What to make of the Milwaukee Bucks record under Doc Rivers and their recent struggles

What to make of the Milwaukee Bucks record under Doc Rivers and their recent struggles

On today’s lock on bucks we’ve uh had a day to decompress and reassess the two performances we’ve seen this week against the Washington Wizards and the Memphis Grizzlies we have some additional thoughts to share on that also uh I’ve heard a lot of the chatter Camille and Frank got into it a little

Bit last night they’ve heard the same as well but is it uh Panic is it concern how do you view what we’re seeing from this team so far with a lot of caveats to throw in get into that discussion the health of Giannis oh by the way the

Elephant in the room as we get ready for the postseason and a look around the league at the rest of what’s going on for all of those teams locked in near the Bucks we’ll get into all of those conversations after this unlocked on bucks you are locked on bucks your daily

Milwaukee Bucks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome into lock on bucks I’m Justin Garcia here with you you can find me on the Bucks radio network joined as I am every day by Camille Davis you can find her work on the technical file podcast

And the pack a day podcast as well staying busy in uh football off season which there apparently is none just said yeah we had the all of the chatter with Packers for agency AJ Dylan at the game um against the Grizzlies picked a heck

Of a game to take in but yeah it never goes away we thank you for making lock down bucks your first list in each and every day free and available wherever you get your podcasts and viewable on YouTube as well part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day uh

Camille I guess we have to look back at a rather frustrating game and the loss to the Memphis Grizzlies you and Frank went over it as best you could on the postgame show but I guess I just want to start with where all of our heads are at

Because I’ve seen a lot of panic and uh claims that it is time to panic this team is going nowhere a lot of the same chatter that we heard uh what around the allstar break when when you and I talked about we heard a lot more of the the

Bucks are going to finish in the playin tournament chatter I’m not defending losses to the Washington Wizards and Memphis Ley on consecutive nights um but I’m not there yet I’m not at the Panic level um I can share why but I guess we’ll start with you what’s your

Takeaway on what we’ve seen this week and where this team appears to be headed well I can say first and foremost I’m a lot less frustrated than I was last night immediately doing postgame with Frank after that loss and part of what made that Grizzly’s law so frustrating

And just like what is happening is that it comes right off the hills of losing to the Wizards and it’s the way that they lost right like understanding that Wizards game like the three-point shot wasn’t falling they were getting good looks but it just was not falling and then against the Grizzlies the

Three-point shot was falling until the end when it completely went away they missed their last 10 threes and The Grizzlies win but when you look at it it’s like okay the Wizards had 70 points in the paint the Grizzlies had like 76 points in the paint like that’s un like

That’s unacceptable you cannot do that especially against these two teams where you’re looking at the rosters and you’re thinking okay the bugs have a size Advantage like maybe they’re they’re going to really be able to pound in the paint and it wasn’t the case so both of those games happening backtack really

Exasperated how I was feeling about this team but having 24 hours removed from it and being able to kind of think about it I’m at a place right now where I’m not going to try to convince anybody of anything because it’s one of those things where you’re like you’re right if

You say to me like I don’t have any faith in this Milwaukee bugs team they’ve been too consistent throughout the season I don’t know which team is real they can get bounced in the first round I I can’t argue with you on that one if you’re somebody who was like Hey

This team has a real shot Eastern Conference Finals I can see their pathway there when they’re healthy and they have their best players playing they look good we see the bugs have played better against the competition like they should be good come playoff time I agree like I get it I’m not gonna

Argue otherwise so like for me personally I’m in a spot where it’s like I just need I just have to kind of wait and see how this plays out like at this point I’ve like released expectations that’s the best way for me to put it I have released expectation from this team

Because not only I feel more aligned to that optimistic line of like hey if they’re healthy they got a shot which is true but then now the concern comes in like are they really going to be healthy when the playoffs start and that piece of it now has my concern level peing a

Little bit and it’s not necessarily again because of what we’ve seen all though it’s been inconsistent but again we’ve seen them play really really good ball as well especially against good comp but the health piece of it now is starting to get a little concerning um that’s almost to a tea my

Exact feeling is that look if if you say the Bucks are going to lose in the first round or you think they’re going to lose in the first round fine I I I can’t change your opinion on that and you know frankly we’ve seen enough of a sample to

Say okay there there are things trending towards Bel leaving that just as we’ve seen samples that would say no I I think this is a team that could give the Boston Celtics quite a challenge and potentially beat them in the playoffs the reality is that this team uh more

Than any other team in the East certainly probably in all of the NBA is the ultimate lowf floor High seiling team where any scenario is in play and um we’ve gone over the numbers in terms of what the Bucs have done against the best teams in the league

We’ve gone over the numbers what they’ve done against the not so good teams especially those teams in the middle um which is even more again not alarming but it’s what stands out the most about this week is the Bucks you know we joke about well the Bucs played a level of

Their competition they still beat the bad teams every team does it’s been those teams that are in the middle of the pack that the Bucks have had the most struggles with and to to see this come against those two teams is the part that again I don’t want to make too much

Out of one and and now in this case two out of 82 games um but that’s the thing that you come away saying man really now as as you’re getting ready for the playoffs like this is not the way you want to be playing going into the

Postseason health is the biggest part of it though and I do get a sense there is an immense amount of frustration not with anybody individually just at situation from everybody involved from Doc Rivers from the coaching staff from the players because Doc’s been asked about this every single game you know

How frustrating is it that you haven’t had a long Runway with all of these guys and gets the answer every single game and I’m sure it’s more and more frustrating when you look down you see third straight game that Damen Lillard is out it’s a back toback so you don’t

Have Chris Middleton now who knows as we’ll get to what what it’s going to mean for Giannis moving into these final few games of the regular season so that’s the frustrating part and that’s why again these two losses the season season as a whole to their body of work

You and I we can’t do anything to talk anybody out of saying I don’t trust the Bucks you going back to the old school Frank Madden line of thinking and never trusting The Bu bus I don’t think they’ll get out of the first round uh I

Don’t think they’ll go far any of that stuff you know what we can’t change your mind and there’s enough information out there or data out there that would back that up for you um it’s it’s when the conversation starts where people are speaking in absolutes of this team is

Going to lose the first round or this team is who knows you know like as bad as it looked last night and this week we can point to other instances where it looked equally as good against the best teams in the league and I guess if

You’re gonna hang your hat on on one piece of hope it’s that well the playoffs and especially how much we’ve talked about there is no easy matchup you know there is no easy draw going forward those are the teams you’re going to be playing so in theory we should see

A better version of the Bucs but again that all hinges on health it does it does and there’s been a lot of conversation as well around the coaching and oh the bug should have never fired Adrien Griffin and Doc’s the wrong coach and I said on post game last night like

People who don’t like Doc Rivers like I get why he is very Mike booten Hol or adjacent in a lot of different areas but when you look at the team it’s like okay the Bucks were 30 and 13 under Griff that is true like they had a winning

Record and since the the coaching switch they’ve been 17 and 16 not as good but like there are factors that go into that from strength as sched schedule we know that they had one of the easiest schedules to start the season one of the hardest to finish they’ve had more

Injuries uh in the second half of the season with Doc at the helm as well but when you look at like the raw numbers like I’m on cleaning the glass right now and looking at the team under Griff their net rating was plus 3.4 under Doc

It’s plus 3.1 so it’s like the net outcome of how they’re playing is is similar in that regard but the difference is that they’re not scoring as many points now and they’re not giving up as many points now and of course we have to also take in consideration that since Allstar score

Like we have seen the free throw rates have come down like scoring has not been as high as it was previously so in addition to the coaching switch like there have been so many different things that have been going on in the league that also affect what we’ve been seeing

On the court and we’ve been saying with this Doc Rivers coach team is like one it’s very hard to just helicopter in in the middle of the season and take over the coaching Reigns like you don’t have a training camp you don’t have time to get to know guys like you’re doing this

All on the Fly um so there is some level of Grace that I am giving to Doc Rivers just in the same way I gave some Grace to Adrien Griffin being a first-time head coach the reasons for the grace are different um but the grace is there for

Both of them nonetheless and this comes uh during a season where the time is ticking like this is a championship they want a championship and we know they have the level of urgency for it because they wouldn’t be paying three coaches if there wasn’t a level of urgency to get

It right this season so the coaching piece of it like that is what it is I do still think that this team has the tools and they’re going to have a better process to go further under dock than they would have with Adrien Griffin but as we’ve already mentioned it’s the

Health component of it right now um that really all of his hinges on uh I’m I’m glad you brought that up because it is um it’s something that has kind of irked me a little bit when we we see those comparisons thrown out there and uh Lisa

Bingington is well when she was on NBA today uh when the Bucs were on their West Coast Road Trip pushed back on all of it too saying look you guys are kind of jumping the gun here and here’s some things you’re not taking into account when you’re just pointing to the Bucks

Record broadly under doc River so I do want to continue a little of that conversation and point out a couple of things that you touched on as well and look we mentioned the health um Giannis is the big one we haven’t gotten into that yet you and Frank talked about it

On the postgame show don’t have much of an update but there is an update to the injury report so we’ll get into all of that coming up after the break here on lock on bucks let’s next segment is sponsored by Robin Hood did you know that even if you

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Is subject to specific terms and conditions Robin Hood Ira available to us customers in good standing Robin Hood Financial LLC member sip is a is a registered brokered dealer and Camille I mentioned what we’ve seen from this uh discourse that’s that’s going on we we thought we were

Gonna get into some of the Yiannis MVP discussion um that has suddenly been been put on the back burner and you know again giannis’s health is going to be a big part of that but you know I I keep seeing it every time uh the Bucks lose

It’s like death taxes and whenever the Bucks lose somebody’s going to Tweet out the record of the Bucks under Doc Rivers and we saw it again last night bcks are 15 and 15 under Doc Rivers um as you pointed to it’s a much different schedule it is a far more challenging

Schedule that the Bucs played under Dock and you know starting with those three games under Joe pruny when you think about two are against the Cavs one was against the New Orleans Pelicans uh but it’s been a much more challenging schedule the injuries you noted have

Really started to pile up because I I think we we can easily forget the Bucks were very fortunate with their health early in the season you know we we almost joked about it too like man how many games has Giannis missed how many games has D missed that you had those

Guys the only thing was really the Jay Crowder injury earlier in the season right and Chris Middleton not playing on the back half of back-to-backs that was it and then you get to the second half Damen Lillard again I wouldn’t say injury certainly not prone but he he had

Been in and out of the lineup at times you miss Brook Lopez for three games for the birth of his child but Chris Middleton out what 16 games Giannis has missed a couple um again who knows as we’ll get to the injur report there so there’s there’s just been a lot more

Things that have made it challenging uh since Doc Rivers took over and you know the big thing is you didn’t hire Doc Rivers as you pointed to to boost your regular season record and continue winning at a 60 or 70% Pace you hire Doc Rivers to guide you to a deep postseason

Run and there’s no way for us to quantify this but some of the things that you pointed to with the officiating shifts and what we’ve seen you know those numbers the net rating and everything else similar and look to be fair the Bucks defense the first what 10

Games under doc was Elite yeah it’s cooled off to middle of the pack basically and I think that’s reasonable to expect of this is probably where that team is they’re not a bottom 10 team they’re not a top 10 team they’re somewhere in the middle offense has

Taking a step backward and you know those things I don’t know about easy to explain but there are reasons for it the officiating shifts as we’ve talked about a couple of times already Dame has been the the player most impacted by that more than any other player in the league

He’s gone from sixth to 27th in free for free throw rate since then um everything is going to slow down the offense right and you were scoring under adri and Griffin I don’t think it was sustainable right the defense was not doing the things you needed to do when

You get to the postseason as Bucks fans learned for the last five years you can have a high-powered offense but if it’s fueled on getting in transition and that wasn’t necessarily the case this year but if it’s fueled on getting in transition hitting threes that hits

Walls in the postseason you have to have a consistent halfcourt offense and it it did feel like they were winning on talent and that is not sustainable um especially once you go up against some coaching challenges in the postseason and the game slows down and it becomes

Much more halfcourt so I get that it’s easy to say wow you fired Adrien Griffin for this but it’s a lot more nuanced than that and and we can’t make any type of assessment on this until the end of the season when you see how far this

Team went and and I suppose you could counter with look well it’s not fair to Adrien Griffin that he didn’t get a chance to prove himself and there is some truth to that but the Bucks had a firm belief of this is not sustainable even some of the things that Doc Rivers

Has cleaned up defensively even if it’s just put you in the middle of the pack it’s put you in a much better spot and I think that’s been the overall Vibe is as long as we have these Five Guys on the floor together as long as we’re healthy

We have a coach that has been in in the postseason that’s the you know the other elf in the room is Adrien Griffin didn’t get a chance to prove himself he had never been in the playoffs as a head coach though so that’s a big big if and

That’s kind of where the assessment has to come from once the season ends yeah it has to come from there like that’s what this team is going to be judged on the playoffs like we saw what happened last year and the flame out in the first round against the Miami Heat so this

Season like yeah the expectations are there again a sense of urgency for this team and the point about the offense is also really interesting to think about because under grip I would agree with that they were really scoring on talent and leaning on that we’ve remarked on

We’ talked about it hey we would like to see more twom Man game with Dam and jannis like it’s not enough right now and when doc came in he’s trying to implement his offense and he mentioned himself like hey there’s going to be some times where this does not look

Right because I’m trying to drill in how to do this I’m trying to drill in for guys to not just look for their shot I’m trying to have guys look for that secondary read the third read like what happens if this is taken away from you

So there is some on thee Court learning which we saw during the championship season but that was on defense where the team was learning on the Fly and using games to try to figure out what that’s going to look like and offensively that’s what this team has been doing

They’re trying to fit these pieces together in the system that doc wants them to run and it’s been more difficult to do that given the injuries coming in and out like Chris melon missing 16 games is huge that’s huge and we saw that with a lot

Of the bench units that were run out here where it’s like ah if you could have a Chris Middleton that would help out a lot because there are only two point guards on this roster one being Dame the other being Pat Bev and Pat Bev has done a good job facilitating but

Like outside of the two of them your other Playmakers are Chris and Giannis and like that’s that’s it like we know duc’s been really going with the pgpc thing with Pat conington but that’s not his natural position like I love that he’s getting the ball in his hands and

Getting opportunity ities and getting the Reps in but like you don’t think Pat C okay he’s in the game he’s going to facilitate the offense more of a secondary ball handler than anything else so them the offense like again I can see the reasons and I look at it I’m

Like this is part of why the offense has been a little bit less High powerered uh under dock than it has been under Griff because they’re trying to figure some things out and again I have a certain level of Grace with it but with the in like the performances being so up and

Down and you don’t know you’re going to get it’s like I’m just going to have to wait and see how this all plays out and hope for health because when healthy like it’s good and them being able to play off of talent is not a negative thing like come playoff time there are

Going to be times where they’re gonna have one of the three is going to have the ball and they need to make something happen and they’re going to know how to do that as well but it’s also nice to be able to run the offense and get other

Guys looks get that ball moving turn down the good shots for great shots so listen Justin we’re going all round and around like I’m talking myself back in to get the bandwagon of what this team can accomplish but it’s right there and that’s also why it’s so frustrating when

You see them not play well because you know what they’re capable of when they’re getting back on defense when they’re hustling like that Pat conon play where he was that Washington or Memphis now where he got it was against Anthony Gil so when he gets back and

It’s like he blocks the shot but there are no other bucks around him so Gil just gets his own board and puts it back up and it’s like well that’s game like the the hustle and again you expect to see that happen more in the playoffs but

I also think that it’s kind of a dangerous game to play of like thinking a team can just switch it on and off all the time so again that’s part of why the stretch of basketball we’ve seen from this team has been not encouraging in the least because this is the time when

You want to see the team ramping up and playing better instead we’re getting stinkers where they’re losing back-to-back games against the Wizards and the the Grizzlies on top of that like the double overtime loss to the Lakers get the win against the Hawks but then you lose against the Pelicans like

It just has not been a good stretch over the last five games for this team as a whole yeah and um last thing I’ll I’ll say about this week because we still haven’t mentioned the the Giannis update is um I wasn’t so discouraged by the loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in a

Vacuum when you think about the players that the Bucs were without they did not have a point guard right Pat hon again was was your point guard in that game uh Giannis clearly wasn’t 100% which will’ll get to coming up here um so when you look at that you say yeah I mean

It’s a Grizzlies team defensively they do get in a lot of passing Lanes force a lot of loose balls and turnovers without a true point guard to organize the offense this this GNA be a challenge and the other part is you know it is kind of

Unfair to point to well the Bucks were without Pat Beverly Dame Lillard Chris Middleton without mentioning everybody that the Memphis chrisli were without and were without the last time these two teams played and they did something similar um but I do think you know Memphis it’s not an excuse they’ve had a

Longer Runway right they’ve had almost a full season to play with this group and it developed some of that okay we know what to expect from from these guys you still should have won that game but I didn’t leave that game completely distraught and discouraged and saying

Man this this is terrible this team is going nowhere in a vacuum of just that singular game I think that game is a a shoulder shrug if you don’t lose to the to the Washington Wizards the night for because it’s easier to write off and say

Well it’s a backtack and we didn’t have these three guys fine this happens throughout the course of an 82 Game season um but unfortunately you lost to the Washington Wizards in a game where everything I said I did not feel after the the Grizzlies game I did feel after that

Wizards game especially knowing what was on the horizon with the uh the Memphis Grizzlies and I think that’s what leaves you at least um what on edge for what’s coming up later on tonight with the Toronto Raptors again on paper a team that has nothing to play for um but who knows

What the Bucks are going to look like as we’ve tiptoed around the Giannis update so we will update the injury report for that matchup at least the initial one against the Toronto Raptors what to potentially expect in that game and is there any more clarity on the Eastern

Conference in the standings as we’re now approaching what 10 days left in the regular season we’ll open up that discussion after the break unlocked on bucks well Amazon Fire TV is one of the easier ways to get all your content on your TV and maybe you’re making the switch going exclusively to streaming

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Lock sports today now available on the free Fire TV channels app latest injury reports or first injury report I should say uh Camille for the game tomorrow or today depending on when you’re listening to this against the Toronto Raptors um not totally surprising Pat Everly is listed as questionable with that right

Ankle sprain Damen Lillard is questionable as well with a right adductor strains so it is I know it’s still a core injury the adductor but it is moved from groin to adductor and it was the right groin and now it’s the right aductor so that’s eyebrow raising to say huh okay

Is this issue is issue just moving up the body for Damen Lillard uh but the big one as well Giannis is also listed as questionable with that left hamstring uh issue so um the D piece will’ll start with that was the most surprising to me and I

Think to a lot of Bucks fans because you had to assume at the very least Giannis is going to be questionable for the game I would not doubt he’s doubtful for the game given how he looked that he we saw him I don’t know if it was the hamstring

But at least grab at the back of his leg a couple of times during that game um but again Doc Rivers over the weekend had indicated yeah there’s a chance that Dame does not finish the road trip he didn’t and was asked before the game against the Wizards what’s his status

And said he might play tomorrow that Wiz that Grizzlies game if not we think he’s going to play Friday he was asked before the Grizzlies game and gave the same answer of yeah I think he’s on track to play Friday and now we see questionable with something different from the groin

Strain so that is at least interesting and and as we talked about the first half of the show it’s not what you want going into the playoffs to have these lingering types of issues no it’s not and as mentioned again with the Chris Middleton being out 16 games there’s

Only been a handful of games where all of the big three have played under doc like they have some reps playing with each other before but they haven’t gotten the chance to really get those ingame reps in playing the way that doc wants them to play so the Dame injury it

Caught me off guard like you said I’m guessing it caught many off guard because the initial report was him being out for the personal reasons with his son’s birthday um and then to see the injuries and then you’re like wait I thought like in the previous game it was

His C and he had the stitches and his lips so like to see a different body part listed was just kind of like wait hold up what’s happening but I did see that he did some uh pregame warm-ups yesterday so it seems like it’s not something super serious but rather the

Team exercising caution with him ahead of the playoffs which again we talked about a little bit before we recorded but if that’s the the train of thought with Dame I I I wonder why that wasn’t the train of thought with Giannis on the second nighta back toback and I’m sure

Part of it is from Giannis himself like after the game he mentioned that it was important to him to play through this uh to try to make mistakes get with the flow of the game a very honnest answer which is part of the reason why we love

Giannis like he is somebody who he’s in a pain and he has a very high pain threshold it appears because he play through some things but we also heard him mention ahead of him missing games for the hamstring just like you can’t play with hamstrings like this is one of

The the injuries where you need to to be cool so um we’ll have to see how this all shakes out on Friday with these guys as for the pat Bev injury of it all um seeing him being questionable as well we know he has the wrist already but the

The ankle spring looked a lot worse to me in real time than what the injury report has come back up saying what he has so that is something at least somewhat positive to take away seemingless that’s questionable as well so we’ll see how that shakes off but more than anything Health heading into

The playoffs is so important but the standings also have a little bit of pressure on it because of where the Bucks are had they won these games against the Grizzlies and the Wizards the conversation would be a little bit different maybe the level of urgency to

Have guys try to play to get some wins wouldn’t be as high even if you had even if you won one of those games you you’d be 28 losses right and and you you’d be three up in the loss column on the caps on the magic and on the New York Knicks

You have the tiebreaker against the Knicks you can get it against the magic you don’t have it against the Cavaliers but of those three the Cavaliers have the most challenging schedule remaining but um yeah it’s it’s left the door open and I know I I spent quite a bit of time

The last couple of weeks pointing to these four games which we are now at game number four and saying look if you take care of business in these games it’s probably a wrap that you are going to be the two seed and now you’re one

And two in those games so um not what we had in mind mind but I suppose the other piece of it Camille is um I I I just don’t know what seed is important for the bucks until we get closer to having an understanding of who

Is going to be where the important part is don’t finish fourth and I I still even with these struggles I don’t think they’re going to finish fourth still a lot would have to go wrong for that to happen you’d essentially have to win what probably two of your final six

Games to finish fourth in the Eastern Conference um but in terms of two and three I understand you can point to the road record and say well this speaks to the this Bucks team really needed homecourt Advantage I’m just not sure about that I mean I we saw the Bucks win

On the road game seven in Brooklyn close out the Eastern Conference Finals on the road as well close out the series in Miami on the road and and essentially wrap up the series because we all knew after that game five win they’re winning it in six doing that in Phoenix so we’ve

Seen them do it before and you know not to get too sidetracked but even the conversation over road record it’s certainly not ideal to be below 500 and when you look up and down the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference you look at the elite teams and you see

They have much better Road records than do the Bucks and you immediately drift to well this isn’t good and this is maybe more fodder if you’re in that group that’s convinced this team isn’t going far but let’s also point out the Denver Nuggets were below 500 on the

Road last season and won an NBA championship the Miami Heat were a sub 500 teams so it’s one of those weird things in the NBA so we we don’t know two three I don’t know that it’s important one way or another especially and I don’t mean disrespect here

Especially if the Orlando Magic or Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be the two seed in the buckser the three I don’t know that it’s all that crucial too you got to get the two seed because it’s ultimately going to come down to who who else is seated where who’s in

The seven and eight matchup who’s in the six matchup and that’s stuff we frankly may not know until the final day of the regular season it’s trending that way like if we know before then I will be surprised like at this point I’m fully expecting for us not to know how these

Standings are going to shake out until the last day of the season and not just in the East like the West as well like it’s just been crazy yeah such a tight race to the finish here when it’s coming to the standing so for me the road thing

Does give me some pause where it’s like hm what’s going on with that but the pause that it gives me is added emphasis on to why I want the Bucks to finish with the highest seed they possibly can to have as many home games down the

Stretch as they can like it’s good for them to know like we have one on the road before we’ve done it before we think about that championship team a lot of the core members who play then they’re still here and they’re still going to be the guys getting a lot of

The minutes your Chris your Giannis your uh Brooke Bobby Pat like those are five key contributors from that championship team who will be on this playoff team and ready to go and having that idea of like okay we’ve done this before we can do it again so on and so forth but

Hasn’t been encouraging so um you we can’t keep looking back and saying like man if the Bucs would have won these games it’ be a different situation because at this point now it is what it is they lost those games and now the final six games of the season are going

To be really really interesting for this bugs team in their seating because you look at the standings right now and there are games playing as we are talking but the magic are only two games behind the Bucks and we see the magic two more times before the season wraps

Up so like those games have an added emphasis the Knicks they’re behind the bugs as well and we just heard the news today that you know Julius Randle he’s going to be out for the rest of the season he tried to do everything he could to

Not that in itself uh I would encourage listening to lockon Nicks to get their take on that because um if you had issues with the Bucks lack of transparency over injury updates the Knicks basically lied for over a month saying Julius Randall was progressing and um then we come to find out from

Julius Randall himself he was doing onc Court workouts re-aggravated the injury needs surgery and that’s why he’s out for the season yep so it’s it’s things can change quickly but yeah it’s important for the bucks to at least like third seat is the lowest seat where I’m

Like I feel comfortable about the Bucks chances going to the playoffs when you get to that four or five matchup it gets shaky um two seeds ideal but hopefully the Bucks can can hold on to that down the stretch here so we’re taping this Thursday night

And you will know the results by the time you listen to this show but there are two crucial games or or big games that involve the Bucks uh this evening the 76ers are in Miami and as of this moment it’s late in the fourth quarter and the heat are up

Two possessions on the Sixers but uh again just as I feared and I warned all of you Joel LBI looks very very good he’s I think close to 30 points in that one in the fourth quarter and he’s been efficient so that’s one to keep an eye

On the Knicks were down by 20 in the first half to the Kings they’re now up by two in the fourth quarter that’s obviously an important game for the bucks so um the context behind that if the Miami Heat lose that game 76ers in all likelihood are going to be the e

Seed no matter what unless they go on a TI and don’t lose again and the the Pacers Heat and other teams really stumble here but they’re likely going to be the eight seed if they win this game Miami drops back to seven once again and

The Pacers would jump up to six so the playing tournament teams would be Pacers or excuse me Heat versus Sixers with the winner playing the two seed which could be the Bucks in the first round and the Knicks of course it’s a matter of look

If if if we can just put that team Out Of Reach and then worry about only two teams in our rearview mirror that are chasing us that’s the big part there because the Knicks loss would drop them to um three games back of the Bucks once

Again in the loss column with um six games remaining and of course the Bucs hold the head-to-head tiebreaker so that’s essentially four that they’re back of them so that would go a long ways to Walling off the Knicks in catching the bucks but we’ll know you

Know by the time you listen to this if none of those things happened in in favor of the bucks so tomorrow or tonight the Bucs back in action against the Toronto Raptors and again it’s GNA be like this just as we said it’s going to go down to the wire there are a

Handful of games every single night that are going to carry importance for the bucks and Bucks fans to keep an eye on so while the Bucks are hosting the Raptors you also have the Bulls hosting the Knicks on night two of a backtack the Heats night two of a backtack in

Houston against the Rockets the Pacers are hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder so very very big matchups while the Bucks are hosting the Toronto Raptors and then the other big ones on Saturday you have the Cavaliers in Los Angeles the first of a back-to-back and the 76ers play those World beaters the Memphis

Grizzlies so from here on out there are going to be games even on off days that as a bucks fan you have to pay attention to and and see if the Bucks can get any help but the biggest help the Bucks are going to get or could get I should say

Is going to come on the front of health and hopefully that is something that once we get into the final week of the regular season that part will be there even if the consistency factor is not one other thing to share I haven’t even told you about this yet uh

But I think I think it’s officially going to happen now so I was got some type of confirmation today oh boy trading texts with one of our Pals and uh number one he was curious it’s just what the hell is happening with this buuck team so he had some questions on that

But um for everybody that’s stuck around to the very end of the show we don’t know the day yet but it does sound as though we are going to have Kane Pitman back on the show next week probably early in the week but we’re still ironing out the details but it sounds

Like uh he’s finally used his publicist and and assistant to get that clearance and he is going to make his return on the show next week hey I’m gonna do the sound effects for everybody I know that’s been something we’ve been saying we’ve been doing the Doc Rivers uh close it’s close it’s

Close it’s close but you guys it really is close it’s coming uh hopefully this doesn’t become the um everything else that we’ve seen with injuries of we thought it was going to happen and then it gets postponed but no uh I feel pretty good that it’s going to be next

Week just uh looking at the updates that I got from him so look forward to that uh we should also point out the postgame show following that nexts game which could be a big game um and by the way one thing that you and I were joking

About as well don’t laugh but who would have thought that final game of the regular season could decide the two with the Bucks in the Orlando Magic again obviously some things would have to go well for the magic the biggest piece would be winning that game in

Milwaukee in uh what less than a week at fiser Forum but that could be a very important game in the meantime the game that’s one week before that Sunday this upcoming Sunday against the New York Knicks the post game uh is going to be

You and I I don’t know if we broke the news to Frank yet although Frank wants to do okay so it’s gonna be you and I but it’s gonna be delayed and that it’s gonna come Monday morning because I of course have the the radio broadcast and then afterwards I have to

Catch up on night two of WrestleMania you will also be doing the same I’ll be watching night two of WrestleMania myself so uh the postgame show will be uh Monday morning maybe we’ll do it live too hopefully there’s a reason to celebrate but look for that Monday

Morning it won’t be there right away at night yeah so just so you guys know a heads up on that it will be on the way but your your host of lock on bucks we love we love wrestling so there’s be a little delay while we indulge in that

Love for wrestling as well and I was I was texting with d David lock earlier in the week too I gotta remind him we need a locked on wrestling channel here on the network with guest appearances from people around the network who are fans yeah guest appearances I mean that’s why

I was working hard to get him to return this week in light of the Big Red Machine to get Kane here for Wrestlemania week um that’s going to be it for today’s show again look for the postgame show the Bucks and the Knicks Monday morning I think we’ll probably

Try to do it live too so we can take your interaction hopefully the Bucks give us a reason to do that but Monday morning the postgame show of the Bucks and the New York Knicks and if you got thoughts on night two or even night one or WrestleMania drop them in the

Comments as well for Camille I’m Justin we’ll catch up with you once again Monday morning with more locked on Buck

Justin Garcia and Camille Davis revisit Wednesday night’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies and comb over the 30 games the Bucks have played under Doc Rivers. How different has it been versus the 43 games under Adrian Griffin and why? Plus we examine the initial injury report for Friday night against the Raptors with updates on Giannis and Dame and take a look at some big games elsewhere in the East. Finally, we make an important announcement about next week’s shows…

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