While the Bucks wait on health they keep getting help in the East standings

While the Bucks wait on health they keep getting help in the East standings

On today’s lock on bucks we take a look at a busy night in the NBA seemingly every team in the top six of the Eastern Conference except for the bucks was in action and it looked like the absolute best case scenario for the bucks until the final few seconds in Cleveland we’ll

Explain what we mean take a look at a big four game West Coast Road Trip what the expectations are for that trip and more importantly the health when are the going to start to get healthy we’ll get into that conversation and much more coming up after this on lock 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 joined by Cil Davis you can hear me on the Bucks radio network and WTMJ here in Milwaukee you can find

Camille on the technical file podcast and uh the Carrie the G everything that you’re doing Packers related to there is no off season for Camille as one sport bleeds into the next you can find our work there we both thank you for making lockon bucks your first listen each and

Every day free and available wherever you get your podcasts and viewable on YouTube as well it’s all part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day Camille uh you and I were talking just before we started recording about a crazy ending in Cleveland between the

Celtics and the Cavaliers so let’s just rewind a little bit uh coming into this game on Tuesday you saw the news come out yesterday Monday just before the Bucks played that game against the Clippers uh it kind of under the radar hey oh by the way don’t pay attention to

This but here’s the facts Donovan Mitchell’s going to be out at least three games and it was just kind of a trojan horse to mention PRP which uh I don’t know about you but when when I saw that and that’s what it was you got the

Sense of okay I know you’re GNA Miss at least three games but it’s going to be more than that you would you would have to assume you immediately looked at the schedule that the the Cavaliers had as well and thought boy this is a big opportunity for the bucks to start to

Get some distance between themselves and the Cavs and look there’s we’ll get to it there’s still a lot of challenges in the short-term schedule for the Cavaliers but nobody has a schedule in the Eastern Conference like the Bucks do the Phoenix Suns do but nobody in the

East um but the other games tonight so you had the Cavs in the Celtics and you figured here’s a chance for the Bucs to get some separation you also have the Knicks and the 76ers in action as we tape this the Pacers are playing the Miami Heats nearly lost to the Detroit

Pistons so this was shaping up to be a night where when you look at the standings in the East and see Celtics bucks and then after that Cavs Knicks Sixers Heat Pacers magic in there as well all of those teams save for the magic potentially losing now it didn’t

Quite break that way and the Cavs really spoiled things by beating the Celtics which was one of those weird spots we were talking about of it puts Bucks fans in an unfamiliar spot to say I think I have to root for the Celtics in this game yeah on Tech file tonight we were

Actually just exploring the concept of the Boston Celtics and if what we’re seeing in regular season is going to translate into the playoffs and during the recording I mentioned the fact hey Boston’s playing Cleveland right now so I’m going to say go Boston like we we need that win tonight and I finish

Recording I take a look and I’m like wait Boston lost and then I see that Dean Wade outscored the entire Celtics team in the fourth quarter by himself and I’m just like okay well that that’s the jok’s on me for saying go Boston and then next thing you know for what for

What but yeah this is the time of the year where the schedule of watching makes you have some strange rooting interest where it’s like the fan of me as a fan of the Bucks a lover of Milwaukee everything like that you want Boston to lose like I want Boston to

Lose but then you see who they’re playing like it’s the Cavaliers and you know Cleveland and Milwaukee is going back and forth for that two seed so like it’s more beneficial if the Cavaliers lose this game rather than Boston losing although like the Bucks fan and me will

Get more joy out of seen the Celtics lose but at this point in the season like it’s about what helps out the Bucks and unfortunately the Celtics could not do that for Milwaukee tonight uh a disappointing loss I have to go back and rewatch this but I just can’t I still

Can’t believe they lost that game especially coming off the hills of such a dominant win against Golden State uh where you know they were everything went their way yeah everything went their way so you come back next game and then you lose to Cleveland in the fourth quarter

Where it sounds like nothing was going Boston’s way uh one day off sorry uh it’s the Warriors that will have two days off to rebound against the Bucks tomorrow night we’ll get to or tonight depending on when you listen to this we’ll get to that in just a moment but

Um look let let’s also point out here’s the positive as I mentioned the other teams that were playing the Knicks lost um and the Sixers lost so as we currently sit here uh the Bucks just a half game up on the celt on the Cavs in the standings both tied in the loss

Column they both have 21 losses but those losses by the Knicks and the Sixers Dro both of those teams to 26 losses on the season so the Bucks are now five games up in the loss column on the fourth seated Knicks and the fifth seated 76ers magic have 26 losses as well so

We’re going to have three teams essentially tied for fourth place in the East but the Bucks do hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over both the Knicks and the 76ers so in other words you’re six games up with 20 games left against those two teams just for context

Let’s say the Bucks go 12- eight in their final 20 games of the Season which is entirely possible as we’ve continued to mention how difficult this schedule is and as we’ll get to depending on the of this team 12 and eight is entirely possible if the Bucks were to do that

The Sixers and Knicks one of the two teams would need to go 18 and two to pass the Bucks in the standings and move into that three spot so still a month plus left in the regular season but these two losses tonight go a long way in cementing the Bucks not dropping

Below third in the Eastern Conference and i’ I’ve had a lot of people you know point back of of or reach out and say why why does it matter where we we finish who cares we have to play I agree for the most part the the large story of

That yes like you’re gonna have to beat good teams you’re gonna have to beat the Celtics at some point but it’s all about the journey there that this Gauntlet they’re going through in the regular season you don’t want that in four consecutive Series in the postseason I

Just go back to the year the Bucks won the title in 2021 you were a three seed as we all remember you didn’t plan on having homec court advantage after the first round it didn’t matter you had it in the Conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks but you did not Envision

The Hawks getting that far and that’s the other part of it is things happen so again if you can avoid all of those landmines who knows what happens between then and the Conference Finals uh should you get there but um my big thing was

You know you just don’t want to be in a spot where you could potentially be playing as the four seed and let’s say your fifth seated matchup is a Knicks team that’s just getting healthy or the 76ers that are just getting Joel embiid back then you’re guaranteed basically to

Have the Boston Celtics in the second round and then you have whoever comes out on the other end of uh that side of the bracket so that’s what you wanted to avoid and I mention it because you know Kevin Kevin Durant has mentioned this a couple of times too whenever anybody

Points out the toe on the line against the Bucks and man we were Kevin Durant toe on the line away from the Nets winning a championship he has been quick to point out I don’t think we would have won the title that we were exhausted we

Weren’t healthy it you look at that buck series and everything it took out of him I don’t think we had enough in us to get through another two series and that’s the big Point here is that’s what you want to avoid and finishing second or third goes a long way in avoiding that

Yeah third is the absolute lowest that I would want to see the Bucks finish in the standings but I do want your opinion on this Justin with the playin tournament now being a part of uh the NBA postseason and there’s a subset of people who believe now that finishing in

Third is actually a bit more beneficial I just had yeah the other day where or not only that um third yeah there’s some benefits there it it’s the man I I can’t believe we’re gonna make this case of would you rather be the two seed when you even examine that where

You at least know what Tuesday or Wednesday the team that you’re going to be playing versus waiting until I think it’s Friday that you find out okay here’s the team that we’re going to play two days later right and it’s not as much prep time so like I do you

Subscribe to that where it’s like hey it’s not the end of the world to be in a three because of how the NBA has changed with the postseason tournament or play it’s not and I also mean this with all due respect to the Cavaliers it’s not

The end of the world to be the three seed if the Cleveland Cavaliers are the two seed that they’re a good good team obviously right and they present some matchup challenges but they’re a team that’s still outside of Donovan Mitchell they don’t have a ton of posted and

Experience I know that group was there in the playoffs last year they didn’t drape themselves in glory in that Series against the New York Knicks but that’s you know when you look up and down the standings in the East I think and again I don’t mean this

As a sign of disrespect to the Cavs but I think if you surveyed if we did the Tim bontemp straw poll for MVP and you did that for okay rank the teams in the Eastern Conference I don’t know that anybody would have the Cavaliers as the

Second best team I think you would have the New York Knicks in front of the Cavaliers I think you would even have look if you if you guarantee me that Joel embiid is gonna be back and healthy I’ll take the 76ers over the Cavaliers in the postseason so that’s another

Caveat of you know if if if that’s who the two seat is I don’t think the three seat is all that bad the big difference though is you know this is not the Eastern conference that we’ve seen in recent years where conference days yeah I mean you know for the last what decade

Basically up until the last couple of years uh longer than a decade actually you would really just look at the 4 five matchup in the East and say okay here’s where it’s a toss up maybe three versus six is a competitive series but it’s not one where you would think uh the three

Seed might be in trouble here there’s still a lot of of fluid uh movement in the standings here in the Eastern Conference um I think again just as as we added the disclaimer of don’t mean this to slight the Cavs I’ll add the same thing to the magic here but I think

If you asked any team who’s the team that if I give you your choice these are the options in the first round who would you choose I think the Orlando Magic would probably be the team that most teams chose as their preferred matchup great defense very good defense where’s

The offense going to come from in the half court in the postseason is certainly the question and at this moment the Bucks have a pretty good chance at getting the Orlando Magic and that’s really the difficult part of these standings is there isn’t a clear indication as I just mentioned the

Knicks Sixers and Magic are all tied in the loss column so are the Miami Heat and the Pacers are two games back of that so it it could be any one of those five teams so the Bucs are playing regardless of where their draw is in the first round yeah absolutely like there’s

Two games separating five different teams right now in the East so like like you mentioned that jumo right now with the four five six seven and eight seed like no idea how that’s gon to fall out because from game to game uh it’s going to fluctuate between those five teams

There and then again you have Milwaukee and Cleveland kind of battling out for that two seed so I don’t like it’s G to be a fun finish to the season where I feel like the rooting interest of bugs fans will be very different every single night uh just given the fact that you

Want to see Cleveland lose you want to continue to see the Knicks lose the magic I mean people might not cheer as hard with that one where they’re like I don’t really care but I mean the magic are up there so you want to continue to have as much separation as you possibly

Can get uh between that bottom tier of the three seed and then what’s coming at four five six on and so forth because you don’t want to see the Bucs fall that far into the standings which we’ve talked about how difficult their schedule is um but they’ve been playing

So well eight and2 over the last 10 you hope to see that momentum going but as they approach this road trip and we have some question marks about health as well like it it gets a little bit more fuzzy about where how the Bucks might finish

Uh this road trip and then continue on throughout the rest of this season um we’ll get into a couple of other things coming up here one I I did not mention at the top and I’m I’m going to spring on you here a total surprise move Camille but get your feedback on

Something that’s coming up this week in a different league and um some of the differences we see there and how things would change if we saw the same in the NBA but coming up after the break we will get into the health situation for the bucks don’t have any solid update on

Giannis we do have one uh at least short term on Chris Middleton so we’ll get into that conversation coming up after the break unlock on bucks passion drive and patience they are what bring home a winning trophy it’s also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you

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Channels app locked on sports today find a 247 covering the top stories of the day plus all the national stories and leagues that are out there find locked on sports today now available on the free Fire TV channels app uh Camille the update that we do have Chris Middleton is out tomorrow today

Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors um look and I know Eric n asked Doc Rivers about this before the game against the Clippers on Monday trying to seek some clarity whether or not there was some type of setback um I think a lot of that has to

Do with the back and forth that Eric had very early in this season with Adrien Griffin uh but Doc Rivers did say no there was no type of setback I do know he has gone through practice and I do think Doc Rivers confirmed that as well um he has indicated look we’re we’re

Just making sure he’s absolutely 100% and taking our time with him he did say over the weekend you know Chris feels good A lot of the the I don’t know that he said pain maybe discomfort but he feels good A lot of that is gone but he

Continues Doc Rivers does to preach I don’t care about right now like I feel like we’re getting better we’re not there it’s nice that we’re winning yet or now but it’s still a work in progress but what I care about is the playoffs and is April May and June and that’s

What we especially need Chris Middleton for um maybe it’s just naive and hope that I’m drowning in here but I do believe a lot of this is just we don’t need him yet we’re playing fine and let’s make sure he’s 110% before we bring him back just so we

Know he’s good to go for the playoffs absolutely and that is the frame of mind that I would also take that’s something that I’m cool with I’m excited about like I’ve seen people want it’s been about a month since we’ve seen Chris Milton play with an ankle injury like

What kind of ankle injury is this and it’s like I mean there’s different degrees of sprains like every ankle injury is not the same just because we see Giannis and his Wolverine abilities at times to turn his ankle terribly and be back in a day or two like that not

How everybody is built and you have to acknowledge the genetics piece of that and on top of that again there are different degrees of ankle Springs like they’re all not created equal um and clearly we saw I mean immediately when he got hurt we saw him coming up limp

And that’s the time when after an ankle injury right after it happens is when it’s going to feel the best quote unquote until you know the pain starts to happen the swelling can start happening because it’s still fresh so you still have a little bit more flexibility in that ankle but it’s

Always the next day where it’s where it’s bad and we saw during that Suns game when Chris trying to play through that ankle twist like you could tell already like oh he twisted his ankle pretty bad he does not look the same he’s not moving around the same so

Whatever it takes for him to get back to full health especially given uh the various injuries that he’s been working back from over the last couple of seasons like do that I don’t really care how long it takes as long as when he comes back they can say like he’s in the

Best shape that he can be in coming off of this particular injury at this time like it’s never a guarantee that anything’s going to work that anyone’s going to stay healthy you hope for that again we mentioned like that’s a piece of winning a championship you need good

Injury luck um and I love the fact that Doc Rivers is focused on making sure that this team is playing its best ball that they’re as healthy as possible come playoff time when they really need guys to ramp up minutes um so like with Chris Middleton as long as he continues on the

Path great to hear that he’s had no setbacks it’s just them taking their time being cautious I’m here for all that I don’t mind that at all and I know we’re going to talk a bit about Giannis and what’s going on with the Achilles sords that he’s faced but again I want

Them to be as healthy as possible come April May June so like whatever time they need to take right now to rest I’m here for that even if that means they do drop to the three seed because of that like it’s going to be in play because

The Cavaliers are still winning um as we just talked about in the first segment so health over everything for me is always going to be first priority yeah and we don’t know what the severity was I mean it it was probably we’re obviously not uh medical professionals

Here but probably at least a grade two sprain that he was dealing with just for the fact that he was in a walking boot and on crutches leaving the arena I believe those are typically four to six weeks that you’re looking at um this is I believe four weeks out from when that

Injury occurred so it’s it’s right along that time timeline even if it’s not until after this road trip again to me the big thing and I think it it seems like you’re aligned with this is we’re not suggesting look as long as he’s healthy you don’t need him for the rest

Of the regular season you still need to get Chris Middleton out there because of the changes and I know we we’ve mentioned quite a bit you know Doc Rivers hasn’t come in and thrown out the Playbook and said we’re doing this instead but he has changed the way you

Do things on both ends of the floor so you still need some of that continuity and you need minutes with Chris to to build that up once again especially for Damen Lillard um but if that comes the last two weeks of the regular season three weeks of the regular season maybe

Not ideal in terms of where you finish in the standings but again the help that you’ve gotten up until this point has gone a long way if we go back what two weeks Camille to some of the conversations that were taking place around this team going into the All-Star

Break when you know we kept the receipts of everybody that’s suggested the Bucks were going to slide into the playin tournament after that loss to the Memphis Grizzlies and yet here we are the Bucks still tied for the second best record in the Eastern Conference so it’s

Nice that it’s not as much on the Forefront because of the injuries that the Knicks have had and the up and down play from those other teams around you look if that wasn’t the case and if we’re still talking about a buck team that at this moment is two games three

Games back of the Cavaliers and you have the Knicks a game or two behind you then it’s a much different conversation but we at least don’t have to be having that right now yeah so you take every game as they come based on how this like you

Can’t already look ahead and say like okay well in two weeks we’re going to aim to to do like you don’t know how it’s going to shake out you just have to go based on what the player what the training staff is saying regarding their health um and what’s going to be best

For them I did hear doc mentioned the fact that because I try not to get into the trainer I try to stay out of what they’re going to tell I just kind of ask I’m like hey is it are we on track is it

Moving the right way and if it is it is if it isn’t it isn’t but I’m not going to insert myself in there and T he has to be ready by this date because we need it he’s like I understand he has the perspective and just the general idea of

Like I know what we’re playing here for again it’s not ideal if you know Chris only gets a couple of weeks to reintegrate himself back into the lineup I’ve seen a lot of people have concerns about how to reintegrate him into the lineup if it makes more sense for Chris

To come off the bench which I I don’t think it does like we have the numbers throughout the season of how dominant that starting five has been I don’t think there’s any reason to overthink that um I will say in regards to just injuries as well it was nice to see that

Jay Crowder wasn’t listed um on the injury report after like he tweaked his knee a bit uh in the game against the Clippers where we only saw him play about 18 minutes so hearing that Jay is good was also some good news but we do have to still wait to see how things

Shake out with Giannis and of course as we mentioned already with Chris yeah and that’s the update is there is no update on Yannis that he is once again listed as questionable for that game against the Golden State Warriors um look if he plays great I I

Think at this point you have to approach the Warriors game probably the Lakers game on Friday too saying let’s just plan on not seeing Giannis if we do great but let’s approach this thinking gonna have to win with our defense in another way for Damen Lillard to really be in the

Spotlight and get going because as as you and I had talked about and Frank before too that was really that stretch of play where Dame started to get going earlier in the season when Giannis missed that game against the Raptors Dame came out looked great the ball

Movement was there and then that kind of propelled Damen Lillard for the rest of the month of November and into December and look it’s not as though Damen Lard has been bad but maybe that’s another thing we saw a very good game from Dame against the Clippers and maybe having to

Carry that load is something that gets him going here if you in fact do not cavanis once again for the start of this road trip against the Warriors and potentially uh even more speaking of that road trip our expectations for the road trip and uh that other what if that

I was going to surprise Camille with we’ll get into that after this unlocked on bucks well this episode of Locked on bucks is sponsored by better help and look as as we’ve gone through at the start of the year that’s really one of the big times when we all look into

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Get into expectations for this 4 game Road Trip I saw Mark Stein mention this earlier today so I am also a hockey fan um even though my St Louis Blues aren’t doing too great this year but Friday is the trade deadline in the National Hockey League the NBA and the NHL both

Play 82 game schedules the NHL starts before the NBA does uh now it starts earlier and earlier and we had the the NBA trade deadline February 8th the NHL trade de deadline is March 8th they both end right around the same time mid April that their schedules uh wrap up the NHL

Season started about two weeks earlier than the NBA season does and yet their trade deadline goes all the way until March 8th so basically all the way until your final month of the season and then you have your uh trade deadline so if we did that with the NBA and pushed things

Back until this Friday where the trade deadline uh would be do you think and I understand this is fully putting you on the spot does that change any approach that we saw by any of these teams in other words are there any teams that say

Man if if we would have known we’d be here a month ago maybe we would have been more aggressive or maybe we would have looked to have offloaded some deals yeah I mean well if you have an extra month then that means you have an extra

Month to figure out what your team needs are and if you want to pull the trigger so you just have a little bit more time to think but my first thought went to like how would that affect the buyout market like I’m not a big hoe n

Basically you’d have to do is there like a buyout Market in hockey is is that just an NBA okay so like that’s like that’s the piece of it where I would be interested to see how that goes Market is the final week of the regular season right like then it’s like

The schedule gets a little wonky there but um yeah it just gives teams an extra month I don’t think I would enjoy that as month because like with the way the season is with 82 games understanding hockey is about the same schedule but with 82 games getting like that first 60

Out is around that Mark and then figuring out okay well maybe 55 60 um and then it’s like hey here’s a trade deadline now for your last quarter of your games like this is your new team and then you have the extraness of the buyout Market where you have to have all

That done by March 1 and then if you’re you know if you’re already Wave by that point you can sign with any playoff uh contending team and be eligible for playoff minutes but I do like that system in there as well so I don’t think

I would be a fan of extending it that far out uh to that close to the end of the season but I did not know hockey got down like that I’m I’m not a big hockey fan but if I had to like my team always say I follow them on Twitter too even

Know I don’t watch hockey but my team is the Detroit Red Wings okay from one I lived in Michigan one random year in like 98 and at that time the Red Wings was all over I mean that was that was peak of my hatred for the Red

Wings all over so that’s all I saw around town so I was like yeah let’s get down with that came back to and never really thought too much about hockey um there in but you know 98 I believe was the year that Stevie y eliminated the

Blues in the first round with uh with that shot in overtime um but yeah that that was the interesting part is you got a month of here’s your trade deadline figure everything out uh I don’t think it changes the approach of teams just because of really the playin tournament

I think that’s changed a lot of what we’ve seen with the trade deadline that there’s more teams that are in it now um and especially you know this this draft class it’s not viewed as what we had last year obviously so even there there’s less of an impetus of well maybe

If we get into the playing tournament fine we’ll we’ll get the gate Revenue potentially for one home postseason game but there’s not as much of a demand for us to really start to tank here unless you’re already in the spot of you know where the Pistons and wizards are that’s

Another big piece of it too when you have teams that are as historically bad as those teams those two teams have been it’s another thing that kind of zaps your chances I I know it’s you know basically four-way four-way chance to to get that one seed but still I think that

And the playing tournament has has changed a lot of the approach and I don’t know if extending the trade deadline would change much of anything other than if you’re one of those players that’s traded from a contender to a bad team it’s probably more palatable when it’s just a month that

You got to deal with this yeah not as much time I know I think of Jeff Teague and what he Jeff Teague is wow uh but he said there’s nothing worse than being traded from one sorry team to another sorry team at that point you’re just

Like I don’t know what to do at this point but to your point there’s only a month left and you’re like well at least I can already start booking summer vacation but yeah I think the extra month will just give teams another month of data uh a chance to evaluate see if

They want to make certain moves and who knows having more time also you’re probably going to be in a different spot than you might have been a month before so if you’re a buyer or a seller might change at that point so like the fundamentals are all going to be the

Same I would think uh it would just affect the buyout Market push that back pretty late um and then just give teams a little bit more time to figure things out if they want to pull the trigger or not but basically the uh the trade that

We saw earlier this year with our one of the newest members of the Bucks Danilo galinari where he went from the Wizards to the Pistons the two teams with the worst records uh in the league so for this four game Road Trip as we start to

Wrap things up here um the caveat is we don’t know right with with the health of this team that’s going to go a long way in setting expectations for this but you know I I made this point elsewhere that these and I hesitate to even say this but these four

Matchups on paper it seems like wait these are the better teams when you look at the the the two trips that they had but it does seem in many ways like the first West Coast road trip was the more challenging trip when it even leaving the whole Doc Rivers and coaching change

As the trip is starting piece out of it you are on the road in Denver where it’s always a tough place to play and it’s a very good team and a team that has been very good against the Bucks especially niika yic Phoenix and Utah have been two

Places that have not been historically kind to the Bucks you also had nobody available essentially other than Giannis for that Phoenix Suns game um so those were the challenges and and even Dallas and and Luca donic there’s some challenges there but especially the Bucks history in Utah the Bucks history

In Phoenix and Denver those really tough spots and especially going from Dallas from one extreme from the Midwest out to the West in Utah was another component of it here it’s all in La essentially where you’re in Southern California San Francisco la la and then Sacramento um more Northern California but still it’s

All within one state where you’re going to be and these are four teams that I think the Bucks match up very well against it’s a Warriors team that has been playing better A lot of that has been some of the young guys and Jonathan kaminga and what he’s been doing

Recently they’re without Andrew Wiggins once again Klay Thompson a lot of the conversations we’ve had about Chris Middleton it’s been the same with Klay Thompson you still have Steph Curry but that’s it right like not to take everything away from that team but when you think of the traditional Warriors

That’s it did it’s Steph Curry keeping that together as much as he can the Kings who you wrap up the road trip with I think that’s another team the Bucks match up pretty well against they had that win against the Kings on the infamous Damen Lillard buzzer beater but

Let us not forget that was a game where we really started to question some of the things we saw in terms of execution down the stretch with this team and some of their decisionmaking down the stretch in that game that opened up the door for overtime and then you have the two Los

Angeles teams the Lakers are going to carry a lot of name brand importance but that’s a team again bucks match up pretty well against when you look at the secondary scores on that team and you just beat the Clippers so long story short I I do think these

Are pretty favorable matchups for the bucks and if they are healthy I would go as far as saying I would expect them to go three and one in these four games if they were healthy with the way they’re playing now unfortunately we don’t know how healthy they’re going to be so you

Have to throw all that out the window yeah it’s as favorable as it can be if you’re on a road trip playing against only competition that is currently in the postseason Chase so all of the teams that we’re playing are going to be at least playin level uh teams according to

The standings right now and we mentioned the Warriors they’re coming off of a really embarrassing loss so you have to add that they had rest as well so the Warriors are a team well as we know historically has played better at home than they do on the road although this

Season at home they’re a little bit closer to 500 uh then most people probably even realize because of what you think of when you think of Warriors basketball and being at home and what that looks like for them uh but it’s going to be a Warriors team that’s

Motivated when you heard Steph Curry mention like hey we used to be doing that to other teams like and now we’re on the other side of catching some of these beatdowns and you know they’re going to have something to prove so it’s not going to be easy especially without

Giannis and I always feel like Yannis has great games against the Warriors like that’s one I always love to see so I hope that he’s healthy but if not they’re going to just have to figure out a way around that you come out of that Warriors game you go to La like you

Mentioned Lakers are definitely bigger in name uh than they are right now which is how they’ve been playing but you can’t Overlook them either because I mean it is a team that just beat the Thunder like they can play up they can play Down D’Angelo Russell is cooking

That night it adds a different element to their team like if what BR Bron is going to be if ad comes out playing his you know Defensive Player of the Year worthy type of defense for this team like they’re going to be tough but again that’s a matchup that Giannis always

Seems to get up for he loves playing against LeBron the ad matchup so we’ll see if he’s gonna be healthy for that the Clippers again they’re gonna looking for some get back given the fact they just lost to the Bucks in Milwaukee uh they mentioned how you know they felt

The Zone junk things up and watching them play I haven’t watched a lot of Clippers games but I was like man this is a really ISO pick and roll heavy team so like yeah I can see why a Zone really got into your head when you’re playing

So much ISO ball so we’ll see how they try to Pivot from there and then of course you end with the Kings who were a great story last year upstart team in the west again you’re looking at their record and you’re like okay five and five over the last 10 haven’t been

Playing as well but you know they have the pieces to make any competition difficult on you so like the Bucks are going to have to come out and they’re gonna play some good Ball but Health assuming three in one would be an excellent road trip in my opinion I

Wouldn’t be mad at a two- two road trip from the Bucks uh anything less than two and two I will be disappointed regardless of what the health is of this team yeah um I mean I suppose if if if you don’t have Giannis and Chris for all

Four of those games then you re-evaluate things but for the most part I’m with you of of two and two is is kind of the bare minimum if for no other reason than than the expect expectations that the Bucks have set and how they’ve started to raise the floor once again with the

Way that they’re playing and yeah I mean it’s it’s entirely ISO ball for the Clippers tyou went as far as saying that before the game um on Monday and I remember thinking the same thing man this seems before the game like this seems like a lot of iso ball I’ve only

Seen bits and pieces of Clippers games and tyou was asked about ball movement to basically tiptoeing around the hey coach it it seems like you guys run a lot of ice olation like how important is ball movement and even tyo kind of dismissed it and said I I don’t really

Care about ball movement the only time that it’s really critical is when double teams start and then it’s more a matter of getting the ball to the open person and exploiting that matchup so it it is something that the Clippers have embraced they will certainly have some

Revenge on their minds in that game but it is the second time the Bucks will have played the Clippers where it is day two of a back toback for the Clippers though this one they’re in uh at home for both of those games they host I think the Bulls Saturday afternoon again

So it’s it’s not like it’s a night game into afternoon game and and then against the bucks on Sunday so that’ll be a Revenge game I’m sure it’ll be a Revenge game for Mike Brown as well who was ejected in that win against the the Kings earlier but we will be back with

Some late night slash I suppose early morning post shows this this week it’s everybody’s favorite part of the schedule late night Milwaukee Bucks games and how about that schedule too Camille uh you knew coming out of the break and when the schedule was released we knew okay we got a West

Coast trip here shortly after the All-Star break where we’re gonna have three n o’clock tips you prepare for that you know okay there’s what usually four or five of those throughout the course of a year but then the schedule Gods just said you know what let’s also turn two Midwest games consecutive weeks

Into two 9:00 tips three straight Friday nights that the Bucs are tipping off at 9:00 I suppose the good news is it’s a Friday night not a Tuesday night or a Wednesday right yeah that’s the best news of it uh we’ll be back we’ll have to figure out when but we’ll be back

With the postgame show recapping game one of this road trip the Bucks and the Golden State Warriors uh we’ll see if there’s any updates along the way throughout the day to on the status of Giannis that we do know no Chris Middleton for at least the start of the

Road trip for Camille I’m Justin we’ll talk to you once again tomorrow on locked on bucks

Have the Milwaukee Bucks locked in a spot in the top 3 of the Eastern Conference? Justin and Camille take a look at an eventful Tuesday night in the East standings and some help the Bucks keep getting. Plus what are the expectations for a 4 game road trip when the health of this team is still a question mark?

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