just might they just might like I’m was saying though our friend Eric name uh from the athletic he of course had a amazing article after the second Pacers loss of 2024 uh where he talked to Giannis a bit about the team’s defense

And just asked him about the team’s defensive potential and I want to pull that quote up here for the YouTube viewers as well as just kind of read it out for those who might be on the audio platform jannis said in this article from Eric name quote I’ve been part of a

Few teams that have been number one in defense but at the end of the day it’s all about pride and effort if you have no pride and you don’t put no effort in it you don’t get no results at times I think we have a lot of Pride because we

Know that we are extremely good and we play hard and at times we don’t you got to figure out a way on how you can just keep that engine going for longer but again the guy’s a limit I believe if we lock in as a team and figure out that we

Cannot let a team score 140 points on us and we’re trying to score 142 you can’t be consistent that way so we have to be able to guard we have to do a better job guarding and I wouldn’t say they did too much of a better job at that tonight

Unfortunately and we’ve had conversations about this Bucks team and what they need to do to be a championship contending team I do still believe if this team can be elite offensively and just average defensively that they have a strong shot at making a lot of noise in the playoffs and making

A championship run but the Bucks defense has not been trending in a good direction over the last five games heading into tonight’s game against the Spurs the Bucks have been the ninth best offense and the 28th best defense according the cleaning the glass that’s not going to be good enough and if you

Look at the last five games as well they had given up 334 points in the paint in their last five games that’s 66.8 per game over the last five luckily tonight they only gave up 54 to the Spurs but the general Point remains and that’s the defense hasn’t been good Frank’s

Celebrating 54 points in the paint tonight because that’s just how bad the paint defense has been recently for the bucks I mean you know at some point you just sort of are what you are and you know the midpoint of the season is very close right we we talked at game 27 Mark

That was basically the Third third third way point of the season and you’re now 35 games in so you’re literally you know a couple weeks off of of being at the 41 game Mark the Midway point of the season and it it’s not to say that you know teams haven’t dramatically improved in

Certain aspects um you know over the course of you know a half of a season or something like that right it’s not to say the Bucks are doomed to be you know the 25th best defense or the 20th best defense for the entire season but you know like you kind of think put

Yourself in the shoes of these players right how many times are the coaches you know do did did the Bucks talk about transition defense do the Bucks talk about defensive rebounding do they talk about you know organization and like on that last play when they sent you know

Two guys at the ball handler and leave a guy wide open like I’m sure they talk about this stuff they have film sessions you you know like you’ve had remarkably good health this year you cannot complain about the Bucs having injury problems Dame’s missed two games Giannis

Has missed one game And even Chris now is playing you know 30 minutes every night tonight being an exception because it was his first back-to-back performance but he looked good again tonight um they’ve been remarkably healthy they they’re getting tons of reps with the core groups that you want

To get reps with and so I mean we can again we can talk about like well we should get Andre more minutes or Mar more minutes whatever it might be you know we’d like to get Jay Crowder back right we’ll talk about Jay in a minute

Coming back from his injury but like if Jay Crowder being out a couple months is like the big injury you ain’t got you got nothing to complain about in the grand scheme of the universe right and kind of just what we’ve seen is there is no upward trajectory with this this

Defense they’ve kind of just I don’t say that they’ve given up but they’ve kind of just like they I think they just kind of are what they are and they don’t really do anything well right they don’t rebound like they used to Justin broke down the defensive rebounding problems they went from Elite

To below average you know we’ve talked about the fact that um you know they now are giving up all these paint points which early in the season the shot chart was actually quite good and so to me that’s kind of one of the concerns is that you

Know you’ve turned the game into a layup line in spite of Brook Lopez being you know again one of the leading shot blockers in the league and having to do a ton of work down there you have Giannis doing what he can do and in spite of that again like the fact that

It’s just a blowby Fest you know most most nights and it’s a transition Fest most nights that you’re just giving up all these layups and and easy buckets and teams are just teams are looking to attack you you know like that’s one of the things like when you know Giannis

Has been one of the most impactful transition defenders in the league over the past five six years be and and you can just picture like when he’s back teams just like don’t want to guys don’t want to challenge him but the Bucks as a team now you can just tell like I mean

Again Pacers fun house miror team like they’re not obviously representative of everybody but against most teams everybody feels like the Pacers now of late you know in terms of just hey transition opportunities it happened again tonight the transition numbers for the Spurs were really good slash very

Bad from a Bucs perspective they caused the Buc huge problems bucks actually defensive rebounded really well tonight they didn’t give up a ton of free throws yay um but you know again like those recurring themes are the recurring themes and you know for what you don’t force any turnovers like right the whole

Thesis of Adrien Griffin’s philosophy is ball pressure Force turnovers get easy baskets which especially with this offense like you really you really don’t need to force a ton of turnover like news flash guys like you’ve got like an historically great offense you’ve got Damon Giannis and Chris like you can be

A half court offense you don’t need to get you know cheap buckets and transition to juice a bad half court offense um so again that’s why they’re still elad offensively even without having even without even with the transition getting offense getting worse than it was last year um but it just

Feels like you know like there’s there’s no trade-offs that they’re winning right now and so um I think that’s why again like of you have to question the job that Adrian Griffin and this coaching staff are doing because again I I I worry less about like you know everybody

Gets hung up on adjustments which I think to me most people complain about adjustments they’re complaining that whatever’s whatever’s like changing hasn’t actually changed the outcomes I think people are like outcome based when they talk about adjustments y again I think coaches make lots of adjustments

That you know us as fans like don’t really pick up on but that we do pick up on the fact that it’s a goddamn layup line and you’re giving up 70 points in the pain so um so that’s I think worthy of frustration so um you know I like again

Like what is Adrien Griffin going to walk into you know a film session with and and what is he going to say that’s going to make the light bulb go on or that’s going to make guys play differently or whatever so is there are there Personnel issues yeah for sure

Right like there’s personel issues there’s also you know like bucks sort of are choosing this to some extent because again like you’re not playing your better Defenders as much as you’re playing weaker Defenders yes you’re always going to play Dame but you know like Malik Beasley instance for sure you

Know Bobby obviously is a key part of the rotation um so you’re playing weak Defenders and they’re getting exposed and again the coaching staff hasn’t figured out ways to mitigate that and in a lot of cases like watching Giannis like on that wemi self alleo like Giannis is trying to be too aggressive

On the perimeter and basically gets spun around and then next thing you know W’s throwing it off the backboard to himself for a dunk and we’ve seen that from Yannis a lot this year where again he like you know like I expect him like slap the floor or something and do some

Like you I’m going lock you up 30 feet from it’s like dude Giannis you’re like enormous like you you don’t have to do that like just sit back a little bit if people want to shoot pull up jumpers like I think that’s okay relative to just blowing by you and putting the

Defense in a rotation so um so yeah I mean I think they have a bunch of problems and it’s the same problems we’ been talking about all year and so I think again I don’t think they’re changing the coach anytime soon cuz that’s too embarrassing to ad that you made a

Mistake and there’s very it’s very hard to to improve via coaching change mid-season I don’t know if the Lakers want to do a trade with Darin ham come on down Darin Lake Laker fans seem to hate Darin now so you know maybe we’ll do a little swap but um but so I again

Again you kind of come back to some kind of trade which again hard to make a big trade if you’re the Bucs given you know what you have from an asset perspective but again if you’re just going to keep playing the same guys then I think you’re gonna John horse needs to figure

Out something different in terms of the guys that are at uh Adrien Griffin’s disposal and yes I would like to see J Crowder back but I mean Jay Crowder is not the answer to the Bucks you know defense getting to where it needs to be to compete for a championship I think it

Could help but um there’s obviously broader issues that run deeper than personnel and you know again there’s just a lot of pieces here that again it’s it’s just a team that’s less than the sum of its parts right now and of course you have to look at Players but I

Think that’s also that’s a coaching problem yeah it’s part of that and effort of the players as well and that’s part of why I looked at the five game sample just because I’m trying to see the trend like I want to see if the bugs have been getting better than what the

They’re ranked currently as a season as a whole and the last five game sample size was just so surprising to me I’m like wow like we are trending in the wrong direction and that’s something that Dame mentioned after the Pacers game as well where he’s like you want to

Look at the sample sizes like in 30 games we look back we want to make sure that we’re able to say like wow like that was embarrassing we we we were playing really bad then but now we are playing better so you know it there’s

Only so much you can do with the current Personnel on the team like I do think there are certain things that you can try a little bit more and of course having Jay Crowder back will help but uh the players have to do better uh especially just how it seems like at

This point if you get the Bucks in the scramble it’s it’s going to be an open look for you at some point the Bucks just can’t seem to keep up uh when they’re trying to switch out when they’re trying to catch up when they’re trying to scramble so the players have

To be a bit better and again I’m not sure what the the ceiling is for this defense I don’t think it’s you know top 10 with how it’s currently constructed can they get back to being at least average That’s My Hope at this point with this current roster and like we

Mentioned Jay Crowder coming back should be able to help that a little bit and we did hear during the broadcast tonight some injury update news around Jay so let’s dive into into that right after this when you’re braving the cold or dealing with crowds golly grocery shopping can be the worst it’s already

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Our link when you get there just so they know that we sent you Jay Crowder appears to be on his way back to the Bucks during the broadcast tonight on TNT it was mentioned that Jay Crowder is now painfree he’s been cleared for onc court work and he plans

To play five on five basketball this Sunday and that’ll be a huge hurdle for him to clear before his return so if all of that goes well he could be back as soon as next week so that is some good news for this Bucks team who has needed

Jay Crowder uh on this team just like I need a dog appearance on locked on bucks here in the background yeah this is Dudley Dudley is a a moose of a golden retriever here oh oh he’s he’s this is what he basically tries to like climb

You so if you’re not people on listening to the audio version aren’t going to really enjoy this but he’s got one paw now on my leg and he’ll his next move will be to put the other paw and then he would try to then put his paws on top of

My shoulders as well because basically he wants to just like get taller than me yeah you’re a good dog you’re a moose um Jay Crowder um um so I think we’ve talked about I mean I think the thing I’m I’m probably mainly looking forward to with Jay is he enables you to play

With uh uh oh Dudley’s going for my computer uh now um he allows you to play with I think quote unquote smaller lineups because again he’s a big dude he’s actually a big Wing I mean the Bucs really don’t have like a big Wing in the traditional sense that they can throw

Out there and put at the four with the Hest at the five the way that we saw them do it you know especially a few years ago when you would see them roll with you know PJ at effectively like the four um you know they they were able to

Do a a fair bit of that with Wes Chris and Drew and you know Pat or pick a fourth guy um because again like with Wes and Drew they were so like just like Stout you know like you weren’t that worried like you could survive if those

Guys got posted up by a bigger player just because like you know they’re just tough mfers and and aren’t going to get overwhelmed physically and they can switch um so again I mean I I’m very hesitant to like put too much faith and too much expectation on Jay um but as

You know I’ve been saying for a couple years you know going back to you know time with in with Kane again I still think Jay is more of a small ball four anyway um so he you know especially in the regular season probably is going to

Be playing more as a three just because you’ve got Giannis Bobby Brooke at the at the big spots um but I do like the optionality that Jay gives you to to play a little bit smaller more mobile um and so then you know if you’ve got Jay

Then you have a little more optionality in terms of what you can do lineup wise and you know I think that was one of the things that you know I was I’ve been surprised right we saw last night against the Pacers which I think we talked a little bit about you know they

Did run some lineups with Giannis the five which they basically haven’t done at all this year um and throwing out Andre and having Andre you know defend a little bit bigger than he has been right we’ve typically seen Andre defending you know shooting guards and even point

Guards as like the point of attack guy but I mean his fouling has been so like out of control that I mean he’s averaging over six fouls per 36 like to put that in perspective than nases who’s like one of the biggest foul machines you’ll see I look this up he’s never

Averaged more than 5.2 fouls per 36 minutes so like Andre is literally like Beyond thanasis on the like foul rate you know per minute charts um and again like it’s not like he’s just idiotically like doing stuff and completely like out of his League like he gets a lot of

Fouls for just basically like playing defense body lot body yeah like a lot of like you’re a rookie who’s trying to play defense type of foul calls which sucks but you know that’s reality um and so I think you know putting him off ball a little bit in these lineups where

Maybe he’s defending like a wing and not just you know like a lead ball handler or something um I think there’s again some potential and and maybe that’s a better way to get him some minutes as well um and again this is the problem right is when you don’t have like when

All your guards are basically like weak Defenders right you’re like kind of main small guys Dame Malik and campaign it’s also hard right because when you try to play small that means like you’re playing like two of those guys typically and so it’s hard to then be really good defensively when you’re

Getting even smaller right bucks can’t defensive Rebound with their big guys on the floor now how are you going to rebound when you’ve got a small smaller lineup out there right so I think there’s multiple reasons why reasonably you would not you have not seen smaller lineups Giannis also like I don’t think

Giannis wants to play center very much um and again I’m I’m not saying like it should be something they’re doing a ton but it’s typically been like a 15 to 20% type thing for yann’s minutes come in those types of lineups so I’m curious to

See kind of if that can maybe give them a different look especially late in games um you know just can you get guys on the floor who can actually keep dudes vaguely in front of them um because again I think that’s the root of kind of their broader issues right it’s just

That too many blowb and and not enough you know possessions where you know a guy just stands up and and prevents prevents a dude from immediately getting a lane to the basket drawing help Etc um so yeah it’s we’ll see let’s be careful about expecting too much you know Jay

Also was shooting like what 45% from three early in the season probably he’s not going to over um but I don’t know I mean it’s it’s kind of funny like when Jay first got here I kind of was like putting him on sort of like the the PJ

Kind of scale as far as my like what he would look like and again he’s not a the defender that PJ was you know in 2021 when we saw him help the Bucs win a championship but Jay’s also a much more talented offensive player right I mean

He can hit in between shots he can put it on the deck a little bit you know again you’re not going to want to play offensively through him but um but Jay talented guy so you just hope that he comes back and doesn’t have you know a

Huge kind of you know ramp up to get going again but again it’s not like you’re asking him to play 30 minutes a night or something like that as well um so I I don’t know really I’m I’m curious I mean like I’ll put the question to you

Cille I mean when Jay Crowder comes back what’s your you know call it ninan rotation right nine 10 guys it’s probably the most that you would see on a normal night in the playoffs it’s probably closer to eight nine guys I mean how are you thinking about what the

Are going to look like with with Jay coming back and maybe maybe sub question who is your starting five if you had to play the Boston Celtics in the playoff series tomorrow or next week whatever you want to say in the near future because to me Malik Beasley ain’t

In it you know that’s a really good question I do believe we see the Celtics next week as well I’m not sure if Jay will be back in time for that but if I had to do a ninan rotation for the playoffs of course you got you got Chris

You got Brooke you got Dane like those four that’s easy Malik Beasley is going to get playing time um and as we’ve talked about the onoff ratings or not onoff ratings but just the numbers for that starting five have been pretty good so far this season uh Off the Bench

That’s where it gets interesting we’ve seen in the past Bobby poris doesn’t play well against the Boston Celtics so I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to get from him in that series and that’s again when Jay Crowder is a big piece of

That so give me Jay for sure I know that campaign is our only backup guard at this point but I am not excited about that Prospect either like I think I honestly would go with more like Andre Jackson Jr or Maran in that situation even Pat um and let the ball handly the

Person offense be either Chris or Giannis or Dame in those minutes if Dame’s sitting and you need those backup point guard minutes and let the offense run through Chris or Giannis primarily um that way but I have some conc concerns about Bobby poris in campaign um in a series against the Boston Celtics

So something’s got to shake something has got to shake uh with this roster and they have to play better as well and again they’re going to get a chance next week but the next Bucks game that we get a chance to see happens to be against the Houston Rockets in Houston on

Saturday night I’m gonna be there I was gonna ask if you’re gonna be there yeah a good bucks representation at these Houston Rocket Games in Houston yeah it’s like weird because I mean San Antonio the the Spurs arena is like maybe an hour and a half from me here in

Austin and I’ve never once gone to a Spurs Bucks game and it usually just comes bound to like it’s a week night and I don’t want to have to you know drive two hours each way or whatever it is um and also like I’m always wary of

The spur banana peel potential which you know tonight almost obviously was was that case um but yeah my uh my wife’s kind of like her basically her her Godfather um is has rocket season tickets and so he uh he asked us while we were home for Thanksgiving if I

Wanted the tickets and I said sure Saturday night I can’t turn it down you know what kind of bucks fan would I be um if I you know can just go stay at my in-laws and see a Bucks game for free right I mean I gotta got to take that so

Um I’m trying to remember I think the last time I saw the Bucks play in Houston was the season opener a few years ago um where they were down like 10 in the fourth quarter and came back and won Giannis fail fouled out and uh I

Think that might have been I think that was 1920 because I think that was West Matthews first uh first uh season with the bucks so um hopefully they can do it again but the Rockets have been a way better home team and certainly the way the Bucks have been playing lately uh I

Guess I let’s just say this I hope the Rockets um miss a whole lot of three-pointers on Saturday night and do the Bucs a solid because uh I’m not so so confident in the Bucks playing at a high level on on both ends these days no I don’t blame you based on

What they put on tape I don’t blame you at all but that’ll do it for St let’s get out out of here tonight um again make sure that you go and check out locked on sports today on YouTube and subscribe first ever first ever National Sports 247 streaming channel so make

Sure you lock in on that for Frank and myself we’ll catch you guys later have a good weekend everybody

The first matchup between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama did not disappoint! The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 125-121 behind a strong game from Antetokounmpo (44 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists).

How impressive was Giannis vs. Wemby? Is the Bucks current level of defensive play good enough to compete for a championship?

On today’s episode, Camille and Frank discuss all of this plus the latest news around Jae Crowder’s return from injury.

0:00 Intro
1:40 Giannis vs Wemby didn’t disappoint…
14:12 …but the Bucks defense continues to raise some questions
27:50 Jae Crowder returning to the lineup soon?

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32 Comments

  1. I'm an Asian. But I guess I have a bigger " D" than the Bucks with the way they are playing lately. C'mon guys! You used to be one of the defensive elites of the league.

  2. Seriously Griffin looked lost and in agony when spurs took the lead before Giannis saved him with the 2 threes. Look at his face. For how long Giannis will be saving him? Why Giannis doesn't get rest at all for a game? This is preposterous to think that Giannis should play 80 games in a season just because Adrian cant win a game against indiana or san antonio without him.

  3. We can only win against weak teams.. and then difficult.. I really dont know what can change.. Chris Brook and Bobby are all good friends with Giannis and all slow..

  4. Why is it incredible for a man 7 foot 5 to dunk without jumping . I mean how athletic is that really ? Giannis was far superior to Wembayama .

  5. I love your dog, Frank!🥰 Let’s celebrate that cute-ass Lab because there was nothing to celebrate or to hope for with the Bucks squeezing by with a 4-point win against the Spurs and an injured Wemby who almost had our favorite looking like a number two. #FearTheDeer

  6. You guys in this comment section can't be serious lol Spurs were super excited to play the Bucks and Wemby was facing down his rival, much like Giannis plays with a bit extra juice against LeBron and in the past Melo, so did Wemby. Enjoy the game. These guys played the only game against each other for nearly an entire year.

  7. Can Marjon pls stop needing to bounce the ball before going for a wide open lay-in/dunk when people (mostly Giannis) find him completely forgotten alone under the rim? Last few games i've noticed him blowing at least one such look each game for this stupid reason. He is completely f'in alone under the rim and for some reason he stops to bounce it once and ends up getting blocked. Ffs man you are not a rookie anymore

  8. This game against wemby also hints at the problem against the Celts. He is going to have problem with the point of attack as well as Porzy who is as tall as wemby.

  9. Bucks fanbase has so many damn bandwagons who lose their minds after every game, win or lose

    It's kind of exhausting reading these negative, and often completely ignorant, messages game after game too when you've been watching the team since the '90s and are very familiar with when the team was completely irrelevant

    But instead of enjoying this ride during the Giannis/Khris era, yall wanna do nothing but complain smdh. Yall whiney bandwagons can hop off at any point

  10. Camille & Frank – wish yall wouldve put more context into Bucks defense. Yes it was terrible last 3 games, but prior to them they had rhe 13th best D in the December. Yes i know SOS has been very low, but still, that still means effort snd execution was better. Idk why the last 3 games happened this way, it felt way more like early November games than December games… hopefully there won't be permanent regression, cuz after December we were trending to being a top 10 defense at the end of rhe season

  11. That beginning of 4th quarter lineup from Griff should be enough to have the International Criminal Court start an investigation..

  12. In the Era of Giannis is the WORST Defensive Team i ever seen…Giannis dont deserve this for his Legacy…You Trade Dame also for WHAT???…..Giannis last night play like Superman to win this Match…..You need 2 Defenders 2 and 3(Mirror the D on Jimmy-Jalen and Tatum)…Some guys have NO Energy on D(Pat-Beasley-Middleton-Marjon)

  13. Hot Take: We might need to take a look at Brook Lopez. Hear me out…Yes, Brook blocks at a lot of shots, but how much is that because he's 7 Foot and lives in the lane and under the basket? He's easily the slowest person on our team. We have been getting smoked in the mid-range lane area because of his lack of foot speed. He's almost always the last person getting down the court on defense. He's a defensive liability on switches. He's 7 Foot, averages well over 30 minutes a game, and only averages 5 rebounds. Why does Dame average almost the same amount of rebounds as Brook? With us not having the greatest wing defenders, we NEED to have a Center that can move his feet. I would love hear anyone's opinion on this.

  14. Blazer fan here. Good luck with the D. Sorry to say, but Dame is going to continue to allow his man a free path to the hoop every time. Its just what he does.

  15. All the years of drafting ineptitude are coming back to haunt us. No bench= low playoff ceiling. Literally no bench, zero. Can we swap coaches with the Spurs until the end of the season and then Pop can go back to the Spurs and i'm not joking about that. Spurs are tanking, Griff can help them with that, lol. Realistically, get Bud back, tell him we f.cked up, sorry, come back coach.

    Horst WAKE UP, get Bud back and start thinking about potential trades.

  16. Coaching is bad with defense. I think that it is too late now so this year is probably lost. This is a real shame because I think that the Bucks are wasting Giannis's prime years.

  17. This game felt like the first time Rookie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played Wilt Chamberlain on 10/29/69 and Kareem had 23/20/2 in a loss to Wilt's Lakers and Wilt finished with 25/25/5. Giannis is still 4 years younger than that Wilt Chamberlain was but giant vs giant superstar feel is back in the NBA!!!

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