Pat Beverley makes his Milwaukee Bucks debut, when will Khris Middleton return?

Pat Beverley makes his Milwaukee Bucks debut, when will Khris Middleton return?

Coming up on today’s locked on bucks we take a look back at the last few games here recapping the Bucks bounceback win over the Charlotte Hornets it brought us the debut of Pat Beverly We dig into that the latest on Chris Middleton and some of the comments that I know Bucks

Fans were very very nervous about yesterday so we’ll dig into all of that and take a look at this defense and where we’ve seen the Improvement for 10 games now maybe not the largest sample size but a large enough sample size we’ll get into all of that coming up next on 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 lock on bucks I’m Justin Garcia here with you you can hear me as well on the Bucks radio network as you can tonight is the Bucks host the

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Lockon NBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply I mentioned the bucks with that big much needed bounceback win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night and it was exactly what you had hoped to see as we’ve used this term quite a bit on this

Show on the radio network anywhere uh and that is bounce back the Get Right game it’s what you hope for and it’s what you got with a 36o margin of defeat against the charlet Hornets so you’ve now beat the Hornets by 31 points on the road in the inseason tournament 36

Points at home this one a little bit different as quite a few players were out for the Charlotte Hornets by way of injuries and by way of Trades that they were still going through the pending deals but as I mentioned the get right aspect of this some times you just need

That you need to show up and have a game like that and win regardless of who’s on the floor the way that the Bucks did on Friday nights because look if the Bucks had won that game but it was a close one especially considering everybody that was missing for the charlot Hornets it’s

A much different conversation that we’re currently having but that wasn’t the case it was a getright game in many many ways now you did see a couple of things to nitpick here and that was some foul trouble by Onis that prematurely ended his night a nice enough game from Damen

Lillard who finished with 26 points and by the way I pointed this out on uh on Twitter on the radio broadcast as well it is the 23rd time now that Damen Lillard has scored 26 or more points in a game we’re all familiar with the 0

And5 record the Bucs have in games that Dame misses but he has now scored 26 or more in a game with the Bucks 23 times the Bucks are 21 and two in those 23 games so uh yes it’s pretty obvious you need Damen Lillard on the floor with

That 0 and5 record in games that he’s missed especially when you consider how this team was adjusted to no longer be that we’re going to win with our defense and we got Yiannis they’re an offensive team and it’s we’re gonna win with our offense maybe it’s shifting towards

We’re gonna win with our defense coming up with stops but we’re an offensive team you take out Damen Lillard that’s a big absence but we’ve talked about this quite a bit since the coaching changed and I think that 26 number is important because we’ve heard Doc Rivers talk at

Length about maybe not saying this quite so bluntly but but really mentioning um if you read between the lines that he needs Damen Lillard to really get going to optimize Damen Lillard think about the same things we said about Giannis we heard Mike buholzer say about Giannis

Before he took the job that you can kind of sense that’s what Doc Rivers is looking for here and you even go back to before that game against the Hornets and some of his comments uh to the media talking about things that they can address with having both of those guys

On the floor things that’ll change he pointed out the two-man game which everybody has pointed to haven’t seen enough of it right when the per game basis the number of two-man actions that we’re seeing from Damon Giannis that we all thought would be unguardable it has

It’s it’s been very very good you just haven’t seen a high volume of it do Rivers himself talked about that on Friday before the Hornets game and said look we haven’t seen a ton of it we’re getting better at it and I do like what we’ve seen I feel like that has worked

But the biggest thing for Doc is you know finding that balance to not take the ball out of giannis’s hands per se and he addressed this because you know giannis’s playmaking has continue to improve year after year you think about the numbers that he’s posting this year as well and you think

About some of the relatively low assist figures that he’s had recently in the game against the Hornets on Friday just three assists in that game um for Giannis and you know we’ve seen some high volume assist games of late but it really comes down to shots he had seven

Assists against the Timberwolves the night prior part of that was the defense of the Timberwolves but giannis’s assist numbers to me what’s most impressive about them is the fact that it has been I know we talk about the offense being good and this being a good offensive

Team now but it’s been an up and down offense as we’ve seen for Peaks and valleys throughout this season and there’s been a lot of missed shots that Giannis has had to deal with so that to me is even more impressive when you think about the assist numbers of

6.3 assists per game for Giannis right up there with Damen Lillard in terms of the team leaders but the highest of his career as well and you know we’ve talked about the efficiency numbers 61% give or take the jannis is still shooting from the field uh this season

65% on his two-point attempts highest of his career there as well it’s no coincidence and even the effective field goal percentage of 62% that he has this year also would be a career high all of this to me speaks to Damen Lillard and the gravity that Damen Lillard has

Brought to this team the attention that Damen Lillard pulls even if as there has been some some complaints and man I kind of expected more from Damen Lillard offensively we may not have seen the offensive version that Damen Lillard was in Portland at least not yet but again

You brought Damen Lillard in for the playoffs and for how that offense is going to be transformed and how it’s going to be better in the half court once you get into the postseason because of his ability to make a tough shot Chris Middleton will get to him in much

More detail in just just a bit Chris Middleton has looked very very good as well uh this season especially on the offensive end of the floor the the numbers may not jump off the page but again with Chris it’s the efficiency and that’s a Damen Lillard trait or or

Impact I should say as well when you think about the space that Giannis is getting to operate when you have Damen Lillard to a lesser extent Malik Beasley connecting on threes at the volume that he has as well but it’s just that attention that you have to pay to Damen

Lillard we would see defenses in the past building those walls and doing everything they could loading up to stop Giannis and saying look if Chris Middleton beats us we know he can but fine Chris is gonna have to beat us or Drew holiday that’s a tougher sell when

It’s Damen Lillard that you’re talking about you add in Malik Beasley in his shooting and the fact that Chris Middleton is now the third option it has just increased all of the space for Giannis to work with and that’s led to what to me seems like he may not be an

MVP this season although that is a conversation that’s going to be had as the season progresses this really does seem like it’s been the best season of giannis’s career to be navigating everything that this team has gone through in terms of two coaching changes now one in the season uh learning a new

Teammates in Damen Lillard and when as impactful in figuring out how to play with and play off of Damen Lillard more teammates as well like a Malik Beasley and what he’s brought knowing that his his defensive asks are going to be different this year than it was in

Seasons past and just taking what comes to him that’s been the most impressive thing that you’ve noticed about Giannis is the Giannis of four years ago he’d forc things and you would see more charges now I know I mentioned the five fouls that he got into in foul trouble

Against the Hornets the other night but Giannis has really let this game come to him this season you haven’t seen him forcing things you’ve seen him trusting the pass it helps when you have Malik Beasley knocking down 50% of three when you got Damen Lillard out there when

Chris Middleton is your third option but that’s been the maturation and the growth of Giannis but back to the Dame point and how those two fit together you know I I think it’s very telling some of the things that we have heard from Doc Rivers and how he’s really looking to

Get Damen Lillard going here early in the season we saw Dame shifting to play in the entire first and third quarters because that was something he did in Portland he brought it up to Adrien Griffin and said you know I think this will help me get going it did in the

Short term that’s right around the time that we saw that boost from Dame in mid November um but we’ve seen that change recently as well with Doc Rivers as he’s pointed to look I understand that but I I want you for when we get too late in

The quarter and in the penalty and I’d rather rest you at the midpoint or earlier in that quarter to have you there so that’s one of the adjustments you’ve seen another one is as doc has called for is you know I know Giannis is a terror with the ball and everything we

Just went through with his efficiency and his passing but do feel like this offense will be better if we get the ball into Dame’s hands more often and Doc even called out in transition and I know Giannis leads the break he is terrifying when he’s the guy that’s

Leading the charge there bringing the ball down the floor with a numbers Advantage but as doc said I think he is even more terrifying when he’s coming down the floor without the ball when you have Damen Lillard leading the fast break with the ball in his hands and

Knowing we’ve got to account for Giannis who’s rolling to the rim and we we also have to keep an eye on Damen Lillard who can pull up anywhere past the logo and knock down a three so that’s one of the things that Doc Rivers has hinted at of

You know we got to get the ball in Dame’s hands I want Dame to start the breaks more even when we’re taking the ball out of the net let’s get the ball into Damen Lillard’s hands and I do think you’re going to see more of those 26-point games and more of the optimized

Offense with Damen Lillard going forward the big thing and this is the challenge for Doc Rivers for Dave joerger for everybody on the staff is how do we do that without it coming at the expense of Giannis and how he’s playing this season that’s the difficult part to try to

Figure out how do we work in both of these guys playing at their best because that is absolutely the version of this team you are going to need when we get into the postseason now we talked about the offense quite a bit there but there

Is some more to point out I do want to touch on the defense because we’ve we’ve long cautioned sample size is important and even went out of our way to point out look it’s it’s only been five six eight games since this changed you’re liking what you see in terms of the ey

Test and the numbers we’ve now reached 10 games is that enough maybe not but it’s a lot more and I’ve referenced the Billy Donovan example of some coaches do view the season in 10 game segments we’re at that number now so what stands out about this bucks defense since the

Coaching change we’ll get into that conversation coming up next on locked on bucks well time to talk to you about LinkedIn when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role that’s why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs has the

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TV all right defense let’s let’s get into it because 10 games and and I’ll I’ll preface once more that 10 games doesn’t dictate everything that we’re seeing here but it is a little bit more of a sample size that you feel comfortable referencing I mentioned it in passing

Before too but you know Billy Donovan is the coach that you’ll hear most often of the Chicago Bulls talking about 10 game sample sizes for his team and assessing from one 10 game stretch to the next what did we see where did the growth

Come from what do we need to work on uh Etc so we’ve reached that 10 game point right now with this Bucks team now if if we zoom out and take a look at the overall numbers here the Milwaukee Bucks have the 17th rated defense in the

League which two three four weeks ago hard to imagine with the way that the month of January started for the longest time we pointed to since November 3rd here’s what this team looks like here’s the numbers defensively and then you got to January and those numbers all went

South very very quickly the Bucks dropped down to 22nd maybe even lower um in their overall defensive efficiency so now they sit at 17 and and there’s still a decent amount back of the Chicago Bulls who are 16th Bucks have a 11 16.1 defensive rating bulls have a 11

14.9 but if you can get into that conversation and you can join that group because you have the Bulls seting at 16 the Phoenix Suns who I have long maintained that is the type of Team you should be striving for those comparisons too if you’re the Bucs when you look at

The way they’re constructed defensively they have some okay pieces so do the Bucks the Bucks have some good defensive pieces but you should really be striving for that type of Defense even the 76ers right especially this version of the 76ers without Joel MB so 16 is the Bulls

15 is the Phoenix Suns we about a point and a half per 100 possessions better than the Bucks are right now the Lakers are 14 the Denver Nuggets who we’ve mentioned quite a few times who the Bucs play tonight when you look back at last year and was this the blueprint the

Denver Nuggets are currently ly 13 in defensive efficiency and then you get up to the Clippers who only a tenth of a point per 100 possessions separating they them and the Nuggets but the Clippers are certainly trending upward so if you can crack that you’re all of a

Sudden in the conversation right you put together another very good 10 game stretch here and you’re moving up and you’re moving closer and closer to the top half and better than the top half in the league so if we just for comparison sake and I know it’s a lot more games in

One of them than the other but take a look at where this team was prior to their shift on January 23rd as the day wrapped up the Bucks had a 11 16.8 defensive rating that was 21st in the NBA uh the teams behind the bucks or or in the neighborhood of the

Bucks I should say the Portland Trailblazers who were 12 and 31 at that point the Utah Jazz who were a 500 team the the Warriors who we’ve poured over their struggles 18 and 22 at that point the San Antonio Spurs the Atlanta Hawks a team that is really really struggled

Then you had the Pacers who were the one outlier team just because of how Elite their offense is the Bucks offense right up there uh as well when you look at offensive efficiency a 12.6 through that stretch up but a 11 16.8 defensive rating so all told you

Had the 21st rated defense and the second rated offense that graded out to the 10th best net rating at 3.8 it didn’t really strike a whole lot of optimism you got the sense that this team was winning basically on Talent alone that Giannis was having some monster games we pointed to some of

Those big Damen Lillard games as well yes this team was good in the clutch those numbers did start to tail off a little bit those last couple of weeks but it really did seem like this team is winning by way of their talent so what’s changed well in the 10 games played um

Since that coaching change the Bucks defense is currently rated eighth at a 13.4 so basically three points per 100 possessions better on defense than they were previously now the offense has taken a step back it’s a 11 15.1 offensive rating that’s good for 17 so you have almost swapped your offense

And your defense in this 10 game stretch but I do think it’s worth pointing out a couple of things you know number one how this defense improved to me is simple and and Doc Rivers has kind of talked about this as well in that when he took over the thought wasn’t okay we’re

Putting an everything I want to run here’s here’s Rex camian we’re gonna do this defensively then we’re going to do that Dave Jager is here for offense we’re G to set up a couple of drills we’re going to go through this this and this in practice he said from the onset

You know because of where we are in the season because we didn’t didn’t have a training camp to install this you don’t want to overwhelm the guys JJ reck has talked about this a lot of former players will mention this as well and Doc made the point of the moment it

Becomes mental in that you’re thinking about wait a minute where is my coverage do I have to get here do I have to get to the weak side am I the helper here you lose a step maybe even more than a step and you’re beat and you can’t

Recover from that so you don’t want to make this a mental game defensively and get those guys losing a step and caught thinking about where should I be you’re just going to take what you’re currently doing and how do we supplement how do I Implement some of my things and layer

That onto what we’re doing the biggest thing is what do we clean up and what do we fix and to me that is what stands out the most for this team since the coaching change is they’ve cleaned up or are well on their way to cleaning up I

Should say all the obvious ones that we pointed to you know rebounding In fairness rebounding was trending upward prior to the coaching change that the bucks made but rebounding has certainly been much much better for this Bucks team of late going into the Hornets game the Bucks were were rated 21st in

Defensive rebounding percentage prior to the coaching change so again the one up to 123 numbers versus the 124 and onward numbers so through January 23rd bucks 21st in defensive rebounding dead last in percentage of possessions that resulted in a turnover by their defense and um and 21st in defensive

Efficiency and the games played since that change what stands out to me is a couple of things number one again rebounding had started to get better but especially on the defensive glass they have gotten much better there they have cleaned up transition right and I think that is certainly tied to one another

They’ve been better on the offensive glass as well transition was really seemingly the lowest hanging fruit that you said look you don’t have to be the best transition defense but if you can just get to a League average transition defense here we do feel like that’s

Going to be a huge impact for this team and push things forward they’ve done that they’ve cleaned up their defensive rebounding even more than than in the past because I point that out I should say because we think back to the huge huge games we had seen the opposition

Put up in terms of their points in the paint the Bucks are the sixth best team on the defensive glass since this coaching change so you went from I think I said 21st before it was actually 18th so you went from 18th to sixth just by emphasizing let’s get to the offensive

Glass part of that is not having players out of position I think a big part of that is you think back to how often Giannis was having to play on the perimeter with the way that this defense was set up the point of attack defense too it’s not just Giannis and Brook

Lopez it’s anybody that can help and the Bucks have had some good rebounding guards come through here but you’re taking them further away from the action and from the basket when you’re defending as far out on the perimeter as the Bucs were that didn’t give Brook

Lopez a whole lot of help and people again will point to his rebounding numbers and say well is he really that good no Brook Lopez is designed to create those rebounding opportunities for his team when he’s doing that and nobody’s around the basket that’s when you see the offensive rebounds for the

Opponent really start to jump that led to points in the paint as well and that just continued to put the Bucks in a large hole so they’ve cleaned that part of their game up they’ve been the sixth best team on the defensive glass since this coaching change was made and that

To me is the most striking thing of all of this their their offensive rebounding hasn’t been good but again you either do it or you don’t and it depends on the coaches are we going to emphasize getting back in transition or attacking the offensive glass I haven’t examined

It too closely but I would assume part of this is Doc River strategy of Let’s Get Back In transition and continue to build that up and give it some help but the Striking thing to me is when you look at the four factors which anybody

Will point to to see okay how is this team going from one point to the next effective field goal percentage turnover percentage offensive rebounding rate your free throw rate so in other words how efficient are you shooting the ball how frequently or infrequently hopefully for your offense are you turning the

Ball over how many offensive rebounds are you getting and creating those chance opportunities and how much are you getting to the free throw line and vice versa for your defense as well you don’t want to put them at the line you don’t want to give them offensive

Rebounds you do want to force turnovers and you want a low effective field goal percentage the Bucks are in the middle of the pack now defensively in all four of those metrics since this coaching change was made 14th in opponent effective field goal percentage 14th in turnover rate which again they were dead

Last and now they’re up to the middle of the pack just better than League average sixth best on the defensive glass and 15th in free throw late rate so they’re not fouling as much as they were before which is huge to take some of those points off the board as well so we’ve

Mentioned loow hanging fruit quite a bit but it really does seem as though in the interim of this coaching change it’s been Doc Rivers saying let’s just take care of this low hanging fruit we’ll attack that and we’ll get better and then we continue to build on that stuff

And look we push it up to 17th we think we’re going to keep pushing it up maybe we can finish the season 12 13th somewhere around there but we’re gonna make these subtle growths just by doing these easy things grabbing that low hanging fruit and then we’ll start to

Work on some stuff to see an even larger jump that’s what we’ve seen in these 10 games so far for the bucks I will get to the offense in the next break but I I do want to point out some more of the defense before we get to that six of

These 10 games that the Bucs have played play we know about the schedule and how challenging it’s been six of the 10 games have been against teams with a top 10 net rating the Bucks are two and four in those games not terrible not great three and three would have been nice

Four- two would have been better but they’re they’re two and four in those games and the defense is held up it it’s not just yeah well the Bucs you know you look at that Hornets game and what they did look at the tougher games in those

Six games against the top 10 teams 11 16.4 defensive rating that would be 10th best in the league during that stretch so it matches the ey test and the numbers back up everything that we’re seeing with this Bucks team here a lot of comments on the buyouts we can touch

On that in a moment but I do want to mention Patrick Beverly and Chris Middleton because there’s a lot of chatter about Chris Middleton the offense as a whole too that’s that’s been not to say the misrepresented but we’ll point out hey the defense is looking good I’ve seen a few people

Mention to me as well yeah well the offense not so much why aren’t we mentioning that we will take a look at the offense what the biggest issue has been for that group since the coaching change the debut of Pat Beverly and more on the final segment of locked on bucks

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Yesterday I saw a few people say well what about the offense um the offense has not been Elite since this coaching change that is fair the offense has been in the middle of the pack from this point forward um if we look at cleaning the glass we gave you um where this

Offense ranks since January 24th in in um in the NBA stats at a 11 15.1 offensive rating 17th best in the league so your defense has been much better eighth best defense 17th best offense if you you use cleaning the glass and look at the offense um it stays the same 17th

Best offense with about a 117 rating when you take out the garbage time defense little bit worse um ninth best versus eighth but the number is better at a 11.1 taking out that garbage time um I’m not going to sit here and say hey it’s the defense has been great there’s

Nothing to worry about with the offense I think there are some things to file and say okay it it looks clunky at times part of that again is changing things I know we said it’s not wholesale changes at least not yet but there’s some incremental changes that you’re making and different

Sets that you’re running doc did say look they’re running a lot of the same sets that’s been easy for why don’t we call this play um but he’s leaned heavily on Joe pry as he’s mentioned for that offense and having D Dave AER work with him but look in terms of digging

Into what do we see defensively versus offensively the difficult part with the offense and what we’ve seen prior to the coaching change and since other than Giannis is you know everybody else and the guys that have not been on the floor that I I don’t think it’s making an

Excuse to say look I I know the offense hasn’t been Elite in these changes part of that is you have played some good teams and some good defenses two games against the Cavs that’s going to shrink anybody’s uh offense when you look at the schedule that the Bucs have played

Certainly you had the Denver Nuggets who again middle of the pack uh defensively but they certainly have that capability to play at a high defensive level you got another game with the Denver Nuggets this evening as well the suns were a better defense than you the Timberwolves

By the way best defense in the league so you have had some challenges in terms of the caliber of defenses that you’ve played during that stretch but most importantly you’ve essentially played five games and tonight it’ll be six without Chris Middleton uh you played two of those games without Damen Lillard

You played three of those games without Brook Lopez one of those games was was without for all intents and purposes any of those three guys so I do think think that is a challenging part to really make any assessment of what are we seeing from this defensive unit or

Offensive unit I beg your pardon when you don’t have those guys you’re going to lean on heavily I understand you can say well what about the defense look the way the defense was playing and the level they were at you just needed to see some growth and there were some

Things that were frankly bad and horrendous that we were seeing from this defensive unit you needed to see move forward and they did so I’m not overly concerned about where the Bucks are offensively yet right um once they get everybody back then we’re going to view

The offense the same way and under the same lens we’ve used uh we viewed this defense with for the last 10 games and going forward but you got to have those guys on the floor especially given this is an offensive team Giannis is the playmaker Giannis has the spacing from

Dam and Malik Beasley but Giannis needs Chris Middleton and Damen Lillard and Brook Lopez and all those guys on the flooor in order for this offense to really click so we need to see that we’re not going to see it tonight you’ll see most of it but again no Chris

Middleton tonight um not to make this just a throwaway but I I did see there was a decent amount of concern it seemed like from Bucks fans uh yesterday after Doc Rivers addressed the media after a practice and provided an update of sorts on Chris Middleton um he he talked about

It after I believe it was either the Hornets or the Timberwolves game saying he’s going to be out a minute I can’t tell you what a minute is uh I I don’t know what that means but I I I don’t see him in the next couple for sure so look

I don’t think anybody assumed we would see Chris Middleton before the All-Star break it was somewhat encouraging that you saw the injury happen you thought oh man but he stayed on the floor okay maybe it’s not too bad then he exited and didn’t return and then we had the

Report that he left in a walking boot and crutches now that does not mean it’s a two to three month injury it doesn’t mean it’s not but it doesn’t mean it’s the worst case scenario I never thought we’d see Chris Middleton return before the All-Star break I’m certainly not

Alone there when you just think about again you’re playing for May and hopefully June not February and March and early April you need Chris Middleton healthy to get there it makes no sense even if he’s 80% to have him play when you could basically get him

A week and a half a full week almost two weeks going into the break a week of the All-Star break maybe he misses some time a little bit afterwards as well if it’s a month-long injury that you’re looking at for Chris Middleton it may be again if it’s a month-long injury where it

Where it occurred where he suffered that on the calendar is probably the best place for that to happen not in terms of the schedule that you had with the the amount of with the caliber of opponents that you had but just the way the schedule breaks out that’s probably the

Best place for it to happen if it’s more than that I I think you only get really leery if this is going to be a very very lengthy injury if this is going to be an eight-week injury or more then you’re a little more cautious of okay what is

This mean for his timeline and for getting him back up to speed because that’s the thing that we witnessed with Jay Crowder too was not just getting Jay Crowder back on the floor was getting that version of Jay Crowder back so just getting Chris Middleton healthy and back that’s the important animportant part

Doc River saying I I have no timeline on him again I don’t take that as the worst case scenario or the worst news possible because with injuries like that if you’re going to wait for things to go down maybe you don’t know the severity just yet could be two weeks it could be

Four weeks it could mean it’s bad but it doesn’t mean line is hey this is the worst case scenario for the buck so uh that’s that’s really the only update that we game but it does seem that’s going to be the only injury that the Bucks do have

In this game tonight against the Denver Nuggets so Giannis and damee both listed as probable Chris Middleton is listed as out for the Denver Nuggets cantius Caldwell Pope is questionable with hamstring tightness Michael Porter Jr was on the injury report though he is probable um so a relatively healthy

Denver Nuggets team as well and it was a very good game last time these two teams faced off so the rematch at home should be a good one once again even though the Bucs have not had a whole lot of success against the Denver Nuggets at

Home or on the road the last couple years really since the emergence of uh Nica yic so a big one tonight and again it’s it’s part of this stretch the Bucs have had where they have played incredibly difficult teams it doesn’t let up either you may catch a big break

Tomorrow with the Miami Heat as I have not seen the latest um but obviously Jimmy Butler is away from the team and then Terry Rosier left the game that the Heat played yesterday as well with an injury so you may get a break there and that you’re catching a short-handed

Miami Heat team and then you wrap up the first half of the schedule with the Memphis Grizzlies on the road and as we mentioned on the show last week you already got one of them that game against the Hornets and the game against the Grizzlies are two games that you

Certainly Circle and say look we got to get these you don’t want to look past your opponent you don’t want to take him lightly we get all that but we got to get these with the schedule that’s that’s around around us with the Timberwolves with the Denver Nuggets

With that five-game rotor that we just came off of coming out of the All-Star break as well it’s another challenging schedule for the bucks when you open up that second half schedule with the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road and then at the Philadelphia 76ers you know

You won’t have Joel embiid in that game uh but you may still have Tyrese Maxi and others to contend with before finally two more games with the Hornets to wrap up the month so those three games against the Hornets in this Memphis Grizzlies game for everything on

Your schedule in this month of February those are circle the calendar games of we got to get this one and you gotta be healthy so we’ll continue to monitor the offense and the progress that we see there as this offense gets more and more healthy but my takeaway is you should be

Liking what you’re seeing defensively from this unit uh frustrating games for sure on that road trip overall I liked what I saw in that five-game stretch and I think really the Blazers game was the only game you left shaking your head saying man how did we not get that game

The others were understandable losing the the the opener on the road in Denver with your new coach and against a nuggets team that as Doc Rivers said after the game you know Giannis and Dame those those clutch situations they’ve played in these together what 40 times 30

Times nicoa yic and Jamal Murray have done it for years so I think that one’s understandable as frustrating as it was in Utah all things considered the travel schedule the Bucs had that was an understandable loss Phoenix with the lack of Firepower that you had that was understandable it was really just

Portland uh that you left shaking your head on so I do like what we’re seeing defensively from this team and now it’s just a matter of getting the same from your offense moving forward we’ll be back with the postgame show tonight to recap the Bucks and the Denver Nuggets

And another one tomorrow again a backto back tomorrow with the Miami Heats at the postgame show for that one as well I believe the post game tonight is going to be Camille and Frank and the post game for the Heat game will be myself and Frank so stick around for those and

Then your final game in that first half on the road in Memphis against the Grizzlies so a lot to dig into here for the next couple of days on locked on Buck my thanks to everybody for joining us on this show today um got some other things planned for the All-Star break

Which is just over just under a week away that Camille and I have been discussing with a lot more interaction from you guys as well so stay tuned for that but the postgame recap of the Bucks and the Nuggets is your next show can find that tomorrow morning from Camille

And Frank uh thanks for tuning in to the live show today we will talk to you once again tomorrow morning with more locked on bucks

Pat Beverley makes his Bucks debut in a big win over the Charlotte Hornets as the defense continues to show signs of digging itself out of a big hole. We take a look at the defensive numbers since the coaching change, has it come at the expense of the offense? Plus what to make of the Khris Middleton injury? Justin Garcia digs into all of that and your thoughts on the latest Locked on Bucks