Bucks on the Back-to-Back Struggle Bus: Breaking Down Milwaukee’s Troubles and What’s Next

Bucks on the Back-to-Back Struggle Bus: Breaking Down Milwaukee’s Troubles and What’s Next

Backto back spite the Bucks again is the reason for concern. We dig into the numbers and what Giannis had to say coming up next on Locked on Bucks. You are Locked on Bucks, your daily Milwaukee Bucks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Welcome in to Locked On Bucks. My name is Justin Garcia, joined as always by Camille Davis. We thank you for making this your first listen of the day each and every day and for making Locked on Podcast Network the number one sports podcast network. Today’s episode of Locked On Bucks is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. So, we’re going to take a look ahead to what the Bucks have coming up this week. Camille and we mentioned on our most recent show we were going to do we’re we’re we’re we’re putting out a postgamer following every game this year and said we’ll talk to you tomorrow following the Lakers game and then the first half happened and uh you and I like are we doing this thankfully they showed some life in the second half of the game but there is a very disturbing trend with this team trend may be too early for three games but nonetheless The Bucks have been the opposite of good in backto backs so far this season. We teased Giannis had something to say about that. Um I have the numbers up in front of me. I don’t know if you’ve looked at any of these. No, not backtoback numbers. Okay, perfect. Uh they are one and two in the night two of a backtoback and I can’t even remember what the win was now. That’s what I was trying to think like cuz Toronto was the loss. They just lost to the Lakers, the other back to back before that. I’m like, what was the actual victory here for him? Well, you know what? There’s one easy way to solve this, Camille. And everybody’s kind of screaming at their computer or uh at at their phone right now saying, “How do you guys not remember it was this game?” We can just pull up the schedule and uh quickly look at this. I’m still Oh, the Mavericks game. Duh. Um Ah, yes. All right. So, how did how did that one slip through? But nonetheless, here’s why it slipped through. They have uh I’m going to choose my words carefully because of uh being somebody that works on the team broadcast, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It has not been good certainly on backtobacks. They have not been good in the month of November. And I think that’s an even more disturbing trend for this team. But since we brought up the backto backs, one and two and they have a defensive rating of 120.4 in those games, which is 24th in the league. They have an offensive rating. What would you guess their offensive rating is in 19? Well, I know generally it’s around that one. Well, at least before this Lakers game 115. Yeah, like 116 somewhere in there. So I’m going guess on second of a back to back I’m guess that’s going to tank some. I’m going to say like what 101 105 pretty close which is again 24th. So you’re 24th in offense 24th in defense 26th in net rating. Uh night two of a backto back. Uh the good news is based on your uh efficiency numbers here the expected win loss for the Bucks in night two of a backtoback is 0 and3. So, they have outkicked their coverage. But I it’s I mean, here’s the most perplexing part to all of it. This is a younger team, and I know you and I talked about it on shows earlier. I’ve talked about it with other people and and talked about it on the radio side, on that postgame show, in our game broadcasts. The thought was, well, we’re younger and more athletic, so things like this and the schedule stretch of five games in seven days, like that theoretically shouldn’t haunt you as much as it did with a team made up of your best players in their mid30s. And yet, here we are. Here we are. And I I wonder the why behind that. Like this is something I would love to have a conversation with like an NBA player, former or current, just like what is like the conditioning levels required? How do conditioning levels uh change throughout the season too? Because there’s a natural like okay, we’re playing the games, I’m getting into better shape because I’m I’m just doing it consistently. But that other end of it, which comes in with like the whole rest management conversation of like, all right, you’re also pushing your body. At what point do you need to kind of back up a little bit and give your body time to rec recover? And how does all of that play into the the schedule that NBA players tend to be on? Just out of general curiosity, because like you said, this is something that I wasn’t expecting uh from a younger Bugs team, at least younger guys in the the main rotation uh for this team here. Giannis looked like Giannis for the most part throughout this game. Um, so hearing him after the game talk about like we got to figure figure this out. Like conditioning, whatever it is, we have to we have to be ready for it. And what was the most disappointing part of the Lakers game for me is that the Lakers were also on the second night of backtoback. They had to travel to Milwaukee for their backtoback. Like yes, the Bucks had an overtime game the night before. So you had an extra 5 minutes of game time added onto your body, but you had the benefit of at least not having to travel for the upcoming game while the Lakers had to come into Milwaukee for that. So a little disappointed that the Lakers look like the fresher team um over the Bucks in this game for long stretches throughout. Um but it’s like how do you get better at that throughout the season? Is it just like you you got to continue to do it or is it something like in the off season now you have a better understanding you have to prepare because while it’s all the same faces on this Bucks team we’ve mentioned there are some guys in elevated roles that they weren’t in last season. So it’s like how are you taking care of your body uh in between games making sure you’re ready for the grind of backtobacks or you know uh six games and nine days or whatever the craziness the schedule throws at you. Um yeah I’ll take it a step further. I mean, the talking to their their radio team, they arrived in Milwaukee at about 3:00 a.m. after that game against the Pelicans. Uh, so same situation the Bucks faced for that dreadful game in Toronto. But, um, not only was it night two of a back-to-back for the Lakers, as you mentioned, and Luca played 40 minutes against the Pelicans the night prior, the Lakers are on the exact same stretch of schedule as the Bucks. This was their fifth game in seven days. and a majority of those are road games. Uh whereas, you know, the Bucks, I I think it’s been split home and road for the most part. So, there were absolutely no excuses for this one. And you mentioned the, you know, what goes into the conditioning for this. Doc brought that up, too, in his postgame comments. I mean, I can kind of see where Doc is coming from that you you you’ve seen and noticed the last couple of games just kind of uh I don’t want this to be misinterpreted, but Doc just kind of like over it with some of the questions with the responses he’s given like dating back to the free throw stuff when he’s asked about his team’s free throw shooting, which again is not good. Um and like, well, what do you want me to do, guys? Tell them, hey, we should try to make free throws. Like, that’s one thing. How do you want Doc Rivers to control what the Bucks are doing, shooting what, 69% on their free throws? Um, he was asked a couple of times prior to this Lakers game, the game before it too against the Hornets, I believe, when he was asked about some of the fouls being called and just like, “Hey, well, you’ve noticed this, like how much does that worry you with the Lakers?” It’s like, well, yeah, like we’re not magically going to be the only team that all of a sudden Luca Donuch is not getting any calls against. We just have to stop following. So, you’ve you’ve sensed kind of a a frustrated Doc Rivers of late with some of these questions. He did maintain before the Lakers game. You know, it’s very early in the season and this is small samples we’re talking about and these are things that happen throughout the season. So, as of this moment, I am not worried about it and I’m not making a big deal out of this stuff that I I think like going back to the Hornets game, he mentioned guys, night two of a backto-back. Last night was a cup game. We played in overtime. We played our guys heavy minutes. It was an uptempo game where the pace was fast. We asked a lot of guys. They were exhausted. I’m not reading too much into it. We just we just didn’t have it. But he did mention we don’t have the conditioning I guess where it needs to be for this early in the season and that’s something that you know we need to work on. Um there’s no letup though in this schedule. Like we talked about the five games in seven days. I mean now you finally get a bit of rest. So you you go to Cleveland for your game tonight and then you get two days off. So, you’re going to be back home in Milwaukee by, you know what, roughly midnight, 1:00 a.m. tonight or tomorrow morning, Tuesday morning. And then you don’t leave Milwaukee until the very next week, the day before the day before Thanksgiving, the 25th of November. So, that’s the good piece. There’s none of this back and forth throughout the rest of the week. You get two days off in between. And yeah, you got three days compressed in here, three games, but they’re all at home. But after those two days off, it goes right back into every other day in a backtoback. So again, the same type of schedule where we’re looking at I think in this case it’s five games in eight days. So it it becomes one of those things that every day is probably remember me saying this. I’m sure you remember me saying this where situations like this I go back to my thought of like okay are we are we giving reasons as to why something has happened or are we making excuses like what’s the difference between a reason and an excuse here um and it’s like you can point to it for sure they are tired they have just played a lot of games the cup game took a lot out of them for sure not disagreeing with that but this is part of the gig like this is also what you need to to be ready for it. You saw the schedule when everybody else saw the schedule in the offseason. You saw that you were going to have these stretches of games. You saw you were going to have these back toback. So like ultimately, regardless of the reason or excuse, whichever way you want to go with it, it has to improve. Like there there’s just no other way around. It’s not as if the Bucks are the only team having to deal with this, you know? So it’s like it’s early still in the season. So that part I I’ll give you of like, hey, sometimes you got to kind of get yourself into that game shape. I mean, we even heard from Cruz last year when he got traded to the team of like, hey, my conditioning isn’t quite where I need it to be from my role on this team, it was fine in Washington, but what they have me doing here in Milwaukee this year, I I got to kind of continue to get that together. So, the Bucks ultimately got to get that together because as you mentioned, like it’s not going to get easier and they’re not the only team going through this. So, got to figure it out if they want to try to stack wins because we’ve been in this holding pattern now for the last what, two weeks, month of November. Win, lose, win, lose, win, lose, win, lose, win, lose. Like, we got to start to stack some games. And you’re not going to be able to stack games if you can only play well when you have a rest advantage. Yeah. Um, dating back to October 30th, every other game, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, which good news, you keep that up. you’re you’re the Atlanta Hawks of the last handful of years and you’re at least not going to have a losing record. You’re probably going to be in the playin tournament if that’s the case. So, I mean, that’s the trade-off, too. As Giannis said, non-negotiables, like good teams don’t lose back-to-back games, and the Bucks said, “All right, bet, but we’re not going to win back-to- back games.” So, you’d like to see that improve. You need to see that improve. There’s some other numbers. We mentioned November has not been kind to the Bucks. So, we’ll dig into some of those numbers and a few other items with those backtoback efficiency numbers coming up next. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win, not just on game day, but every day. Locking in every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. 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Fast, easy, and stressfree. Use Game Time to grab some seats to this upcoming home stand Camille and I are going to get into and a chance to see the Cream City jerseys live and in person. What you see is what you pay. No hidden fees at checkout. If you’ve never been to F serve forum, you can use the feature too to see exactly what your view from the seat is going to look like. Maybe you say, “Surprise me.” Use their zone deals, you pick the section, game time picks the seats, and you end up saving big. All told, you can get into the building for under $25. Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That’s code locked on NBA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. And by the way, uh the the Cream City jerseys make their debut this Thursday, Camille, when the Bucks return home. I’m trying to deflect right now because it’s not a lot of fun. I’m just numbers that bad, huh? I’m just going to say this. Uh that I I believe I was talking to someone last night. I think there’s like six or seven games between now and the start of the calendar year that the Bucks are going to be wearing the Cream City jerseys. Um Philly is the first time we’ll see those Thursday when they return home. It’s going to be interesting because um that’ll be the the red of the Cream City jerseys. And the 76ers, do you know what they’re gonna be wearing that night? Are they gonna be wearing the black? Uh they’re wearing the black. That’s just gonna be like and just get the shades of Alan Iverson, Tyrone Hill, Eric Snow hitting long twos, and Aaron McKe doing what? Like, all right, let’s that’s that’s what we’re facing on Thursday. But I said we’re trying to deflect and now we’re just bringing back bad memories. Yeah. ghost of past Bucks heartbreak. Well, let’s lean into it then and and embrace the bad here is the Bucks mentioned those numbers not great offensively when you look at the four factors on night two of a backto-back. That’s the problem. Um they’re basically in the bottom five across the board. The offensive efficiency we mentioned is 24th. effective field goal percentage for a team that again has been number one for large stretches of this season. Number 21. Offensive rebounding rate. Why you bother mentioning it? They’re not doing it on rest or without, but they’re 24th there. Free throw rate, same story. They’re not getting to the line. 24th there. And to me, those are especially important on night two of a backto-back because it’s a way to slow down the game and score while you’re doing it. But they’re not getting that, right? um you know, last night’s game, where would you I don’t want to say place the blame, but like what was the bigger problem, the offense or the defense? Because we had this discussion during a couple of breaks of the game broadcast and you know, coming out of halftime, I just felt like your defense has to play better. Like I look, the offense sucked. It did. They they were what 24% at one point through the most of the second quarter. They finished the half shooting like 34% 34 points which I believe was the lowest scoring output for a half this year by any NBA team. Um yeah, offense wasn’t good. But to me, if you’re going to get back in this game, you got to hit some shots. Sure. Law of averages tells you you’re not going to continue to shoot this low. Like sometimes it’s something as simple as the halftime break of just like here’s that reset and it halts some of the m momentum for the Lakers and it just gives you a chance to kind of restart the game console and say let’s start this game over here. Um so I expected the offense to at least hit more shots. It wasn’t going to matter if you couldn’t slow them down and use your defense to create offense and get in transition. They were doing that in the third quarter and really in the fourth quarter for stretches too, but ultimately they just didn’t do enough of it. Yeah. I mean, to be very clear, both were a problem. Um, and I think for the Bucks team, I’m actually going to say the offense and only because the defense has been a problem like that. That’s been something November. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that that’s been something for this team where so far the formula to a win has been like, hey, the defense point. Yes. But the offense is going to be able to outscore whatever else is going on and that was not the case for the Bucks in this game. Like when you look at the first half stats alone for the Bucks when the Lakers pretty much were able to build up that big 31 point lead heading into halftime in which case I’ll also say this it feels like 30 point leads are the new 20 point leads cuz before 20 point leads felt like you can’t come back from 20. Like if you come back from 20 something miraculous happened but with the pace and the three ball like 20 point leads aren’t necessarily safe. How about a 30point lead in the Lakers showed? Just Yeah, just enough. That’s just enough for you. But in the first half for the Bucks, I’ve been complaining about the fact that, hey, we’re not getting enough threes. Like, shoot more threes. Shoot more threes. They shot 21 in the first half. They got them up. They only made four. They were good looks. Good looks. They just were not making the shots. And then outside of that, they couldn’t even hit the two-point shots. just overall field goal percentage they were 24% in the first half like you it’s just a hard hole to dig yourself out of like even with how hot they came out in the third quarter where you’re like okay hey they’re they’re cutting into run early in it and exactly it was it’s just it’s it’s hard that’s that’s a big hill to try to climb back up of after you dug yourself into a hole like that you often hear you know and we toss it around too it’s a make or miss league and I mean if you want that visualized. Look no further than Friday into Saturday when you shot what at one point you were in the 70s in your field goal percentage. You ended up I what were they 58% on? Yeah, against the Hornets. They were high 50s on threes and then you go to the very next night where you just could not buy a bucket for quality looks as well. Um just to wrap up the discussion on that the game itself it was there you know like we were commenting on it during the game as it’s happening you had opportunities against the Lakers and even in the buildup to it like second quarter I remember we looked at each other a couple of times I think we said it on the air a few times too and that man you are really fortunate right now that this is not a 25point margin that it was kind of hovering and sticking at 10 or 12 for large portions of the early half of the the second quarter because of the way you’re playing and what the Lakers are starting to build. Lucas starting to hit some tough shots like this could easily be 25 and then in the blink of an eye it’s 2531 at halftime in the second half though and and I think there’s a couple of big moments. I forget when it was in the second quarter, but you were down eight and it was in that period where you just kept hovering around like 12 or so. You get it to eight. AJ Green gets an open look, misses it. Yep. You hit that, it’s a five-point game. The game changes from there. In the third quarter, you go on that 15 to nothing run. kept knocking it down to like 16, 14, you got it down to 13 and then another missed three that could have got it to 10 where all of a sudden it goes from 31 to 10. It’s getting tight and it’s probably starting to feel like it did against Minnesota the year prior when it was what 24 that they erased. Uh but you just in those moments you had opportunities to make it interesting and you missed the shot. the Lakers went down and hit the shot on the other end. And more often than not, it was Luca just destroying you. So, there’s one other thing to point out about that performance, what we saw from Luca Donuch. But, I do want to take a look ahead to um this week ahead for the Bucks. We’ll get into that conversation coming up next. 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Um, you know, look, we have both and we’re not alone here and it’s been deserved. We have praised Kyle Kuzman for his play this season. Last night wasn’t it. Um, and Doc said for Cous specifically, he thought Cuz just didn’t have it because of last night specifically and because of the matchups that you’ve asked defensively Cous to take on this season. But, you know, the shots that were falling for Cuz where early in the season, we’d see it and think, I don’t know about this, but he gets it to go. They just weren’t falling last night. And you know, we talked about offense being married to your defense and vice versa and creating offense from your defense, etc. I I think Cuz just exemplified that last night where I thought to start the game it was good. The Bucks were pretty connected defensively. You kind of assumed Koozma was going to take on the Luca matchup and you’d save Ryan Rollins for for Austin Reeves and um structure things that way. And the first like I don’t know what 10 possessions it felt like all right, they’re connected. Luca hit a couple of tough shots, but it was what, like 10 to six or something and both sides coming up with defensive stops and then the well just turned off on the Bucks offense. And I thought that impacted Cuz as much as anyone that, you know, frustration can build in where you’re not scoring on these opportunities and you got to go down and know on the other end, you got to dig in and get a stop. and Luca just took over and kept hitting tough shots in the early going that led to foul trouble for Cuz it it just felt like there was no coming back from there. Yeah, it felt like his rhythm was just off in the game. Uh the frustration of the foul calls on him while trying to defend Luca. Luca’s a tough cover, especially because at times it can feel like if you cough on Luca there there’s a whistle being blown that way. So, like I can understand the frustration, but even just the usage of Koosma in this game felt far different than what we saw from Cuz in the starting lineup against Charlotte, where he was involved a lot more kind of like in these cutting actions, operating kind of from the middle of the court, uh, short rolls, just cutting and and really putting pressure on the defense in that way, not just corner sitting. And I felt like when this game started, it was a lot of corner sitting. And the Lakers were the Lakers know as well as anyone and said take it. Yeah. And that seemed that seemed to mentally impact him as well. Exactly. And I think so too. It’s like they weren’t able to generate some of the easy looks for CS that they did in the game against Charlotte. Instead, he was living and dying by the three. I mean, he only took six shots the entire night and five of them were threes. He didn’t make one of them. Um, even if they were they were wide open. And that’s a larger conversation around the whole can you play CS come playoff time because as we saw like teams will just ignore him and be like if he makes him he makes him if not we we don’t expect it. Um so that’s the aspect of his game and if you’re going to be using him in the starting lineup you have to I think it’s imperative that you are using him closer to the way that he was utilized against Charlotte where he is cutting and being very active. But again, second half back to back, did he just not have the legs in? But man, that’s that’s a lot of running. Like I’ve heard the jokes of players being like, I need you to cut here. And it’s like, no, you cut. I’m tired. You go and cut right now. 17 miles in this game. You know what I mean? So it’s like I got to figure it out. But I think for CS, it’s very important that the Bucks don’t let him just be a corner sitter. That’s not utilizing him the best offensively. Yeah, absolutely agree. Um, so yeah, it it wasn’t pretty. And the the backto-back numbers are not pretty like that. They you need to figure that out now. Um I would hope Camille this team is one and two on night two of a back-to-back so far. I would hope and I’m going to assume they at least get to two and two to close out the month of November because uh your next one is Thanksgiving weekend with the Brooklyn Nets coming to town. Now granted, it is after your final cup game which is going to be an allout game and um hopefully it’s the Bucks clinching their spot, but it’s the Brooklyn Nets. you need to win that game and start to stack some successes on night two of a backto-back. But here’s the other challenge. Like these backtobacks that the Bucks have had so far, it’s I’m not making excuses for it because again, as as we’ve just spent most of the show here for 30 minutes saying they have not been good, but look at the context of these back-to-back games as well. your first one after the emotional return to Indiana for Miles Turner and and the team. Then you fly into Toronto. We talked about the logistics of when you arrived, etc. The Raptors are not the type of team you want to play on the second night of a back-to-back either. Uh your next one after a dreaded afternoon game in a game that you frankly should have won against the Houston Rockets, then you go to Dallas and uh play the Mavericks the next day. You won that game as you should have. But then last night after a cup game and a cup game that goes to overtime against an uptempo team, your next one, as we mentioned, after a cup game on the road, after that, your next backtoback is after a game against Philly, you go to Detroit and play the Pistons. So, these are starting to be the types of games. Can can we just get more of like Brooklyn or um Washington on night two of a backtoback coming here to Milwaukee? Like that’s what we’re really striving for. But that’s the schedule you were dealt. So um you got to start to play better on night two of a backto-back um for the rest of the season. Now the numbers, you know, as a whole are not pretty. The Bucks have dropped into the mid tier in offensive efficiency. They’re still in the 20s in defensive efficiency. And I believe now for the first time this season they have a negative net rating which puts them 19th. And as we mentioned it doesn’t get any easier with the Cavs later on tonight and this stretch as a whole. I mentioned it on the radio post game. Starting with the Lakers um prior to the games played on Saturday. The Bucks had eight games to close out November. The first seven of those eight were against teams that had a collective 636 win percentage with the Lakers, the Cavs, uh we mentioned you got Philly for the first time, you got Detroit for the first time, then the week of Thanksgiving, Portland and what they’re doing, the Heat, the Knicks, and then you finally get the Brooklyn Nets. So, you are going to be tested here. My goal all along, go five and three in those final eight games. If you do that, you finish the month of November 13 and 8 for everything we we pointed to and said this has to improve. You at least built up a nice buffer that you can continue to work on that, but you feel good at that point. But it it’s got to start to turn around very very soon here. The good news, if we follow the every other model, you’re you’re winning in Cleveland against the Cavaliers in in the first time in what feels like forever. Finally beating the Cavs. Yeah. I mean, that’s the that’s the part of it where it’s like we’ve heard Giannis harp on like, hey, good teams don’t lose two in a row. Now, the second game up after a loss is against the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that didn’t have any success um against last season. Um lost in the close game to them this year. So, you get a chance for a little get back and I think we only played Cleveland three times this year instead of four. I think it’s four because I think you play your divisionals. That’s what I thought when I was looking. I’m all thrown off now, Camille, because even the the discussion over the the point differential, like I could have sworn it was the case and then I thought, h maybe not because I see other sites listing it and then you brought it up and I thought, wait, no. Well, I don’t know. It is in fact true that the congrats, you beat the Hornets by 13 in overtime, but none of it matters, just the win. So, yeah, everything is is thrown off. Yeah, and it is four times against Cleveland. So, hey, the second time up, hopefully can get a win and go from there. But I mean, you listed the opponents the Bucks have to end the month of November. And it’s not going to be any easy games until you get to that very last one against Brooklyn. And even still, it’s not going to be easy because it’s second back to back. Um, you’re traveling back home for it. But you got done playing the Knicks and that Miami game. Talk about pace. That game is going to be a a real test for the Bucks. So, they got to figure some things out. Uh, and hopefully they can they can end this month stronger than what they they’ve started it. All right, we didn’t get to some of the reserves play. I there’s some things to to tackle with that and how much the Bucks are missing one guy right now. So, we’ll we’ll start to get into those conversations coming up later in the week here. Preview in more detail those matchups with the 76ers and the Detroit Pistons that the Bucks have here. Um, I do want to say one other thing to Camille. Uh, I appreciate everybody that said you shaved your beard. Like, I mean that we’re we’re really playing fast and loose with the phrase of beard. Like, it’s just a heavy 5:00 shadow. But, I mean, the hair is still there. Still growing for now. I may have to I may have to cut it relatively soon because I I think there’s going to be some on camera stuff popping up. Besides, look, not to diminish this, but where I can’t wear a hat and need to look presentable. So, we’ve unfortunately probably reached an impass here. I’m probably going to have to cut it. So, let down a segment of the fans here, Justin. I know. I know. But hey, Camille, as we wrap, even though the Bucks are struggling, at least we got the Packers that surely will not let us down. Oh gosh. I hope they don’t. If they do, you might as well just close your Twitter app. Yo, don’t just just don’t go on if you’re a Packer fan. Just don’t go on it. Um if the if the Packers lose to the Giants, but find me on the Pack a Day uh YouTube page after the game regardless of what happens. Aaron, my my true my true feelings. Um look, it’s you can find Camille’s thoughts there and you can certainly uh for more extensive Packers content than I’m able to offer as a casual fan. I expect them to lose to the Giants. Oh, come on, Jess. We need to give him a highs. We got to have the good vibes. Xavier McKenna pick six. Put in the air. Uh Michael Parson sacks. Uh Jameus Winston interceptions. Throw all the throw it all out there for positive. This feels like a Jameus Winston game. I hope he’s going to eat a W. He’s going to give you three picks, but he’s going to throw four touchdowns and 400 yards. So I hope I’m wrong, but um yeah, we just need something to turn around here for all of the local teams for both the Bucks and the Packers. That’ll do it for today for Camille. I’m Justin. We’ll talk with you guys once again tomorrow on Locked on Bucks.

Milwaukee Bucks falter on back-to-backs, raising tough questions about their conditioning and rotation strategy. Can Giannis Antetokounmpo and a younger, more athletic roster turn the tide as the season heats up? The recent loss to the Lakers, who were also on a back-to-back stretch, highlights troubling trends in both offensive and defensive efficiency—especially with the Bucks posting bottom-five numbers in key categories.

Justin Garcia and Camille Davis dissect the Bucks’ inconsistent November, spotlighting Giannis’ leadership, Doc Rivers’ candid responses to the team’s struggles, and the impact of grueling schedule stretches on performance. Hot topics include Kyle Kuzma’s shifting role, Milwaukee’s struggles to stack wins, and looming showdowns with powerhouses like the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers. Will the Bucks break the win-loss cycle and rally before tough upcoming matchups? Get the inside scoop on Milwaukee’s quest to regain momentum.

00:00 Bucks Trends and Upcoming Week
05:16 Bucks Struggle with Conditioning Challenges
07:14 Doc Rivers Frustrated by Questions
10:46 No Excuses, Bucks Must Improve
18:41 Bucs Struggle Against Lakers
20:55 Missed Opportunities Define Lakers Game
28:54 Bucks’ Back-to-Back Struggles
29:58 Bucks’ Tough November Stretch

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