Milwaukee Bucks were due for a bad loss. I mean it had to happen, right? They went on a crazy hot streak where they won 14 games, and they had one stinker against a red-hot Golden State team middle of March. Even in that one, Bucks had a great first quarter. This was a complete and utter ass kicking by Oklahoma City. There’s nothing from this game where you take away and say ‘Well, this looked okay for Bucks.’ Nope, let’s just throw it in the trash and move on to Thursday night’s game as Bucks get a nice two-day breather to think about this abomination.

Player of the Game (Bucks): Giannis Antetokounmpo – I mean, it wasn’t a great game from Giannis, but the stat line looked pretty crazy for any game really with 11 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks in only 24 minutes of play. Antetokounmpo carried the team as no one else really wanted to play this evening in Oklahoma City.

(Not) Player of the Game: Mirza Teletovic – Mirza did not have his best game of the season shooting a woeful 2-of-9 from the field as Teletovic insisted on shooting the basketball tonight. He, along with other Bucks players, struggled from the field. He showed some flashes out West, but those have seemed to be just embers versus the resemblance of a bench spark.

Player of the Game (Thunder) Russell Westbrook – Bucks were one of the few teams that Russell Westbrook didn’t have a triple-double against and that changed on Tuesday night. Westbrook had a causal triple-double with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists on only 4-of-12 shooting. It’s crazy that a stat line like that is ‘just Russ’ then when he does what did versus Orlando, it’s RUSS. He’s my MVP after some consideration.

Positive: Beas got going again – If you want one takeaway from this one in the positive manner, Michael Beasley scored 14 points on five of eight shooting. Beasley is just coming back from a knee injury, and he could be a huge boost off Bucks bench for the playoff run if it happens (It will, trust me).

Negative: Defense starting to fade to winter months – If you look at the numbers during Bucks run in March, they weren’t mind-blowing. People wanted to give Jason Kidd ‘Coach of the Year’ honors which was stupid. Defense remained averaged, but Milwaukee’s offense plus their clutch-time numbers were elite balancing it out. The defense looked really bad the last two games. I’m not sure if it’s a Western Conference thing or what, but it hasn’t looked good. Hopefully, things change later this week.

Next up: Milwaukee meets with a Pacers team on Thursday night in an Eastern Conference showdown with playoff atmosphere oozing from it. Bucks are looking for their first season sweep of Indiana since 2010. These games haven’t been close with Milwaukee winning by double-figures in all three games this season.

Charlie.