“Freak Time” leads the way against the LA Clippers | Milwaukee Bucks win 124-117

“Freak Time” leads the way against the LA Clippers | Milwaukee Bucks win 124-117

What do welcome to another new episode of lock on bucks on today’s show after starting this West Coast Road Trip 0 and2 the Milwaukee Bucks get a very timely victory over the LA Clippers winning 124 117 led by some incredible play from Yannis and Dame AKA freak time

Uh The Chemistry Between the Bucks two biggest stars is coming along we’re gonna dive into that plus this bugs Victory on today’s episode of Locked on bucks you are locked on bucks your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every

Day you are locked on bucks part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I’m Camille Davis you can catch me weekly on the technical file podcast and the pack a day podcast as well as cheese head TVs carry the G and MK during the NFL season joining me is

Frank Madden longtime voice of the pod and the founder of Brew hoop. comom we appreciate you for tuning in and thank you for making lock on bucks your first listen every single day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as on YouTube today’s episode is

Brought to you by Nissan are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further ever wonder what Adventure could be around the next Corner we’ll take the Nissan Rogue Nissan Pathfinder or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure check them all out today at nissanusa.com

Now Frank the Bucks road trip got off to a rough start 0 and2 blown out by the Warriors lost the game against the Lakers that was pretty winnable and in the back for him a bad loss in my opinion and tonight they looked well today I should say afternoon game they

Looked to bounce back against the Kawai and Paul George less Clippers now seeing the two of them were out you think to yourself initially like hey this should be a game the bug should win but again that Lakers game they just lost by one there was no LeBron so nothing is given

And you had to come out play good ball take care of business and this game between the Bucs and Clippers today was back and forth back and forth 28 different lead changes 12 ties but the Bucks got the win at the end of the day in large part due to strong play from

Giannis and Dame it’s been really cool and interesting watching how their chemistry has developed and I feel like he saw in the Lakers game a lot as well but tonight you were able to see it and see the Bucks get a win out of those actions yeah I mean it you know this

This was not the most impressive win by any stretch I think the Bucks were like six and a half Point favorites or something like that so hey they covered Camille yay right Bucks have been shouts I think the Bucks have been a pretty bad against the spread Team all year um

Which kind of makes sense given sort of the expectations that we’ve talked about and the fact that they’ve kind of often played with their food and and generally not taking care of business uh the way that a team of their talent level you know you’d expect from um and that that

Kind of was the case today uh you know this was a game they it was very important that they win so as you said it was a timely win much more so than you know an impressive win there were some impressive performances especially you know you talk about Dame and what he

Did with some of his fourth quarter shot making you know after Friday night’s game misses that you know I don’t want to say it a layup but missed a shot inside the final minute um up one and then not even able to get a shot off gets blocked by Spencer dwit on the

Final possession not great right like that’s not what obviously you were looking for from Dame on Friday night against the Lakers but to bounce back the way he did uh on Sunday uh against as you said a team like a team in the Clippers that was playing their second

Time in like 19 hours or whatever it was uh this was a game the Bucks should have won they needed to win um and again if you had dropped this game you know to to take a three-game losing streak into Sacramento which is not an easy place to

Play um I I think we’d be feeling like man this is like you know that that prior West Coast Road Trip all over again right where it just feels like bucks are just snake bit um on these West Coast trip so um you know Giannis

Looked like he was not his best in terms of just physically like seemed like he couldn’t get up over the rim he didn’t have any dunks and yet what does he do 34 points 10 assists you know played awesome defense plus 19 um you I was saying on Twitter after the game this

This to me is like you know people say oh what is Giannis going to be like when you know his athleticism isn’t the like Elite level that we’re used to well probably look something like this um you know he got blocked a number of times at

The basket kind of looked a little bit like that Golden State game where it just didn’t feel like he had his usual burst uh but we saw him dropping hook shots in over V zubats at various points it’s some mid-rangers um and again not the most efficient night from him 12 of

24 only 50% used to him used to him shooting 60% every night so we’re a bit spoiled but he was great and then you know Dame obviously the 16 points the the fourth quarter and I think you know probably the the most inter thing is the two of them playing together the way

They were I think you dropped the stat that what every basket that they scored in the fourth quarter was either scored by or assisted by one of those two guys and you know whether uh the Clippers were trapping Dame you know 35 feet from the basket whatever they were doing I

Think the Bucks and Giannis and Dame they were making good decisions and then at times it’s just Raw Talent winning out like that Dame handoff into that contested three that he hit which which kind of sealed it um that’s why you go after and give up everything you can for

Dame Lillard right because he’s capable of making shots the way that the way that he was today so um yeah important to get this win now you got a chance to go into Sacramento and hopefully um make it a two and two road trip after dropping the first two but um you know

Again uh season is long uh I know there’s some people talking about like should Yiannis have even played today they definitely needed him because they don’t win this game without him that’s for sure yeah absolutely and that was the question with Giannis as well in that Warriors game because like you

Mentioned it just doesn’t like the lift is there for Giannis a lot of things that you normally would see him dunk have been layups and attempts like that and I think back to an article I read earlier in the season and it wasn’t about Giannis in particular but Marcus

Johnson was featured in the article talking about NBA players and dunking and as you get older how you don’t want to dunk as much and it’s painful I’m not saying that’s where Giannis is but one thing that article pointed out was the fact that as players get older and they

Realize like sometimes I’m going to be forced to dunk the ball in the situation because if I go up with a layup it’s going to get blocked like there are some times where you have to dunk and seeing Giannis not be able to do that in some

Of these games the last three really has been eye openening and I love your point about hey you ever wonder about what giannis’s game might look like when he’s older this could be a preview of it because I think a common misconception of giannis’s game in large part thanks

To the guy we saw him playing against SN and James Harden calling him like run and dunk man like I wish wish I could just go run and dunk the ball all the time but giannis’s game is not just running and dunking the ball the way he’s able to finish with finesse at

Different angles at The Rim has been impressive you’ve seen the mid-range shots he loves trying to get that mid-range shot at the elbow if he can face up get that he’s looking to take it and it’s been pretty good for him so far this season he’s able to impact the game

In so many different ways outside of just dunking the ball but I mean you did see a couple times tonight where you’re just like hey I wish you could have dunked it the situation to avoid a block shot or anything like that but to your point about this not being an impressive

Win uh that’s definitely a word I didn’t use I’m like H feels a little close like I was watching the game and I had a headache going into it and I was like they’re gonna make this worse aren’t they like they’re gonna make this headache turn into a migraine but

Luckily we started getting some really fun play uh from Giannis and Damon seeing their chemistry improving because I mean that’s been a major talking point about this Milwaukee bugs team since the trade was made it’s about that twom man game with Giannis and with Dame and how

They look how’s it going to develop and it’s taken some time for it to come together so to see it in that Lakers loss which again you wish it didn’t end in the loss but you saw it developing and then to see it again tonight against the Clippers like it was super

Encouraging to me and I loved hearing Dame in the postgame interview on the court and he said something along the lines like in regards to the two-man game with him and jannis just like I’m getting a better idea of how to use him in reference to jannis to get my space

And for him to use it for me to use it and to put the defense at our mercy and they’ve talked in the postgame conferences him doc Giannis all talked about different ways of how Doc is helping to improve the chemistry between the two of them so I do want to talk a

Little bit more about the Dame Giannis pairing and their chemistry when we come back after this break are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further you ever wonder what Adventure could be around the next Corner our friends at Nissan have a line of SUVs with the

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Which is now available on the free Fire TV channels app as well as on YouTube now Frank I mentioned the developing chemistry and you dropped the the stat that uh I noticed in the fourth quarter which was every bucket was either scored by or assisted by Giannis

Or Dame and I noticed it actually start in the third quarter uh from the beginning of the third quarter until Dame checked out with like four minutes left same thing every bucket was scored by or assisted by Giannis and Dame and in the fourth quarter it was the same

Story except it was the entire quarter uh tonight they combined for 69 points 21 assists against the Lakers they had 62 points 24 assists and the points part of course is impressive it stands out but I also love seeing how they’re able to get their teammates involved off of

The actions the first second third actions uh and their playmaking stands out Giannis mentioned in his postgame uh comments just saying the fact that you know in the last six minutes or so the ball’s probably going to be in Dame’s hand like that’s what everybody has to

Be okay with but we know the ball has energy and throughout the game we want to make sure we’re looking for our teammates and they have just been doing so much work they made a Dame made a joke saying the team used to laugh uh at practice because doc would have Giannis

And Dame just by themselves spamming Twan actions like do it again run it again now pass him the ball now you shoot keep doing it and you’re seeing now that the practice is starting to pay off and they chemistry is really starting to show up on the court in real game

Situations yeah and I think you know the thing that we kind of made the point of early in the season was you know if you thought that the Dame Yannis picking roll was just going to mean that one of them is you know Giannis getting a dunk

Or Dam getting a three like that that’s not you know the way that NBA defenses work right like they can do a lot of different things to defend this type of action and you know some of the more extreme um like double teams trapping that you’ll see right like we saw Dame

There were a couple times where Dame like lofted the ball like so high that like it kind of like the defense was sort of able to like get back and I was like can we can we throw it a little quicker to Giannis but um you know this

Is where I think the the upside is that Giannis is not a normal rle man he’s not just some you know huge like Run and Jump dunker guy with with no passing skill or whatever and so I think that’s again why just the the skill stuff is

Just like the biggest joke because is again what is skill well if you’re the best ball handling big man in the history of the sport which show me a big man who’s a better ball handler slash you know Creator on the Move than Giannis I don’t think that guy exists if

You want to tell me you know KD is a well Tech KD maybe a better b ball handling seven-footer like okay fine you named one guy in the history of the sport right in the history of the freaking sport um you know his ball handling and his passing and you know look

I appreciate that a lot of people a lot of like the national TV games people have been saying like oh his passing’s gotten so much better I think his passing has gotten better but like he’s always been a good passer and to com to like think of of his passing and his

Ability to put it on the floor draw Defenders and find guys for open shots like again compare that to the history of guys his size like there’s no precedent for somebody doing this right and I feel like this is sort of the the you know the problem with with yic being

The league at the same time like I think jic is the best passing big guy of all time um but he also has the benefit of the fact that he’s never moving you know like he’s a stationary passer he’s kind of the opposite of Giannis you jic is

Brilliant at just standing there finding guys cutting on the Move whereas giannis’s game is really about bending the defense with his ball handling his creation driving into the teeth of the defense and then kicking out to guys who oftentimes are not moving um although I

Think we’ve as we’ve seen a lot I mean his interior passing is also I think I mean to me maybe his interior passing is the thing that’s like taken the biggest leap over the past few years I mean just you know Jay Crowder had like two straight beautiful passes one of them he

Flubbed second he finished in the first half today Bobby pis has just been you know making a living finishing Giannis nice little dump off passes when team show jannis extra attention so yeah I mean to me this was a Giannis skill game and again like somehow like skill just

Became all about midrange jumpers you know I don’t I don’t know why that like that’s a thing but like some for some reason if you don’t shoot or are really good at mid-range jumpers um or just jump shooting in general then like like somehow like your skill card gets you

Know taken away and again for Giannis I think it just you know really it’s not even that it discredits him it’s just like it’s it’s just completely like asinine that like people don’t appreciate the skill and what he needs to do to attack you know off the bounce

Uh to to make plays and Etc and obviously in a game like this where you know he didn’t just he wasn’t able to just go up I mean he had two Aly oops that like he kind of like barely yeah exactly one of them got fouled on but it just it literally felt

Like he was playing kind of below the rim tonight and so I think this is one of those games where obviously yes his physical tools are still tremendous his his length you know his ability to to extend Etc um but the the skill is is so so interwoven with his phys IAL tools

That I think again just it just gets obscured and I just it just kills me that you know when he makes plays that are really skill-based that people will still just and they’re not trying to like be insulting but like commentators you know on National games will just

Talk about as a physical tool like oh his physical is length it’s like yeah like creating layups for yourself like I mean he laps the field every year in you know unassisted dunks because he’s an awesome ball handler and he’s so skilled at getting to his spot

So we’re preaching to the choir here but you know Camille as we like to do sometimes we got to take a step back and just appreciate the greatness that Giannis brings to the to the court every night and again I don’t know if people will ever appreciate it to the extent

They should maybe as he gets older and people realize that he’s still going to be an elite player even without you know necessarily like his Peak athleticism but um hopefully you know this is just sort of a a period which we’ve seen in past years too like he’ll go through

These phases where he just feels like he doesn’t have his normal kind of athleticism um you know we’ve seen his right knee on the injury report That’s The Chronic knee injury he had surgery on the left knee so we really haven’t seen that on the injury report at all

This year but between the Achilles and the right knee and you know he had like has randomly shown up with back stuff I don’t know so there’s just been a whole lot going on with yanis and I get it like you know I think there’s like this

Sort of thing where Bucks fans like everybody’s so wary of giannis’s Health that everybody’s just like oh he shouldn’t be playing tonight or like sit him for a week or like you know like it’s it’s almost like this like race to who say like who can show that they’re

Willing to be the most conservative with janis’s playing time which I totally appreciate kind of that but on some level you have to trust the medical staff and jannis himself to know what he can and can’t do and I have no idea like I’m not going to pretend that I

Understand what jannis physically was feeling like today maybe it’s just because it was an early game or something and he didn’t have like his usual energy that way I don’t know right I don’t know exactly what what kind of you know dictates when he looks like his usual incredible self or is sometimes

You know like this where where maybe it feels like he’s not 100% best but bottom line is you know fortunately in the NBA guys are almost never 100% truly in the sense that like us average people would think of it so um again we’ve got

Uh a day off on Monday ahead of the game in Sacramento on Tuesday then a day off before coming back for Philly and then a couple days off before the next game on Sunday so uh again like I think hopefully you know he can I don’t know

Between games get get a little bit of rest um but you know it’s like it’s not like they had the All-Star break not that long ago right so it’s not like um you know they’ve been playing for you know four straight months and you know he hasn’t had any off days so again

We’ll see fingers crossed that you know it’s just kind of one of those things but um again I think you just got to give him a ton of credit for being able to just power through this and just continue to play at this extremely high level even when he doesn’t look like

He’s absolute at his physical best yeah absolutely and that’s when having a Damen Lillard on your team does help you out a little bit because you can trust in him you can have the ball in his hand and you can look at him lead the way

Which he did in this game as well alongside Giannis uh one thing that stood out to me that was really interesting at halftime Bobby poris led the team in shot attempts he had 12 shots at halftime meanwhile at half Giannis had 11 Dame had six Dame started

The game off really hot four or four from three missed his next two and then that was it for him in the the first half but like I mentioned earlier with Dame and jannis talking about the team chemistry and understanding their roles uh when the game finished though Giannis

And Dame led the team in shot attempts in the second half both of them got 13 shots up they were really doing their thing and leading the way but do want to shout out some key contributions from some of the other guys on the team who made timely plays good defensive stops

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Linkedin.com lockon NBA to post your job for free free there’s not too many things in life that are free but posting your job on LinkedIn is terms and conditions do apply a shout out to the role players on the Bucks team here like for example Pat Kon we’ve mentioned it Frank

He’s caught a lot of flag this season and doc has been very vocal about his belief in him and Pat content’s been playing well on both sides of the ball now tonight in this game against the Clippers he was only one of five from the field I believe two or two free

Throws very timely free throws which comes again to making impact uh on the court while he’s in the game and the fourth quarter at the end when the Bucks are trying to Salt the game away Giannis gets foued misses the free throw the Clippers think they’re going to have a

Quick Outlet to try to cut the lead down even more yet there’s Pat conon already leaked back gets the steal and his free throws pretty much ice out the game you can look at Malik Beasley someone who we’ve talked about I mean and I gotta eat some Crow on that one because from

The beginning of the season when we heard Adrien Griffin his time as head coach saying like Hey we’re going to give Malik Beasley the toughest defensive assignment I’m like why would you why would you do that we just watched him get benched last year in the playoffs because of his defense and the

Shot like just abandoned him but you see it today and listening to Doc talk he’s like bees had a much better defensive game against the Clippers today in La than he did in Milwaukee last week he also hit timely threes and the Bucks are going to need him to be kind of like

That three and D guy at the very least on defense I’m not expecting Malik Beasley to be Drew holiday but just keep your man in front h so don’t take too many risks to put you out of position and just play some solid ball so like

Shout out to be shout out to PC Pat Bev came with some good defensive energy and we even saw Danilo galinari hit his first three as a buck oh over for eight before that but I do have not to be you know Debbie Downer but I mentioned it

After that last game against the Hornets but that pat beev pat conington Danilo galinari Giannis Bobby por his lineup still not really showing many fruits of their labor but hey we got a Gallow 3 tonight and again we did see some key contributions from other guys on the Bucks

Team yeah and I mean we don’t even need to drag the other guys in so much it’s just like Gallow is just kind of stunk I mean he was shooting 24% from the field he was 0 for8 from three I mean if if gall’s not making shots like you know

Like it’s over like there’s there’s no reason to play him um is he going to hit shots a high enough rate to justify playing him um I am needless to say skeptical seems unlike Chris yeah Chris Middleton come on back like you know when Chris comes back danillo is the

Obvious guy that is going to be on the outside looking in um you know I I checked the Gallow Giannis poris kind of triple big lineup um coming to this game where we minus 20 and 28 minutes which honestly is like it’s not a big sample size like even putting aside the other

Guys I mean minus 20 in that sort of a sample is is bad right that’s how you get to some of these numbers like minus 38 net rating or whatever it is but I’m always we of using like the net rating stuff when like the sample’s like less

Than a game total because it just sort of makes it seem like you know it’s actually like had this huge impact when we’re talking about you know bleeding a few points here and there most games and whatever so um yeah I don’t I don’t really need to if you told me tomorrow

That you know AJ Green was going to get all GS minutes I’d say Thumbs Up Down um you know I just don’t know what he’s really doing for you at this point especially given his defensive limitations but you know I don’t know doc keeps trying to make Gallow happen

Stop making fed try to happen I know that’s what I was that’s exactly the phrase I was thinking of uh but I appreciate the fact when he hit that corner three today he he laughed he I mean he was like joking on the bench after it like he I forget what exactly

He said something like I finally got one or something like that because you know he he very much knew that he had not hit a three since coming to the Bucks and um you know again like he’s obviously a guy that has been a bucket getter his entire

Career and he’s obviously in a different point of that now so we’ll see you know if if Del garari is playing minutes in the playoffs then that probably means there’s injuries that we really don’t want to think about happening so um so we’ll see but shout out to Gallow for finally breaking the

Seal on uh on his three-point account with the bucks but yeah I mean Pat we should call it out I mean unfortunately Friday night the Bucks lose if they win I think everybody would have been talking about Pat hton shot making hit you know some big shots

Including a I don’t know I don’t think it was a I don’t know if was it a go-ahead three or was were they up by one or two points I don’t know if they were go they had a corner three the corner yeah yeah 17 points on

Six of seven shooting um I don’t know somebody like I I I called it out like for Pat someone’s like oh it’s defense and I was like I I mean I was watching I thought he was like handling screens like Reas well I mean it’s not like it’s

Not like Pat Conan was the reason why they couldn’t stop D’Angelo Russell or something like that you know which is basically what that game came down to is they D’Angelo Russell was just unconscious and you know again there are a few plays where obviously they didn’t defend it well including I think the

Last play you know we can debate whether Dame should have been on the floor whether Brooke should have been on the floor much less been the two guys in the final action it doesn’t sound like they executed that the way they wanted to and Russ makes the shot so you know again um

I’m always a little wary of of calling out coaches for not playing for for not pulling Superstars because like most coaches are very wary of pulling superstars in defensive situations even when they’re not good Defenders um and I think Dame has been playing better defensive late but still I mean if

You’re really trying to maximize your final possession are you going to be better off with Dame Lillard or Pat Beverly playing defense you know I think we think we can probably figure that one out pretty easily so uh so anyway Friday obviously Pat had a big game unfortunately couldn’t get the payoff um

But yeah I mean he’s since January 1 he’s got like I don’t know if he’s still there I looked up recently but you he was at like 70% true shooting I mean he had the best shooting splits on the team it’s not like this is brand new for Pat

But I think people just got so anchored on some of the early season problems that you know nobody wanted to give him credit but yeah Pat’s been been fine and um I don’t know like I I totally get I mean we talked a lot about Andre Jackson and could you get

Andre minutes or you know Mar being the season um you know I think kind of the to me like we’re sort of past the point of no return on like trying to get those guys integrated and and what’s happening it would have been great if you could have gotten them more minutes early

Consistently and tried to kind of get that learning through that learning curve but look I mean Andre has not been a positive player for the vast majority of the Season he’s had a few games here and there where you know he’s really contributed but someone was also like oh

Why don’t you get Andre out there to close the game it’s like well he gets called for fouls like you know every two minutes you know he’s got great physical tools but he’s not like an on ball stopper at this point right I think he’s probably better as like more of a help

Guy uh or a switch guy so um yeah I mean for better or worse as we’ve said this is this is the team kind of is what it is shout out to be I think good to call him out kind of the strides he’s made defensively and

You know lo and behold when the whole team starts playing more cohesively more in a more connected fashion and the defense gets better like all of a sudden you know you don’t have guys getting scapegoated as the reason why you’re bad on defense right like Bill Simmons can’t

Sit around saying that like Dam Lillard’s so bad that you know no team can play defense with him or whatever which is like never never was like really a the way that NBA defense works like you know guys can be bad Defenders or mediocre Defenders and you especially

Guards like you can still have a good defense right but um so anyway uh defensive rating today not great but mainly because of the transition the transition defense was really bad today um and so that obviously is an area that that generally has been much better

Since doc had come in but again uh let’s just say this as much as they win this game uh they left some things on the tape for the coaching staff to go over let’s say that yeah there’s definitely still defensive rebounding too defensive rebounding transition two things that

Were sort of like the easy cleanup stuff not so much today but hey at least you claw out the wind despite that yeah and even point points loud in the paint as well this getting this the numbers are starting to creep back up for the bucks

After they came out really strong out of the All-Star break I believe they were holding teams to about 40 points over the first uh six games coming out of the break in the paint so seeing what they gave up today to the Clippers as well you’re just kind of like ah not enjoying

That same with the the Warriors as well so some things to clean up along the way but we are seeing signs of improvement we were seeing certain signs of progress from this team a before the break but they weren’t resulting in winds form and now we’re starting to see some of those

Dubs come of course uh starting the road trip off 0 and2 not ideal especially in a Lakers game where you probably should have won that and you’ve heard the team mention like we let that one get away from us but they pull it together they learn from it they get a win today

Against the Clippers a very timely a win a needed win before they head to Sacramento to wrap up this four game Road Trip Tuesday’s game against the Kings will be the last 900 PM start game for the bucks this season for all of those who like to turn in early but they

Will have to play against a Kings team that’s going to be motivated the Kings also played today they lost to the rockets by eight in a game where they were up uh in halftime they were looking all right then things just changed for them it will also be the first night of

A backtack for the Kings they have the Lakers on Wednesday after they see us and hey maybe we’ll see Chris Middleton in this game on Tuesday not sure I saw Eric name report that on Friday Doc Rivers told reporters that Chris Middleton was going to have another

Really hard workout on Saturday and when asked about that followup he said that Chris had a great workout really good looked great so he’s getting closer we’ve been saying he’s getting closer for like a week and a half two weeks now but Frank we really might be getting

Closer it seems like that like that return for Chris is coming soon the bugs definitely need that I think they SE that on the ESPN broadcast on Friday that Tuesday would probably be the more likely Target which we’ll see right I feel like we’ve been as you said we’ve been kind of

Hoping for this for a couple weeks now for two weeks yeah so it’s just a long ass ankle sprain uh rehab but um I mean the funny part too is like like look I I don’t think we can debate at this point that Chris Middleton is injury-prone like it

Doesn’t matter if they’re like different types of injuries like line yeah it doesn’t matter if they’re freak injuries like he he gets he’s been getting injured a lot and he’s missed a lot of games and I get that there’s frustration it is it is kind of interesting though I

Feel like a lot of people when I’ve heard people talk about him this year this is basically the only like injury that has kept him out of games like you know the the knee injury obviously to start the year he was you know rehabbing from that but he was playing right he

Hasn’t like missed games this season because of it he’s obviously not been playing on back toback so you can say well that’s due to that um but other than that I mean he had a game in November with Achilles soris but for the most part he’s he’s pretty much been

Healthy up until the ankle injury which again it’s you know it’s bad luck but you know again like the healing time on an ankle injury like this has been quite a long one right and it looked like a pretty typical ankle injury right it didn’t look like I mean we we know he

Didn’t like break his ankle or something like that um so yeah I mean I I get the frustration um last year it was sort of a whole bunch of lots of different things that seemed to keep him from being able to get to where he could be

On the floor regularly um whereas this year I think it’s you know just really that one single play that has cost him you know a lot of time and um interestingly it’s now looking like it will have cost him about 1.5 million in potential um bonuses as well so um you know

It’s you know that that stuff matters right like I think it was he had to play in 62 games or so to get that which is now um kind of out out the window so um obviously I’m sure Chris would have liked to play games and get an extra

$1.5 million uh I know I would Camille um so it is what it is um and you know again fingers crossed maybe it’s Tuesday that he comes back and I think we’ll see kind of how long his ramp up is um and just for the record you know I almost like hesitate to

You know acknowledge this because I just don’t think it’s really much of a discussion like some people have been talking about like oh well you know do do you maybe Chris’s best role as six-man we heard the same stuff last year when he actually was playing six-man I mean

Like Jay Crowder hit a three today which is great he’s been shooting 25% from three each of the last two months um I appreciate Jay’s physicality on defense is useful I think you’re going to need him especially against like the Celtics and the playoffs and things like that

But in what world do we need to like do you want to play Jay Crowder more and Chris Middleton less which is effectively what you’re going to be doing if you start someone other than Chris Middleton um with your starting group like Chris is a perfect fit yes

Maybe he doesn’t touch the ball as much with that starting group um but you know the offense has not been as good since he’s been out I don’t think that’s a coincidence and especially in the playoffs you know it’s not like you’re trying to spread guys out out over like

32 minutes a game like you’re expecting to ramp guys up and play them a lot of minutes so um you know the idea that you’re going to have like you know Chris playing with a bench unit for like six or seven minutes like that’s not going to happen in the playoffs like Dam

Yannis Chris they’re all going to have to play a ton and so play your best dudes it’s not like you’re talking about you know playing Chris in a lineup where like he’s out of position or something like that like he’s the small forward and I don’t even know if Jay Crowder is

A small forward to me he’s still more of a small ball for so this seems like pretty easy basic logic the Bucks have been awesome all year when they play their best players so again in case anyone was trying to think along these lines just keep it simple guys play your

Best five players it’s been great that the team has been good with the starting five with Jay Crowder they’ve been over a plus 20 net rating um with him in there but to me that that ain’t because of Jay you know that’s because the other dudes and uh they’ve got an awesome I

Think they have an even better interet rating with Pat Conan as a starting small forward or as a small forward in that lineup with the rest of the starters I don’t think anybody’s clamoring for Pat conon take Chris Middleton starting job so um again I think that’s just a statement more about

How good Janis stame and and Brooke are and and Beasley too he’s fit in well as well so um you know the good news is the Bucks top lineups have all defended really well they’ve all been very majorly positive um but again like let’s not overthink it yeah absolutely don’t

Overthink that is a key going forward here but we’ll be back with more locked on bucks for you tomorrow for Frank and myself we appreciate you for tuning in and we’ll catch you later

Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo combined to score 69 points, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to a 124-117 victory over the LA Clippers. Lillard and Antetokounmpo either scored or assisted on 31 straight points in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

Camille and Frank discuss the Bucks victory and the developing chemistry between the Bucks superstar duo during today’s episode.

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