Milwaukee Bucks Struggle With Pacers And Spurs | Green And Growing

Milwaukee Bucks Struggle With Pacers And Spurs | Green And Growing

Welcome in another edition of green and growing it is the Milwaukee Bucks beating the San Antonio Spurs 125 to 121 and uh we tweeted out earlier tonight that we’re been doing this postgame podcast people are like boy I wish you would have been on after the Pacers game

Have no fear we’ll get to the Pacers game too we’ll do that as we get a little bit more into this plus Allstar voting results are are early results are in we can check on those two before we get out of here I was keeping an eye on Marion’s Twitter account throughout this

Game because I wanted to see the emotions that he was going through versus maybe what I was going through because I was pretty pissed off watching this game I was pretty pissed off watching the Pacers game now I will tell you that I I am the first one to tell

You and I’ve told friends of mine dude it’s the regular season just calm down like none of this matters until we get to the playoffs and then we’ll see I’m going to tell you what I’m concerned about I’m concerned about a playing young athletic teams that can get out

And run and provide more energy than apparently this Buck team is capable of I’m concerned about that now again Rockets are coming up so we’ll see if the same problem persists but Indiana twice now the Spurs and you’ve got papovich and timeouts going hey you know

Pretty much they put their pants on like we do quit being you know Star Struck by the Bucks and focus and just play the game the right way so he was trying to calm his team down and it worked They even played webman Yama at the end of

The game and it was a great duel between y webman Yama and Giannis but what I don’t like is lack of energy lack of effort Brook Lopez not good at all not running back on defense multiple times when I saw it the one pass he threw to conon that got blocked he took

A good half a second to a second before he made the pass he should have caught that and whipped it right over there he was open took his time I’ll get it there eventually and over there gets and then it gets blocked out of bounds Lopez was infuriating to me tonight watching him

Play the game of basketball against the San Antonio Spurs so yeah I’m pretty pissed off the ending very very entertaining Giannis hits back toback threes in a close game if he misses them I’m losing my mind currently on the postgame podcast for him taking those damn threes but they went in it’s fine

Wy with the huge block on Giannis that got everybody excited I saw Marion tweeting he liked wanyama uh that’s good um look it’s hard not to like wanyama the dude’s a stud right I mean I get it uh no big deal Maran I’m done ranting

For the time being I have more but I I’ll I’ll stop here so I don’t take the whole podcast and talk the whole time so uh your turn go ahead no it was it was definitely frustrating you know to see them struggle again on defense and and a

Lot of the same stuff happening and couple times where they just like pressuring full court and you’re like what in the hell are you doing like it just allows a very easy bucket down low yeah Lopez was very frustrating to watch and has been for the last couple games

Of just not really bringing it on either end and um you know ended up nine points four rebounds in 33 minutes and so yeah he he’s been very frustrating um I thought I thought the the overall defense in the first half wasn’t that bad I thought the defense in the first

Half was they were hit the Spurs were hitting a lot of contested mid-range shots which is what the defense is designed to kind of give up and the Spurs were making them and it was like okay and they got a little bit high from

Three at the end of the the half or at the um you know end of the first quarter second half I thought the defense did get worse I thought the defense allowed more inside stuff and as you said kind of um allowed the spur to run on them a

Little bit more um I thought Dame had a pretty good defensive game overall I mean there was that one time he bit on a pump fake with Vel who had a monster game as well credit to him he had 34 points 14 of 21 from the field and six

Of nine from three um but other than that I thought Dame had a pretty good defensive game and so and really everything except for the three-point shot from Dame was good tonight he had 10 assists he had no turnovers he was nine of 13 from two where he was driving

To the Lane and you know making his layups and stuff like that finished with 25 points 10 assists no turnovers so I thought I thought Dame had a had a really good game and just outside of the shooting um the from the outside and you know yeah I mean overall

The bench the bench too it’s so drastic I tweeted that too I was like it’s so um easy to spot the the drop off from the starters to the bench you know as soon as the bench lineups comeing in and it’s Giannis plus four bench guys out there

It just feels like man we have no Firepower we have nothing outside of Giannis and you know get again getting Drake Jay Crowder back will help that but it’s probably not fixing it it’s probably not completely changing it Maran what about starting the fourth quarter with Payne Beasley Bo champ

Conon and Lopez as your five that’s started the fourth quarter with but there it he it showed why he did that because Damon Yannis came in and scored 25 out of 26 points to win the game what about Middleton where was he what did it

Show for them he was out he was out for the second half they announced out right and this was his first time playing back toback and oh good Middleton’s gonna play back toback we’re all excited and then we get to the second half and there’s no Chris Middleton so hopefully

He’s not hurt or something or he’s not they said they said he’s they said he’s not hurt or anything they said it was he’s on the second night of a back-to-back and if they if they hadn’t played him they would have gotten punished by the league with that

All-Star rule thing and so they said they had it kind of designed that they wanted to play him in the first half play him his about half of his usual minutes and then they’d rest him the rest of the way I thought the allstar rule was you couldn’t rest two Allstars

So who allar that was resting that’s what they said in the broadcast they said something about how he was an All-Star in 21 yeah and so they could have been subject to punishment for the league that’s what I that’s what they said in the broadcast I don’t know I

Know that on this podcast I thought it was you could allars at the same time I thought it was two as well maybe it was just it might have just whatever but but that but that having those five guys out there you were setting yourself up to to have a problem

And that’s exactly what happened you ended up having a problem then on top of all of that you start talking about inside in venge points look at bucks film room tweeted this out uh earlier now this was before the game the Bucks have given up 334 points in the paint in

Their last five games that’s 66.8 per game average which is last in the NBA six points behind the putrid Wizards last in the NBA and BR Lopez and Giannis are these great shot blockers and guys who can protect the rim so what the hell is going on

Marzion number one um it’s a lot of that aggressive scheme that brings those guys out more and that therefore outside of the paint and then that’s easier for teams to score in the paint as a result and number two it’s I mean again as much

As as good as Giannis and Brook are they don’t play every minute and so when you have an your backups come in they’ve been really bad at the defending the paint you know Bobby is a terrible rim protector and so as a result every time

The bench units come in you know and and and it’s Giannis or Dame out there or Chris out there with four bench guys the the rim protection is awful and so in some of those stretches and and again that’s what I think I’ve seen most of

The year is you know the starting lineup hasn’t been terrible defensively when they do have you know Giannis Brooke Chris all out there at the same time it hasn’t been terrible now they’ve had bad games they were bad against the Pacers you know even with the starters on the

Court and everything but it’s been much better than the minutes where you have Bobby out there with pain and you know one of one of Giannis Chris Chris or Brooke or Dame instead of two or three of those guys so um it’s it’s a combination of both the scheme and then

The bench units just really hurting their Rim protection and I mean again they they’ve they they’ve gone back to the drop at at points like the the heavy drop at points um and bringing Brook lower back in the drop during this season and it’s it’s worked decently

Well and there’s times they go a little bit back to the aggressive stuff and it it just doesn’t seem to be working it doesn’t fit their personnel and um you know again as a result they’re getting kind of shredded in the paint uh rainbow trout comments on the YouTube Odyssey

Sports YouTube page where we’re streaming can also of course download it uh the audio version of this on your Odyssey app or you download your favorite podcast ad says uh Sparky why was Adrien Griffin hired please be honest well I’ll tell you the same thing everybody else is going to tell you

Based on reports that was Yannis is higher Giannis wanted to play for a former NBA player it’s something he’s apparently pretty adamant about so if that that was his higher because of the last three he was the only former NBA player to my knowledge of the guys that

Were there so Adrien Griffin got the job because jannis to get the job and guess what he’s gonna keep the job as long as Giannis wants him to keep the job as well that’s kind of how this whole thing is going to work going forward and I got

People asking me on Twitter well do you think they’ll get rid of Griffin mid-season no I don’t look this is the deal deal is and I just in fact I interviewed Keith Smith today uh with spot track and uh front office show or whatever uh and it’ll be up on the 1250

Amthe fan.com website uh tomorrow morning interviewed them earlier today and you can go listen to it yourself and I said about Griffin I’m not gonna freak out until we get to the playoffs if we get to the playoffs and there’s no adjustments and they get run out of the

Playoffs early because he’s not making adjustments then I agree then it’s time to move on and go and this was a mistake but I’m going to give him his time and his space to figure this thing out throughout the course of the Year even though I was pissed watching this thing

Tonight I was pissed watching the last two Pacers game like I get why everybody’s mad totally understand it and you’re all saying the same things that Nathan pretty much just said as well so I understand why everybody is mad watching this and everybody’s expecting them to be better but remember

What they had the second best record in the NBA coming into this thing I think I mean so it’s not like they suck it’s not like they’re the fifth or sixth seed in the East and and they’re trying to figure things out while being that bad they’ve won their fair share of games

And right now they’re going through a thing where they look Zapped of energy uh and their defense uh is getting torn apart by younger more athletic teams do does that pretty much sum it up correctly Nathan yeah I think so I think so and and like you said I mean I don’t think

There’s any realistic chance he’s getting fired mid-season so just stop asking for him to be fired like stop even bringing that up it’s not happening this season they’re not firing him right away if they lose early in the playoffs then absolutely you can bring up fire Griffin and really talk about that he’s

Not getting fired you can talk about what he needs to change you can say you know okay I’m kind of skeptical you can say um they need to be better they they need to do this and that but don’t sit there and keep yelling fire Griffin fire

Griffin this is a mistake fire it’s like it’s it’s not gonna happen stop like this is his season they hired him and I don’t believe it was 100% just because Giannis liked him because you know he met with multiple players on that team he met with Chris they had meeting

Several meetings together with players and they came to that conclusion um I don’t think that they would have hired this guy if it was just well he he sucks but Giannis likes him so we’re gonna hire like they wouldn’t do that they you know and what was giannis’s thoughts on

Nick nurse I mean that’s the other thing because there was a lot of talk that Giannis maybe didn’t want Nick nurse who ended up going to Philadelphia and obviously 76ers are playing pretty well right now but even with Nick nurse Nathan I think this defensive scheme is

Probably the same because this is what they ran in Toronto I would assume it’s very similar to what the what he would have ran here in even if Adrien Griffin wasn’t the coach yeah people do forget that I mean he’s literally Nick nurse’s assistant so it’s not like this would be a

Drastically different defense under Nick nurse now I think Nur I mean again nurse being a veteran nurse being you know you you trust him more yes I get that and I I personally wanted Nick nurse but I but it’s it’s I don’t know as much as they

Did I I don’t like we don’t we weren’t in those meetings we didn’t know what they talked about we don’t know what Giannis thought we don’t know all of this stuff so at the end of the day I’m like I don’t know about this coaching decision but like I just have to trust

That they’re making the right decision that they did what was best for them and you hope it works out you hope he gets better throughout the season and that they can maybe make a move to get him some better Personnel another Defender to to help this scheme a little bit and

You hope it works out at the end of the day but like again stop yelling to fire Adrien Griffin like it’s just it’s not it does you’re just yelling into the void because not they’re not going to fire the guy it’s not gonna happen let’s talk about something else when they

Hired Adrien Griffin and we had this conversation my concern was the guys he coached under nurse tends to wear a team out uh Tibido tends to wear a team out Skyles tends to wear a team out right and not only does he wear them out but by the time you get to the

Playoffs you know their teams tend to be tired and tend to to run themselves out of it by the time they get to that point do you think it’s possible right now that this team is just tired from playing this defense they’re playing Brooke is tired of running all over the

Free place trying to play this defense and they’re kind of like in that need of a real break right now to kind of rest their legs and kind of get themselves re-energized maybe they’re just zaap kind of of energy right now and that’s why this looks so

Bad I think I mean again that’s some of it and especially on the second night of a back toback you are a little bit tired and you’re going against two the the last three games you’re going against two young teams that that thrive on playing fast and thrive on pushing the

Ball in transition and against a team that is a Championship Contender playing in early January that is just still kind of getting going it’s they’re they’re just not going to play as hard as they will come playoff time and we saw them play much harder down the stretch of

This game like you you can see the flips the the the switch flip where all of a sudden guys are closing out harder guys are getting back faster guys are really really trying on the defensive end much harder when the game’s on the line and when it’s like okay like let’s let’s you

Know get our get our together and do this thing um you can see that that that switch flip and that’s why I’m like okay it’s not just that they all suck completely defensively you know we we we’ve seen them several times this year early on in the season especially we’ve

Seen them so many times in the clutch play good defense really ramp up the intensity and like okay the starting lineup plays good defense and so that leads me to believe that now I don’t think they’ll be you know at like this team constructed as as of right now like

I I wouldn’t ever expect them to be a good consistent defense in the playoffs but I think that they’re going to be better than they have been in some of these season games where the first three quarters like just I mean face it like it is not as important as a playoff game

And the players probably don’t take it as important as playoff games and and late in the games and intensity levels and all that stuff you can think whatever you want about that you can say oh you’ve got to bring it every night but the reality is it’s an 82 Game

Season these guys know they’re playing for a championship in April or in in June rather than winning every regular season game right now so naturally you’re going to let up a little bit and it’s when you’re playing against teams like Pacers or like the Spurs who are

You know this this is like they don’t they’re not thinking about June they’re not thinking about the finals they’re not thinking about a playoff run they’re thinking about right here right now trying to win all these games and that’s this is not the only reason their

Defense is bad by any means I’m not at all saying that oh they’re just not trying and and as soon as they start trying they’ll be a great defense no but it’s a part of it and I think that um you have to kind of take that into

Account a little bit and just accept that that’s that’s some of the reality that they’re not going to have that intensity level all the time in the regular season and um I mean again you hope that they make some Personnel changes and can get to a better level

Than this you know they’re at a pretty bad level right now allowing 120 all the time 140 against the Pacers you want to be better than that and um you know you hope it gets there but for right now this is kind of what they’re stuck with

A little bit and again you look at numbers tonight uh Giannis 19 of 28 44 points 14 boards seven assists on the night Lillard 25 10 assists one of six from three and that was from like uh I don’t know somewhere outside of the Arena where he took that shot from that

Was the only one he actually made in the game not a single person in double figures Off the Bench as we talked about earlier the closest is Bo champ with eight points three of eight shooting for the Spurs 27 for web andama in 26 minutes 10 of 18 nine boards for him 34

For vasel 14 of 21 six of nine from three two guys in double figures Off the Bench for the Spurs go back to that three-point shooting for the San Antonio Spurs at one point in that game they talked to I think it might have

Been early on in the game I want to say uh and they talked to Adrian Griffin about you know you know his thoughts on the game he said well you know we got to defend the we got to defend the three better man and nothing changed man

Second half guys were wide open with all the time in the world taking their sweet time taking threes and the Bucks to a certain degree got lucky because you saw the Spurs you had two or three guys miss wide openen threes with all kinds of time especially that last one w minyama

Pass up uh an opportunity to kick it to the corner and the guy missed a shot uh that was wide open they didn’t they didn’t lose that game at the end because you know the Bucks defense was stifling it wouldn’t allow him a shot they lost their game at the end because they

Couldn’t hit a three-point shot when they needed it uh and meanwhile the mukey bucks on their side of the floor couldn’t and they really haven’t been able to really kind of get going where they were able to get into a rhythm with guys shooting threes Lillard’s been in a

Funk for a while now and I said it during the Pacers game we’ll get to the Pacers game next but dude when Lillard struggles it like it zaps energy out of this Bucks team it’s like they all kind of just come down to earth like oh man

He struggling tonight it’s going to be a long night that’s what it kind of feels like to Me Maybe I’m Wrong maybe that’s not how it plays into their mindset but that’s what it feels like and when Lillard gets going I feel like they get going as a team as

Well yeah and um as far as leaving Shooters open I will say that the two guys that they left open the one that they kept leaving open was more by Design Jeremy soan who’s not a great shooter he’s he’s improved this year but it’s still one of those like okay prove

To me you can make some shots before we start guarding you um so that was kind of by Design especially when you have wemy playing a really good game and vasel playing a great game you’re gonna gravitate even more toward towards those guys and say if Jeremy soan and the guy

That left open on the last possession was Trey Jones who’s a 22% three-point shooter like I in that last possession I genuinely like when he shot that I was like fine go ahead like that is that is the same per essentially as Yan is

Taking a three at the end of a game I’m like go ahead you know if he makes that whatever but like I’m glad they they ran at Deon Vel I’m glad they ran at wanyama to make sure those guys didn’t get shots up and it was like I’ll live with a Trey

Jones 3 I will live with it it looks like a bad Possession It looks like they got lucky but like that is by Design um and then like that’s knowing your personnel so I’m glad that they I mean I know those look look super bad but I’m I

Wasn’t too upset about those and as far as Dame um you know again I people think he’s been it’s it’s there’s a lot of recency bias with this stuff I mean if you ask people like it seems like he’s been in a slump forever um the

For for 20 games prior to the last the last three games he’s played so in the last three games he’s now 44 23 from three but in the 22 games before that he was 41% from three so it hasn’t it’s been three games of Dame really struggling from from outside and

Um you know he’s going to have games here and there where he struggles whatever that’s every single player to ever exist but I’m not I’m not super worried about it I loved that tonight and even in the second half of last night’s game or in the fourth quarter a

Little bit of last night’s game he started going to the or he was going to the painton finishing he was Finding other ways to kind of make an impact and you know still ended up with 25 points 10 assists no turnovers in a game where he did really struggle from three but in

That fourth quarter he was getting to the rim at will he was finishing he he showed you why you trade for a guy like that because in a game where he’s shooting like crap and you know normally and I’m just using Drew as a comparison because that’s who you traded but when Drew

Would shoot like that in the playoffs he’s putting up 10 12 points you know and shooting four for 20 from the field and and one for six from three well I mean Dame ended up with 25 and 10 assists and no turnovers like yeah he shot bad from three that doesn’t mean he

Had a bad game and again I thought he was pretty good defensively tonight I thought he tried a bit harder on that end than he normally does or at least gave a little bit extra effort there so I thought it was I thought it honestly was overall a good game game even in

That first half I kind of said that I was like he’s got he hasn’t shot much in the first half but he’s got seven assists he doesn’t have a turnover he’s played better defense like yeah his shots not going down but whatever like he you know he he’ll get going he he’ll

Eventually make shots he’s Damen Lillard and um you know if that’s if that’s one of the bigger issues with this team is Damen Lillard shooting shooting three and like oh is he going to get his three-point shot going again I mean I’ll take that issue all day long because

That’s going to fix itself very quickly here is Nathan Maran follow him on Twitter at Nathan Maran follow me at Sparky radio bucks over the Spurs 125 1221 in the Yannis first web and yma battle a great battle there at the end of the game on TNT download this fine

Podcast on your Odyssey app or if you download your favorite podcast ad you can also watch our stream lives on the Odyssey Sports YouTube page like we’re doing currently here on Thursday night or go back and watch videos later take quick time I’ll come back I want to talk

About that Pacers game last night and what happened there and should there be concerned about a possible playoff matchup against the Indiana Spurs or the Indiana Spurs oh the Indiana Pacers that’s next here on the green and growing podcast back on green and growing Steve Sparky fer 1250 a.m. the fan make sure

To go check out 1250 amthe fan.com if you haven’t here recently Andy Herman pad day podcast earlier this week talking Packers football really good interview with him then we had Jake karowski on the website today from Badger extra talking about a disappointing Badger football season and tomorrow morning Keith Smith will be up

On the website interviewed him earlier today from spot track talking about the Bucks uh the Eastern Conference uh and the NBA overall really good interview with Keith make sure to check that out too he has Nathan marzan follow him on Twitter at Nathan marzion let’s talk

About the Pacers now they’ve won four of five against the Bucks I had on Sirius XM NBA radio earlier today and I was listening to Rick hamler and Antonio Daniels talking about uh that bucks Pacers game that Bucs Pacers series and camela is like hey man like I don’t want

To face the Pacers if I’m the Bucs like that that’s not good and you know you take the Celtics now in the East and da d da da da and Antonio the is like no wait a second here if I would have asked you Rick back when the Lakers were done

With that uh in season tournament who would you have taken against them in the west you were said they would have beat anybody except Denver he goes and now you’re not going to say the same thing he it’s January it’s a long season everybody’s just got to chill out and

Relax and see what the Bucks look like when we get to that point and fine I’ll give you that and I’ll say I agree wait but man like you there is a big big time problem with the Bucks against this Pacers team and we could talk about youth athleticism shooting uh whatever

The case may be confidence they have lots of confidence when facing this Milwaukee team right now and they already have issues dealing with spoler and Miami it seems like uh they don’t need more issues with another team where it’s a possible 27 or something like that uh and you got to

Deal with the Pacers in the first round because I will tell you right now I will be worried about that series uh if that’s how this thing ends up lining up by the time they get to the playoffs tell you that right and it’s January I know it’s January but they’re not going

To age five years a piece by the time we get there uh and this Bucks team isn’t going to get any younger I don’t think at the trade deadline so from that perspective I get very concerned concerned uh about if they have to match up with the Pacers what about you Nathan

Maran I very very very much hope that they face the Pacers in the playoffs because you like torture that’s what it is you like torture you want to push yourself through it it no it is it is now do the Pacers have our number in the regular season so far absolutely of

Course they’ve won four or five they they absolutely you know kicked our butts the last two games and you know deserve to talk a little crap they they really um they they punked us you know they got us like good for them but facing a team that’s young five times

Early in the regular season they’re you know it you you talked about this you’re like early on teams can play like this all the time they can play this run and Gun fastpac do that all like and they’re going to be trying a little bit harder

Than the Bucs to win these games and um the first game the Bucs didn’t have Damon they almost they they should have won the game they were up very late big and they just kind of choked down the stretch but they didn’t have Damon they should have won that game and if they

Had Dam they would have won that game so I don’t look at it as like 4-1 domination it was it was basically 3-2 if you take into account that they lost by a game by two points without Damen Lillard well the other time Giannis had 64 though I mean you can’t rely on

Giannis to get 64 in order to win basketball games get a team in a seven game series no but they I mean that they had to change their entire defense to make sure he didn’t do that because first three games the first three games he averaged 50 now the other thing I was

Going that gets to what I was going to say before is if they’re going to double Giannis like that I am going to trust that Damen lard is going to be better than he was those two games you know I don’t expect him to continue to shoot

That poorly in a whole series against that team so I’m like I think that would be much better I think that they would be just so fired up to play that team they’d be the intensity level is a totally different level that that Indiana hasn’t even experienced so I I

Would totally want that team in the playoffs I think that you’d have time now to kind of you’d have much more time to gel get things together you’re not playing them all at the start of the season when you’re kind of get figuring things out and they’re all amped up and

They’re all ready to play um I want I really want to play that team I’ll be honest with you we did our podcast after the first game so the first game was New Year’s Day we did our podcast Tuesday and we talked about the first game on on

New Year’s Day and I was convinced that when they came out Wednesday this was gonna be a motivated pissed-off Bucks team because jiannis even talked about after the game like hey man we lose four I mean he lose four in a series they bucks haven’t lost four four to a team I

Don’t know when the last time that happened was I haven’t seen that St and maybe it was out there and I missed it but I couldn’t tell you the last time with Giannis they lost four times in a season to somebody in a regular season so I thought for sure okay they’re GNA

Come out in Indiana fired up motivated and put it on them and make sure they realize who the better team is and it did not happen it it did not happen and instead you allowed the Pacers to feel even more confident I mean hel bur’s at

The line going one y’all got one game in the regular season one game that’s what yall got run in his mouth Wisconsin kid obviously feeling himself because he grew up here watched the Bucks whatever I’m sure loves the fact that they’re beating Giannis and the Bucks you said

They’re going to come out fired up and do something in the playoffs oh I hope so but I’ll tell you this much and we don’t know what Adrien Griffin’s gonna do but if you’re gonna tell me it’s Adrien Griffin versus Rick carile in the playoff series I don’t I don’t like my

Chances if it comes down to ex’s no and coaching decisions now I like my chances when it comes down to best player in the seas Ser that’s still Giannis obviously second best player in the series providing he’s shooting well is Damen Lillard then it’s halberton at that

Point so based on Talent the Bucks should still win that series but if we’re talking close games and having a diagram plays and do different stuff late in games I don’t know man I I don’t know where I’m at on that right now maybe I’ll you know maybe I’ll change

But carlile’s got a title carlile’s been in these things a million times over just like if you get matched up against bolra that’s why we go back to talking about Adrien Griffin as far as hey look you want to ask for Adrien Griffin to get fired fine let’s wait and see what

Happens in the playoffs and goal from there that would be the Fear Factor I think going into this thing Nathan in a playoff series against a Carlile Oris bolstra would be how does he handle late game situations in in tight games when they’re in

It yeah no I mean I of course you know and that’s that’s something that he’s honestly looked pretty good with it so far this season I mean the Bucks have been one of the best clutch time teams they’ve been much better than they were offensively in the clutch um

With with bud and Drew um so I but I mean I get it yeah and I’m not saying i’ love the coaching matchup I just believe that this Bucks team would it’s a totally different game in the playoffs it’s not even like it’s almost it’s almost a different sport like it’s just

It is you know you can say okay yeah they should have came out fired up on Wednesday and yes they they should have and it’s not like they got absolutely beat down from the get-go but I mean they were up a half but they um you know

The reality is it’s like it’s it’s not the playoffs you know this isn’t something like H Burton can talk all that stuff about one game and he can be talking to line it’s like dude it’s January it’s January 3rd like go ahead and talk go ahead and talk um but I just

This team would be fired up this team would be um have a have a totally different intensity level I mean I like the Giannis matchup obviously in that matchup and and if you’re gonna stop Giannis it’s going to leave Other Guys open and you know again you would just

Trust that Dame’s going to knock down the shots that he missed you know especially on last game he missed like six shots that went in and out and it was just like man he is just it’s just not his day it’s just not going in it’s

Just a little off right now um you would trust that he’s got that stuff ironed out You’ trust that for the most part he’s going to shoot well and um you know I just I don’t I’m not I don’t fear teams like that as much because it’s

Like the end of the day if you can’t beat that team you’re you’re not winning the title to begin with so like I I wanna like I want to go through them I wanna I want to beat them and that could you know totally propel them to being

Like hey you know we just we took down that team that just beat to got four from us in the regular season and that you know carries them further in the playoffs I you know again stuff like that is I just doesn’t doesn’t worry me

As much you know now if I could avoid Boston great that’s totally different because I’m like I’m not I I don’t like I don’t know that they can get by a Boston and you know it’s like I I’d rather just avoid playing them but um the Pacers stuff like teams like that

It’s like no like give me them and and I trust that our guys with the talent level difference would be able to to shut them up and get past them well they’re not going to get by much of anybody if Brook Lopez doesn’t play better than he did tonight in the last

Game because he was awful uh I I got one more for you I want to get to the All-Star voting early All-Star voting results in the next segment here uh but I do you think between now and the playoffs this defense will change a lot between now the playoffs if

If this defense struggles it all depends on it mainly depends on if they make a trade like as far as I are you talking scheme or are you talking the performance level scheme scheme do you think will change if this doesn’t get better I think you I think it would have

To change a little bit and we’ve seen him change it some it’s not like he’s done the exact same thing you know we saw them make adjustments we see we see him go to the zone and do stuff like that that just stuff that bud would not do you know again

Not something bug would ever do so I do think it would have to be changed a little bit I don’t know if it would be changed you know to the point people want I don’t know if it would be totally overhauled or anything like that but I

Would have to think it changes a little bit if it continues like this like because if you keep looking up and you’re like okay we’re still 20th in defense like you have to think that at some point you’re like okay you know it’s been half the season we’re still

20th in defense we got to change some things we got to tweak some things um or you know again get get better Personnel in here and see how that works and if that’s still not working then you definitely have to change some things so yeah I’d have to think that if it

Continues like this naturally You’ have to think that it’s going to change because the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over expecting different results you would think that they’d be like hey let’s let’s change up some things but we also thought the same thing when you watch Jimmy Butler

Torched your holiday all playoffs you would expect that a team would naturally change that that matchup and the Bucks did not so we you never know coaches sometimes can do dumb things all right you can just look up uh sanity the dictionary and find a picture

Of Joe Barry and you’ll see exactly what you’re talking about all right I’ll take a quick Time Out come back on the other side talk about these early Allstar voting numbers uh in and see if uh these make any sense or the fans have managed

To screw it up yet again on the first uh fan balloting that’s coming he is Nathan Marion follow him on Twitter Nathan Marion follow me at Sparky radio check out my latest interviews one-onone interviews I’ve done up at 12:50 amthe fan.com download this fine fine podcast

On your Odyssey app or you download your favorite podcast at and of course you can stream us live on the Sports YouTube page we can do these bad boys or also go back and watch them on YouTube at a later date tell your friends tell your family members follow subscribe hit the

Bell for notifications all that fun stuff back after this back on the great and growing podcast the Sparky f with you along with Nathan marzion bucks get a win over the San Antonio Spurs Yannis with a big night him and wanyama duel it out at the

End Yannis with a couple of big threes wanyama with a big block on Yannis all that fun stuff and the Bucs figure out a way to win that game we talked about that in the first segment for about the first 15 20 minutes of the podcast the

Second segment we got in talking about the Bucks and Pacers and what that thing has looked like uh and out here in the last segment we’re talking about these early Allstar voting results uh that have come in to nobody surprise Nathan follow Nathan marzan at Nathan Marion on

Twitter follow me at Sparky radio uh Giannis number one in front Court votes 2.1 million Joel embiid 1.8 million then Tatum Jimmy Butler Jaylen Brown bam atab bio Mel Bridges porzingis they have three Celtics players in the top eight in voting Kyle kosma uh and Paulo banaro

Uh at 10 anything stand out or surprise you in the front court for the Eastern Conference Maran um I think Jimmy Butler is a little surprising with how how because he’s missed some time right he’s been Jimmy’s missed some time um I mean kma puts up numbers on a on a bad team

But I mean I guess if you want to go by just numbers I think he’s averaging like 20 something points and so I understand a little bit why he’s on there but as far as like a winning type of player no he’s not he’s not a guy um but yeah I

Mean it’s very cool to see Giannis number one overall in in the uh in the voting like over LeBron James which has not happened before so that’s that’s pretty cool to see other than that I don’t really have uh guards in the Eastern Conference Tyrese halberton and Damen Lillard one2 Lillard at

95,000 and second in front of Trey young at 873 then Donovan Mitchell at 624 Tyrese Maxi fifth at 480,000 then Brunson uh lamelo ball Derek white demard de rozan and Drew holiday for the Celtics 10 that those Boston fans vote obviously uh I I am surprised that

Tyrese Maxi is fifth I’ll be honest of that top five I thought Maxi would get more love and be higher kind of up just because of all the love that dude gets nashley about how well he’s been playing this year Nathan yeah for a second I thought you

Were gonna say you thought he’d be lower um but yeah I agree I I think he could be definitely above Donovan Mitchell possibly above Trey young but Trey young is averaging like 30 so I gotta I’m not I’m not super surprised that you know obviously Dame is the bigger name he’s

Gonna get a bunch of Love Tyrese is having the great year he’s GNA be up there I think I think it’s pretty accurate other than Maxi could be like a spot or two higher um I don’t I mean to me I mean he’s not even close I mean

Look at look at the numbers he’s 140,000 votes behind Donovan Mitchell in fourth 140,000 he’s doubled almost D well not doubled but he’s 400,000 votes behind Trey young and third I mean it’s it’s not even close he doesn’t even have a half a million votes and Philadelphia

Is not a small Market I mean not talking about Milwaukee like are they watching 76ers basketball over there and beat as 1.8 million yet they don’t vote for Tyrese Maxi I don’t I don’t I mean I don’t get it 76ers fans need to help me

Out on what the hell is going on with that one uh Western Conference like uh Nathan said LeBron’s got two million he’s about 100,000 votes behind uh Giannis overall Kevin Durant 1.8 million uh the Joker 1.6 million uh then there’s a big fall off then Anthony Davis at 988

Then it’s kawhai Paul George sang WI we Yama in eth holgren and Carl Anthony towns I mean I don’t know I I’ll be honest I thought coming in weeman Yama would have way more of a fan vote uh similar to like what LeBron did his rookie year and so forth with all the

Fanfare this dude had coming in I thought he would have way more of an impact but I think because his team sucks and because now they’re going to limit his minutes I think that all plays into it NE yeah it definitely does and I I mean

I agree I definitely expect him to be a little bit higher on here you know I’m surprised that sangon has more votes than wenyama not that sangon doesn’t you know sangon has been awesome this year but a little bit surprising yep um obviously okay yeah joic deserves to be

Number one here but I’m not it’s not surprising that he’s not given that it’s LeBron and KD ahead of him um other than that nothing nothing too surprising here like Chad’s getting some love um you know Paul George is a pretty big name

Kawhai is a big name ad is a big name so those guys you all kind of just expect to be up there and they’ve been playing pretty good and lastly the guards uh in the Western Conference Luca 1.4 uh Steph 1.3 sgaa 966 th000 Harden Kyrie Anthony Edwards I

Thought he’d be way higher 289,000 only uh John Moran again he just started playing after the suspension uh Darren Fox is having a great year and he’s been kind of forgotten about in Sacramento Klay Thompson uh and Austin Reeds intense get out of here I I for me I

Just thought as again I get it so he’s stuck but he’s having a hell of a year Oklahoma City’s playing really well right now and I I thought he’d get more votes not saying that he deserves to start over staff for Luca but he’s having a hell of a year right

Now oh yeah he he’s been I mean and and I think that this is definitely the the top three that I expected in that order you know I expected Luca to be number one maybe Curry number one it’s close but I expected those two’ be neck and

Neck and then Shay a little bit behind him but yeah Shay’s had an amazing season so he definitely deserves a nod you know I it probably should be Shay and Luca in the back court for the for the for the All-Star game but for to start but I mean it’s probably gonna go

To Curry and again not that Curry’s been bad by any means this year but just I think Shay’s been so good has been as good yeah Golden State’s not been good Shay Shay and LCA had just been I think a little bit better than him but again

It’s Curry you kind of expect that he’s gonna have that that bump with how how well known he is um I mean Kyrie’s been hurt so that’s a little him at five but again he’s a big name yeah definitely expected Anthony Edwards to get more

Love he he seems I mean again when you look at his numbers it’s nothing like insane um for you know for what they talk about with him like as as far as him taking a huge leap and everything but it’s still very good SE in the west

But they’re the one seat in the west and Carl Anthony towns is 10th uh in the front Court in the west and Alex and uh Whatchamacallit Anthony Edwards is sixth I mean my God they’re they’re the one SE they better get at least somebody on this damn All-Star team one way or the

Other I mean one of these two better the damn team they’ll for sure get at least one guy in um like Edwards is 100% getting in it’s just a matter of he’s probably he’s probably not going to start but he’ll he’ll get in and then yeah jaw has been you know obviously

Suspended for most of the time Klay Thompson is totally on there because of name recognition because he has not been that good this season he’s putting up like 16 points on barely over 40% shooting so and you know he doesn’t do much as far as rebounds or assists and

Then yeah I mean Austin Reeds too like that’s a very surprising one because he hasn’t been like he’s ended the season last year really well this year he’s been you know fine like 15 a game um but just nothing that’s to me Allstar worthy or worthy of being you know up there

With with those guys you know again the fact that that Austin Reeds is that close to to Anthony Edwards to me is pretty crazy um you know they are 100,000 off but it’s it’s you know not that much compared to how far off other

Ones are at the top so yeah I mean at the end of the day it’s it’s Luca Steph and Shay are definitely the clear top three in this and then I would probably go Edwards number four um and then maybe like Fox number five yep I agree with you he is Nathan

Maran follow him on Twitter at Nathan Maran follow me at Sparky radio marzan you got any travel plans for the weekend where are we going this weekend what’s the plans what are we doing um I don’t have any travel plans this weekend I don’t think kind of chill weekend

Um one of my friends is in town so we’re going to go out and have some drinks and then um I’m trying to think next week I’m going to the buck Celtics game and yeah oh good one oh that’ll be a good one yeah that’ll be a lot of fun yeah

Yeah yeah that’s that’s a lot of fun there all right he is Nate the Maran C Sparky Fifer thanks for tuning in another edition of green and growing podcast downloading your Odyssey app where you download your favorite podcast at check us out on the Odyssey Sports

YouTube page as well enjoy the rest of your day we’ll talk to you again next week have a good weekend go pack go

Nathan Marzion and Steve “Sparky” Fifer of 1250amthefan.com discuss the Bucks recent struggles against the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs.