Jae Crowder announces his return as the Milwaukee Bucks prepare for 2 weeks of divisional games

Jae Crowder announces his return as the Milwaukee Bucks prepare for 2 weeks of divisional games

Coming up on today’s lock on bucks we take a look back at more Damen Lillard magic a walk-off in that win against the Sacramento Kings we revisit that in that performance by Dame and by this team to close out the home stand also some good news that we received from Jay Crowder

We had a feeling this would be coming uh in these next couple of days but we officially get that word and some interesting numbers to point out about the Bucks in their performance so far this season and specific parts of games we’ll get into all of that and hear from

You guys as well coming up on today’s locked on bucks you are locked on bucks your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome into today’s locked on bucks I’m Justin Garcia you can hear me on the Bucks radio network joined by Camille

Davis you can also hear her on the technical file podcast and the carry the G and MK podcast still going strong too into the divisional round we are of course free and available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube part of the locked on podcast Network your team

Every day and today’s episode of lockdown bucks is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers get $50 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet visit du.com locked on to get started um Camille I suppose we have to start with um kind of piggybacking

Off of the postgame show that Frank and I did but your reaction to Damen Lillard walking it off as we’ve seen some incredible performances from Dame specifically fourth quarters um but I don’t believe we’ve seen a true walk-off yet from Dame so that was the first yeah

And that’s why Dame said he’s been saving the the the Dame time celebration there was no tapping of the wrist before that gamewinner against the Kings and I just got to rewind and just first say what a way to end off a Sunday of sports if you are a Wisconsin sports fan I

Would assume the Ben diagram of people who are Bucs fans and Packer fans there’s a lot of overlock there um so seeing that Packers game and then having the Bucks game which honestly could have been a really frustrating loss with how things were just going down the street

But then you get a really fun game a Dame game winner and that just makes you forget everything else for a moment because you’re just so wrapped up in the excitement of that shot and what for some reason I’m not exactly sure why but when I saw that gamewinner and I saw the

Reaction of his teammates around it to this regular season game where they’re celebrating a big game winner it reminded me of the Chris Middleton shot against Miami the year we traded away uh Brandon Knight and we got MCW in and things were just kind of Rocky for a bit

With that bugs team and they were really looking for a win and they needed a win and they got it on that big Chris 3 after Jered bis won the the jump ball tipped it over Zaza grabbed it tipped it over back over to Chris hit that three

And just seeing how the team was so excited for it and this is a bugs team here where the month of January as we’ve talked about didn’t get off to the best start so for them to have the Str that they had where they blow out Boston you

Know beat the broadcast breaks off of them like I said um after the postgame making TNT change it to facing a Warriors team that was short staff there was no Steph no Draymond No Moses Moody like there were a lot of guys who they were missing and they kept it close

Bucks pulled that one off and then the very next night second number back toback you have this Kings game where the kings are putting up points they’re putting up points could have been a disaster with late game execution but they found a way to win and you saw how

Important it was for that team and you saw how together they were they were and it was just super fun to watch it was trending um for a couple of minutes there towards a very very frustrating loss and a man how did we lose this game

Although if you’re going to lose a game like that I suppose that day is the day to do it when all the attention is on the Green Bay Packers um but again I look I get the late game execution the the critiques over that and Frank and I

Went over that and I don’t think either of us were defending what happened I I get what they were shooting for we walked through the logic and those quotes from Adrien Griffin I agree with the all premise on this is how we should defend I think as as we mentioned it was

Just a matter of maybe wait 10 seconds to employ that strategy um and the whole Giannis thing too I’ve seen some of the comments and I don’t necessarily disagree with that of maybe this is let’s continue to get him some of those free throws uh in those spots and look

If you’re going to do that the regular season is the time to do it but you also have Damen Lillard for a reason and you have other very good Shooters out there too like a Brook Lopez that you don’t want this thing to get into question I I

Get getting honest those reps and those looks and again you know we mentioned this in the radio broadcast too he’s done a pretty good job overall in those spots Giannis is quick to point out I hit him when they count and for the most part that’s largely true and he’s a 76%

Shooter in the clutch for free throws uh this season it’s just a matter of yeah but maybe let’s go to the other option maybe we can we can try that I get this too um but it ended up being really nice win and I think that was maybe probably the best

Win of the season for the bucks All Things Considered I think we took great joy in the win against the Boston Celtics um but when you consider how the week started and you mention the struggles that they went through to start January we didn’t know where this team

Was headed after that game against the Utah Jazz because we assumed start of a 4 game home stand of all the teams on the schedule the Jazz maybe this is the easiest one to get here this are the Warriors and for the Bucs to come out as

Flat as they did raised a lot of eyebrows so for them to respond the way that they did and beat the Celtics the way that they did still take care of business against the Warriors even if that is a short-handed Warriors team and then this one uh again I I don’t know

How you feel but I think it was the best win of the season for night two of a back-to-back three games in four days you played around a little bit at the end you were out Chris Middleton but you still pulled through and won it it’s up

There it’s up there for this regular season because it’s been es and flows in this season it’s been ups and downs and that game winner it made me think something that you said actually which I think was after the first Boston game when Dame went crazy in the fourth

Quarter and they got the score pretty close and for a second there was hope like hey the Bucks might be able to actually win this game here but then Dame gets hung on that dunk things don’t work out quite there at the end but you mentioned like after watching this game

I am even more confident in the fact that this was the trade that the Bucks needed to make and when I watched that game winner that was my feeling of watching like this is why you have a Damien Lillard on your team like no you

Don’t want to give up 142 points to any team you don’t you don’t want to be in that situation but if you’re a team that can keep it close if the Bucs can keep it close throughout and you find yourself in a position to win a game

It’s really nice having a Damien Lillard on your side because of his track record and what he’s been able to do and then you see him actually execute that during that Kings game where you get a crazy fading three-pointer for the win and you’re just like this is what this is

This is exactly what I’m talking about like even his celebration and he mentioned it after the game where he’s like I’ve been here before I’ve done this before that’s why I didn’t do my Dame time celebration before this particular one because it needed to be like something that closed the game

Closed the game and I feel that way now where it’s like yes this team has some things to continue to work on and who knows what we’ll see happen at the trade deadline if anything does happen but I’m feeling really good about having Damen Lillard on our team at this moment

Because we’ve seen the Bucks offense in the half court in the playoffs and what tends to happen when things can get slowed down and having Dame changes the equation well and I I think what all of us feel most good about if that is even

Is a phrase is um you know we we’ve talked about it before with some of these Dame fourth quarters in that it it truly does not matter what he’s shooting for the first not even three quarters for the first 43 44 45 minutes of the game that he still strikes that fear in

You and you have to look for him he could be 0 for 17 and whoever it is you’re playing they’re still game planning of can’t let Damen Lillard take this shot and that’s the importance that he brings that’s what he’s goingon to open up for Giannis and Chris Middleton

And and the rest of this group and why we’re in agreement that you know I think even through the the issues and the struggles I think we are are all kind of aligned of I get it’s a bummer to lose Drew holiday and especially to see him

Go against the team you may have to go through to win the Eastern Conference but this was a move that the Bucks needed to make and Damen Lillard displaying that once again tonight we will get to the biggest news to come out today and that’s the J Crowder update as

I’ve already seen a few comments trickle in about that but again we knew it was going to be close we heard from majoran Griffin last week during this home stand that was a matter of days and he’s very close so you started to do the math and

Said well if it wasn’t Saturday and it wasn’t Sunday and we were told days you got two days off I would assume it’s sometime on this road trip so we will get you updated on that J Crowder news before we do move on and get to a break

I did want to just look back at that final play um because there’s so much stuff that goes into is you know most of lockdown Bucks fans that are truly engrossed in this and follow all of it you can notice these things but but not everybody picks up on it and Adrien

Griffin talked about that last play on that Dame gamewinner and that the original design was for Giannis to be coming somewhere around midcourt to flashback as the help get the inbounds and Brook Lopez would then set a screen for Damen Lillard somewhere around midcourt Giannis would get it to Dame

And that’s how they would get their look we saw towards the end of that game the kings were doing everything they could selling out to make sure Dame wasn’t getting the ball for inbounds and the same thing was starting to happen and then they were doing the same to Giannis

Basically knowing well Dame’s inbounding so we know he’s looking to Giannis he’s gonna start to Sprint down the floor and Giannis will get it back to him so the Kings went out of their way to make sure Giannis couldn’t get the ball and it was Brook Lopez flashing back and and Adrien

Griffin talked about that after the game too saying it was just a heads up play by Brooke to see what was going on flash back to the ball knowing that was not the design and they needed to use Brooke as the screen Setter that all changed

And I think you could see kind of the awkwardness of spacing with Brooke and how he was behind Dame on that final play but still to recognize that and say we got to get the ball in bounds here so I’m just going to come back and help him

And get him the ball back that’s the stuff that you get from veterans absolutely absolutely I’m glad you brought that up because one it show just the IQ of Brook Lopez on that play and how the bugs had to adjust to the Kings adjustment there because they defin had

Two on Yannis um when they were trying to in ball the bound to the ball to him when Brooke came up for it and after the game when Dame hit the game winner I was seeing from a certain subset of people that they thought that Brook Lopez was

Unhappy that Dame took the game winner because Brook like he was calling for the ball but Brook’s there as an option right and then you see clearly after the game that he’s not mad he just can’t believe that he just watch like oh my God disbelief it’s not

Anger it’s disbelief and then you see him smiling and coming up to him afterwards so I’m glad you brought that up because that’s something I did just want to clear up in case anybody else was walking around with the illusion that for some reason Brook Lopez

Wouldn’t be happy to win a game um it was him being an amazement like all of us were watching Dame knock that down um one last thing more iconic visual last year the photo of the five starters on the bench with their legs crossed or what we saw after the game last night

Everybody holding up the wrist and pointing to Dame time oh that’s a hard one because the bench one you don’t see that often Dame time we’ve seen the celebration but you’ve I don’t think I’ve seen the full team doing it and Giannis even slid down

His shoulder pad to make it like a watch on his wrist maybe it’s the recency bias let me go with the dang pitcher yeah well and hopefully because last year it didn’t end up well for the bucks with way things rolled out there I mentioned

The J Crowder news we see a couple of comments popping up to um about Jay Crowder and his pending return we will get into that and also some interesting numbers if you’re in that camp that thinks hey we’re just starting to catch our stride or the Milwaukee Bucks we

Have some interesting numbers to back that up as well we’ll get into it after the break well this episode of lock on bucks is sponsored by better help and look we just got through a very rough rough time on the calendar for a lot of people if you’re dealing with anxiety or stress

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Hp.com lockon NBA and Camille as people are watching this show show on YouTube now we should also remind them that lockdown has launched the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel on YouTube lockon sports today it is here for you 247 covering the top stories of the day with

The local experts you would expect from lockon plus our national shows that cover every single League just go to lock on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel I mentioned uh the news and that is Jay Crowder making it official through his social

Channels that he is back and um look it was what nine games that Jay Crowder played in this season it was as as we detailed at the time of the injury it was a frustrating injury for Jay Crowder just because of everything he went through last season and how good he was

Playing to start this season so unfortunate to see him go down but Jay Crowder announced that he is finally back is a huge lift for this team that you know is starting to find some pieces that work as we’ve cautioned Jay Crowder is not the thing you point to that this

Is going to solve everything but the Bucks are starting to figure some of that out and now you’re getting him back too which is a big piece for that defense a needed piece for that defense as well because he is somebody who while he he’s a smaller body but he can be a

Small ball for as well and that’s the piece of it that I was so interested in because prior to his injury there were some lineup combinations that we just didn’t get to see a lot of like we haven’t seen too many small ball lineups with Jay being in there Manning the four

Spot next to Giannis I’m very much looking forward to see what that might look like and especially just how at this point in the season Adrien Griffin is learning his team he has a better understanding of his team today than he did when Jay went out and he’s talked

About that over the last few games and you know postgame conferences pregame conferen is just saying like hey figuring things out like why he was going with Andre Jackson Jr over campaign where it’s like hey I figured at this point in time we need a little

Bit more height a little bit more length a little bit more defense so I wanted to go this route and we’ve talked about what his scheme seems to be what his scheme seems to want to do and it it looks like switching is something that

He would love to be able to do Jay Crowder is somebody who fits well into that and for as much as we’ve talked about defense and it’s for a good reason because this bugs team hasn’t looked quite like the teams that we’ve gotten used to seeing under Bud defensively he

Helps there but he was also shooting nearly 50% from three of my memory is correct prior to his injury not like he was shooting on a super high volume but you know that when you’re on the floor with Dame and with Giannis teams are

Going to load up to try to stop them at all costs it’s part of why Malik Beasley offensively has been such a good pickup for this team because if you leave him open at this point it feels like almost guaranteed three with the way he’s been

Shooting the ball at a higher volume you add in Jay Crowder another guy who can give you something defensively but you also know you can trust him to knock down that open shot assuming that you know he continues to build on what we saw and this is not me saying when he

Comes back if he’s not shooting 50% like oh this is it’s terrible now but like you need a plus three-point shooter we’ve seen teams not respect Andre he’s gonna have to make them respect his shot um mean he’s been doing a decent shot a decent job at that when he does shoot

The ball um even though his form is unique but but it’s been it’s been working for him so that’s the thing about Jay coming back that’s so exciting you think of the lineup potential you think of how it also helps that offense that has already been finding its stride

And Jay just unlocked some things for this team I think and then also just to see him with Andre will be interesting as well now that he’s getting more playing time yeah and is we went through too we’ve seen some Andre small ball four lineups um I think the biggest

Piece too obviously you’ll point to the defense and what he brings he did a he being Jay did a much better job this season than I think any of us envisioned and and you hope that hasn’t gone away or or is at least lingering there as he

Works through you know getting back from this injury but he did a much better job than I think you could have hoped for defending um on the perimeter this season given you know last year you weren’t sure is this just the case of Jay Crowder is a veteran and getting

Older or was it truly was kind of a weird year for him where he didn’t play for the first half of the Season still had to get himself into games shape and if if it’s just nine games so not a huge sample but going off of that it

Certainly looks like it was just he just needed a full year under his belt so his ability to do that is huge for the defense because as you mentioned the different combinations that it allows you to play and look it’s not to say that Brook Lopez has no place on this

Team you just need more ways to play and you go back to the championship season Brooke was a big piece of that but so was PJ Tucker and so was the ability to play Giannis at the five and play smaller in some of those spots and be

Able to switch one through five when you had Drew holiday there um so you need that and Jay Crowder’s a big piece of being able to do that and I think it comes at especially a good time for Jay in that you know we’ve talked about

Bobby a lot this season and some up and down play and uh the numbers you know as as I think any of us would imagine he’s much better at home than he is on the road and the numbers back that up not only scoring more and getting more

Rebounds he’s doing it more efficiently and I think it’s it’s probably clear to see why when you see the impact that he has in that building and with the fans and how much Bobby thrives off of that so I think it’s big to get Jay Crowder

Back at a moment when Bobby poris was fantastic last night and Bobby poris put together three very good games to close out this home stand after he had been going through some struggles so it’s not like Jay Crowder comes back and it’s man we really need you because this defense

Is totally lost Bobby poris is going through some struggles so no pressure Jay but step in and basically be the Savior for him to come back when this team is starting to play better again still areas to clean up defensively but starting to put together some more of

Those quarters where you see okay we got to see it for 48 minutes but we’re at least seeing it for extended stretches is going to be especially helpful to Jay Crowder as well it is it is and I just saw a comment come through from Andrew just talking about defensive issues that

They’ve seen mentioning the fact that it always like there’s a back door cutter who comes in behind the Paint it’s like an Easy Pass layup uh then or dunk situation and how can Jay help that if he does help that and it’s interesting right because I feel like one of the

Weaknesses of the bugs defense is that there’s a lot of there’s too much ball watching and it’s not just from Bobby like Giannis does it from time to time like you see the guys they’re just watching ball and losing track of who’s behind them now one thing I can say

About Jay Crowder I can’t say here today and be like hey you put Jay back in and all that stops but what I can say is that Jay is somebody who loves to communicate defensively and he’s going to be calling out what he sees he’s not someone from what I’ve noticed of

Watching Jay Crowder play who spends as much time ball watching as some other bucks tend to do so having that voice back someone else to help communicate to help your teammates look to where they need to be doing make sure they’re rotating over properly it’s always

Helpful it takes all Five Guys on the court to play successful defense you add in the piece like Jay Crowder who’s good at that and like it it should help I’m not again not saying it’s going to fix everything but like it definitely should help yeah and a couple of those uh other

Points as uh we saw Tyler mentioned too Jay was defending twos and threes and fours and again just nine games but he was hitting the three at a high percentage you mentioned the percentage that he was hitting at so that’s big to get that back because you need that

Defensive help but I think that’s what we’ve seen from Andre Jackson Jr as much as we love him and he’s he’s going to have some ups and downs is you still see the biggest difference is he is a defensive playmaker but when he’s on the floor it it changes how teams have to

Defend the Bucks that you’ll see the Swing Swing and moving to Andre in the corner they’re gonna sag off of him and immediately start to rotate back and say if he shoots it fine but it’s not Malik Beasley um so that’s big for Jay to be able to add that lift offensively as

Well the other thing that Nate points out is it’s going to take couple of weeks from him to get back into form I agree and that’s again where it’s especially nice that this isn’t coming at a moment where it’s man we absolutely need him if it wasn’t immediately after

The Jazz game and Bobby and others going through a prolonged slump where that pressure is on everyone to say hey Jay we need you to be the guy you were for those first nine games of the season that’s big to uh to help him out as well

Um coming back from this injury so it’s it’s look it’s it’s things starting to Trend in the right direction I don’t think either of us are sitting here saying they fixed everything and this team is better than the Celtics I feel really good I think overall it is fine

To feel good about where this team is at 28 and 12 and you know some of the numbers that we’ll get to in the next segment it’s kind of a however you you choose to view this but there’s some interesting things to point out about the level of competition that they’ve

Played and how they’ve performed in those games so far this season we’ll get into that conversation and a few other things to u to look back on and to clean up from what we saw last night or the game on Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings we will get into that

Discussion coming up after the break on lock on bucks well I know we come to sports often times to Escape some of the crazy realities of real life but if we can just talk for a minute about preparing for real life according to the FDA pharmacies are running out of

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On to get your $20 off order J medical that’s jal.com uh Camille I mentioned these numbers that I did want to point out here but let’s just go back to that game uh against the Kings for a brief moment here and and talking about whether or

Not that was the best win of the season I think to date yes but when you think about the most fun games we’ve seen from the Bucks this season I think to me really three stand out and they’re all for different reasons uh one would be

The season opener when we finally got to see Damen Lillard and just hearing the crowd reaction when you were waiting for the starting lineups and you hear wearing the letter O and Damen Lillard and realizing holy cow this is a reality he’s wearing a Bucks jersey uh and then

The way that Damen Lillard played down the stretch in the fourth quarter to help the Bucs beat the Sixers obviously beating the Boston Celtics doesn’t matter what the scenarios were and funny how that works that the Bucs run that two of a back toback without one of

Their big players and they still managed to win in overtime but nonetheless beating the Celtics always going to be a fun one this one though had everything that it was a very competitive game from start to finish there were lead changes you had shot making from both these

Teams whether or not the defense played a role in that on either side it was just the fun game to be a part of So Not only was it the best win that was maybe the most enjoyable experience and I think certainly coupling that with what happened earlier in the day and

Just walking around the building me and Dave Kan and our engineer watching parts of the Packer game on our phones as we were getting ready for the game and just seeing everybody else doing the same and knowing the Packers won and now we add this to it was probably the most fun day

Of the Bucks season so far yeah yeah I was thinking more about that because you when you asked it earlier I was like that’s a great question like it has to be up there like the only games that come to mind you mentioned the the home opener which season opener where you’re

Like yes this is our first time scen it we got some some cool dang moments the Indie win was fun for its own host of reasons by that point and then ball gate afterwards but I mean Yannis dropping 64 and the franchise record that was a fun

One and then a a sleeper fun game for me this season the first Cleveland game that we had where they were kind of down they had to come back um a bit there and it was back and forth a bit and then the Bucks just kind of pulled away with it

That was a fun one to watch but nothing quite like this king’s finish there because I think when you have those moments of frustration that turned into moments of euphoria like it’s something about that combination where you’re like well this is this is over like we we’re

Not doing like it’s not going to happen like we’re down six in overtime now like that’s that’s a pretty it feels sizable at that that point with only so much time left and then you get the the big Pat three the big Brook three and then

You get a Dame game winner like there were some moments in that game and then you have uh the Giannis shoulder sleeve like it’s one of those games too where visually it’s going to stand out unless Giannis adopts a shoulder sleeve U from here on out like triple double yanis

Like there was so many things in that game and there wasn’t even any Chris midleton to on there so my personal fan bias part of me is going to say if there’s no Chris M I can’t fully enjoy that Victory no I’m joking but um yeah it’s definitely up there yeah and look

Those are all good things to bring up too because last night Dame gets the headlines and rightfully so when he hit a 35-footer at the buzzer for the win um but as you mentioned Giannis had a triple double uh I think eight players each team had four players I believe

Scored 20 or more points he had that volume of scoring um Dame and the gamewinner that he had but none of that is possible without that three by Pat conon after the Bucks had some good looks earlier in overtime that they just missed and yet Pat conon hits that three

To uh tie the score and I mentioned this on the radio broadcast too but I I do Wonder we won’t hear from Mike Brown because he was ejected by that point but did you see this press conference by the way pulled up the laptop and look um I’m

Not one to blame the officials and harp on that um and as as my broadcast part will be quick to point out if you guys think NBA officials are bad you haven’t experienced the full season of college basketball and what some of those calls

Can be like but uh I think some of Mike Brown’s uh complaints and I do love the prop of bringing out the laptop and showing the clip beautiful um you know by the letter of the law sure they make sense but I would just argue you know

Mike I think the Bucks had just as many that they could have pointed to as well but that in itself was so crazy too because I have never seen anything like that like his reaction I have never seen a coach quite as agitated as Mike Brown

Was we’ve seen SPO get into it and get after it with officials where he knows he’s just shooting for the ejection um but it happened so fast and we caught it out of the corner of our eye that I thought it was two players getting into

It at first that because he he cut off Pat conaton that there was contact there and then had to be restrained by I think it was Malik Monk and one of his assistants it it was it was insane you had that to it as well it it just the

Game had everything and again and Frank and I talked about it Campa and Bobby poris two guys that they really Shine for the bucks especially early in the fourth quarter when you didn’t have Giannis or Dame on the floor so uh all things considered it was a great win and

To finish that point I guess um is you know that Brook three-pointer that made it a one-point game Big Shot big shot but also kind of a defensive break breakdown by the Kings because they’re in scramble mode Giannis gets the rebound I think part of it is still holy

Cow we missed two free throws here and Giannis starts attacking the Kings immediately clog the paint again that’s probably just out of habit of this is how we defend Giannis leaving Brook open in the corner when in hindsight just let jannis score the two there instead of

Giving up a three with that little time left and honestly the way Brooke got that three off like it was beautiful for a seven-footer to get that type of three-pointer off like I see produced by Tyler men and he went crazy when Brooke hit that three and it’s like for good

Reason the man was back pedaling to the corner to knock down the three had time to check his feet make sure get the shot up and it wasn’t like a real set shot because he was moving backwards as he’s catching and he knows like gotta get this shot up now before the defense

Realizes I’m over here exactly and Straight Cash like that was a necessary shot it was beautiful like Brook Lopez is somebody who whose name gets brought up a lot in has for years now like even the season when he got hurt and I would think that a lot of Bucks fans would

Have watched that season and been like wow I really do see how we need Brook Lopez you still have people who don’t quite understand the value and like I know this season has been rough and it’s been for a lot of different reasons that we’ve talked about on various episodes

Of this show like the every dayers are well aware of some of the things that we’ve pointed out as to why it looks as if Brook Lopez is having more breakdowns at The Rim but a key shot from a key contributor of this team like we talk

About big three but like this team really is a core four aspect because a lot of their defense revolves around what Brook Lopez can bring in that drop coverage what he can he race uh behind everybody and then you add in three-point shooting which hasn’t been

As you know effective this year but we know he has an nemm teams are going to respect it to a certain degree and big shout that we need it all right let’s not waste any more time because I’ve mentioned and hyped up these numbers for a while now

So per cleaning the glass which takes out all the garbage time um the Bucks have played seven games against teams that are basically in the top 10 of of net rating seven games is not a huge sample size but I remember talking about this last night before the game and

Saying you know I know the Bucks haven’t played in an overly challenging schedule but it does seem like they they still have this thing that it’s gone through a number of coaching staffs that they just seem to outside of the Boston Celtics play to their level of competition that even even despite

Not playing a ton of games against the best teams yet I feel like we’ve played pretty well overall in those games and the numbers back it up and again seven games as we cautioned earlier in the year you know don’t make too much out of

The first 10 games of the season so it’s no different here but it’s just food for thought in those games against teams in the top 10 in point differential the Bucks are five- two and what is most eye popping is they have the number one rated offense that that’s not surprising

The number two rated defense and our best in net rating in those seven games against the best teams in the league so again you need to see more of it than seven games but that would seem to back up they play their best when they know the stakes are higher and that’s pretty

Easy to figure out when you got guys like Giannis and Brooke and Chris Middleton and obviously Bobby and Pat that have been through some pretty deep playoff runs and to just add even more to that we’ve talked at length about the Bucs numbers in the clutch so far this

Season but with last night’s win there’s 16- six in those games only the magic have a higher win percentage they’re 12- four and the Bucks are seventh best offensively fourth best defensively under a 100 defensive rating in the clutch and fifth best in N rating so they’re right around fifth in all of

Those categories only the Bucks Nicks and Nuggets are ranked in the top 10 in all three of those areas in clutch game so again more of a sample size in those instances of 22 games versus seven but it it’s starting to walk towards that path and back up that look when it

Matters most and when the competition is at its highest the Bucs have played their best and that’s what you hope to continue to see and that’s part of why I like the analytics like looking at the numbers because you think you’re seeing something on the court and you’re like

Hey I feel like in the clutch the Bucks are doing pretty well and you go and look up the numbers and I’m not sure what your initial reaction was to seeing them but in my mind I’m thinking like yeah they’re doing good there but I’m even still surprised to hear how good

Those numbers are and I get anybody who would be skeptic like skeptical and saying like I still don’t trust this bucks defense I don’t care what those particular numbers say because it’s a certain subset of the game but it’s like well how did you get to this point of

The game anyways because your defense so on and so forth completely understandable and I’m not going to be here to try to talk you out of how you feel but I can communicate how I feel about it and I have come over to the side of as long as the Bucks can be

Elite offensively and be okay average at worst defensively but have a lineup or have something they can go to in crunch time where they can get stops that’s still a championship winning formula like I do think there are still things for them to clean up defensively I do

Still think that we might have some Personnel questions that need to be answered by John horse on this roster but with the team here like I still think this team has a chance to do something special even if they didn’t make CH like there is you can see the

The outline of where you’re like ah this is actually working like there are things that for sure can be better and you would like to see it be better more consistently and I think that’s the piece of it as well like do it consistently so we can have that

Confidence in you but if they can continue to perform at the very least consistently in crunch time I’m going to go into the playoffs feeling prettyy comfortable about what the Bucks can do and this part backs the overall the ey test in that if we just looked at Point

Differential in those games against the the top 10 teams uh the top five in terms of net rating in those games the Bucks number one by a wide margin 10.8 next up is the thunder who are 3.9 but the top five are the Bucks the Thunder the Celtics the

Nuggets and the Clippers and those have largely been either teams that have been very good to dominant so far this season or teams that you look at and you say I trust this team and with the Clippers I know that’s a maybe a tough sell but it’s moving towards it’s getting hard

Not to trust this team if kaai is healthy and Harden is playing the way that he is so that part it’s not like well this seems like this is a crazy outlier I think the way the Bucks have done it probably there is some outlier factors there and certainly that game

Against the Celtics went a long way way in pushing the bucks numbers up now this takes out garbage time but still that goes a long way in uh propping up some of those numbers but that’s the company that the Bucks are in with how they’ve performed in those categories and

Conversely when you look at some of those younger teams that have been hovering around the top this season I think everybody is kind of pointed to I want to believe and certainly teams like the Timberwolves and the Thunders as Bucks fans can relate to uh you’re happy

To see successes from teams like that because you went through the same thing for decades but I think everybody points to look I’m glad that they’ve got it turned around but I need to see more of it before I really trust the Bucks went through that the first couple of years

Of Mike buer as well and that’s kind of what it’s it’s been when you look at these numbers Thunder have been pretty good defensively their offense has just been slightly better than that in these spots that’s not too surprising when you look up and down at that team and think

I know Shay gilgas Alexander is going to be able to get me a basket in the half court who else on that team in those big spots do you really trust to do that the Timberwolves kind of a same story that obviously Rudy goar has been huge for

Their defense Anthony Edwards can defend and they have some nice team Defenders their defense has taken a little bit of a step back uh not that it’s been bad but a little bit of a step back against those top teams it’s been the offense too that’s just been okay they have a

Flat net rating so those things kind of line up with what you would assume to be the case and again it’s seven games so it doesn’t mean hey it’s fixed and this defense is all of a sudden good but I think these are the signs that you look

To and and these are the things that I’m sure Adrien Griffin looks at when he says I like where we’re headed and I think we’re starting to do things the right way and moving in the right direction so as as people have pointed out now the important part is this a

Pretty winnable stretch that the Bucks are entering I saw people questioning to why is this the schedule that the bus have well it’s because that’s what the schedu makers put on the schedule that’s what they have but yeah your next five games are not only all within the

Division but they’re against two teams so you’re in Cleveland on Wednesday then you have two straight series you have that baseball Series in Detroit against the Pistons thankfully it’s a two o’clock tip on Saturday meaning uh all of our postgame stuff should be done by six o’clock leading into a big football

Game that night and then Monday night and then you got two at home against the Cavaliers so look we’ve we’ve mentioned it quite a bit but these are the important stretches of the schedule to keep piling up these wins and keep keeping the pace with the Boston Celtics

Because as as we’ve continued to hammer people over the head with it changes and it changes rapidly that schedule does for the bucks once you especially get past the All-Star break so you you got to take care of those winnable games in the meantime yeah Now’s the Time like

We’ve talked about what the beginning of this season is a lot for this team they’re learning NBA teams don’t get much time to practice during the regular season so a lot of times they’re using Game reps to try to get Concepts down figure things out in real time and then

They take look at the film through walkthroughs whatever the case may be and they try to go and Implement that during the next game which is part of why you enjoy having the 82 because you have a chance to work through things and I know with us here doing lock on bucks

All the fans who are watching every single game you live and die by every single game because you’re invested in it you’re we we’re talking about it so you can sometimes uh lose track of the bigger picture because you’re looking at what’s happening on this day but we’re about

Halfway through the season and even with all of the things that we think that the Bucks might need to still improve on they’re second in the East some are saying that’s like empty calories but Hey listen I’d rather be full on empty calories and figuring things out you

Know what sometimes empty calories taste good sometimes you want a Big Mac okay you know it’s not as good as the salad but sometimes you want the Big Mac but no but like seriously like it’s a time for the bucks to get these wins so that you hope the case that after All-Star

Break when you’re starting to head into the playoffs now you’re starting to play some of your best ball I would rather this team start peing after allar break than have already achieved it now and then stuff starts falling apart so that’s part of the joy of the 82 you get

Jay back you can try some new things out I’m really excited like I mentioned before uh to see if Griff tried some new things with Jay this time around since the last time we saw him since he only got to play in like the first nine games

Of the season and I feel like grip’s done some different things since then so it’ll be interesting to see like again we’re we’re we do this we we talk about the Bucks every day and there are people who watch the Bucks every day and I can think I can speak for everybody by

Saying I’m looking forward to continuing to watch how this season unfolds because that’s the only way we know exactly how it’s going to go by the way I said sometimes empty calories taste good all the time they tast they empty calories uh we’ll be back with another show

Tomorrow and and I do want to get into some of the more rotational based questions Frank and I touched on it a little bit after the game against the Kings but we’ve seen some interesting things for a couple of players so we’ll get into that because as we mentioned

You know when when somebody comes back the minutes got to come from somewhere so Jay Crowder is going to take minutes from someone as as we have a better idea of what to expect in terms of his onboarding and and getting back into the swing of things and see what his minutes

Restriction of will be we’ll get into that discussion too of where are those minutes going to come from from uh Jay Crowder so we’ll get into that and a little bit more of a preview of the Cavaliers for a one-off on the show tomorrow thanks to everybody for hanging

Out for the uh last handful of minutes here on the live show for Camille I’m Justin we will talk to you once again tomorrow

After what was hopefully the low point of the season in an embarassing loss to the Utah Jazz, the Bucks rebounded for 3 straight wins and now get the return of Jae Crowder. Is this team FINALLY turning the corner? Justin and Camille discuss that and look back at another incredible walk-off by Damian Lillard on the latest Locked on Bucks

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