It's very early in the season, so it's hard to say any game is must win at this point, but this is close to that. The Jazz come in at 1-6. The Bucks have been off since Monday evening and Giannis is still listed as questionable, but even if he (and of course Middleton) are out, this is still a game you have to win. The Bucks next two games after this are at the Knicks and against the Celtics, so if they don't win this they could very well be 1-9 soon.
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Never thought they would be worse than this seasons Badgers but it is shaping up that way.
Jackson Jr. starting. Jazz hit some threes to start, but his defensive intensity out there is Holiday-like. Bucks up 13-9. Probably half this message board can shoot better from outside than Jackson, but he does almost everything else well.
Bucks only lead by 2 after one as they let the Jazz get some open 3s and a foul on a 3 point shot with 0.3 seconds left by Lopez.
Jazz go 7 for 16 from three in the quarter. Many open shots against Lopez in drop coverage.
Bucks now trail in the second quarter.
Bucks now down 42-35. They've completely collapsed after a very good start.
Jazz 9-18 from 3
Of course they are
The three immutable truths of the universe:
We will pay taxes.
We will die.
Every team will have their best shooting night evah from downtown against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Bucks still trail. Jazz are 11 for 22 from three
At the half, the Bucks trail one of the (other) worst teams in the league at home. Jazz up 61-57 as they go 14 for 26 from three. Lopez and Portis are just being hunted on switches for three point shots by wings. Over and over.
Also, the Bucks bench has reverted back to being terrible again. Green is 2 for 3 from three, but the rest of the bench is 3 for 11. Connaughton got pulled quick after he was -10 in 6 minutes.
Giannis just picked up his 4th foul with 22 minutes left. Not good.
Bucks up 11 going to the 4th. Giannis and Dame combine for 22 in the third.
Cruised to a nice easy win. Needed that with a back to back tomorrow in New York
We will see how competitive the Bucks are in these next two game (at the Knicks, and home vs. the Celtics), but it's very clear that Andre Jackson Jr. and AJ Green need to play more minutes. Even Ryan Rollins probably needs more. Rollins came in for 10 seconds of non-garbage time at the end of the third. Jackson Jr. had 4 fouls and Doc took him out to prevent him picking up his 5th (Giannis was out for the same reason). The Jazz gave the ball to Clarkson who had been torching the Bucks in the first half and isolated him against Rollins. Rollins played perfect defense and stole the ball, preventing Clarkson from even getting off a shot.
If the Bucks are going to struggle to win games anyway, they might as well play the young guys and see if they can improve even more. Giannis and Dame seem to be improving in terms of playing with each other (instead of just having one of them go iso and the other one stand on the other side of the court) and have both been playing at an all-star level. Trent Jr., Prince, Connaughton, need to lose some minutes to these other guys. The sight of Jackson Jr. playing tough defense reminded me of Holiday or Bledsoe.
