“This is starting to feel real.” Mitch, my podcast partner, texted that to me. I couldn’t help but agree with him. Milwaukee Bucks swept their back-to-back, and they’ve won 12 of their last 15 games. They’re 17-6 since early February. No one expected them to win this game. They were eight point underdogs according to Vegas and coming off a back-to-back, People expected nothing. Instead, Bucks led by The Prez aka Malcolm Brogdon carried this team to a 103-100 victory.

Player of the Game (Bucks): Malcolm Brogdon – As we said, The Prez was great. He made his case for why Brogdon deserved Rookie of the Year tonight. He had four of his nine assists in the final quarter, and Brogdon hit a hot with under four seconds with Avery Bradley hounded all over him. Brogdon is a stud and continues to play like the best healthy rookie. He carries this team down the stretch. The Virginia rookie has been one of the best in the league at fourth quarter and showed it thoroughly on Wednesday night.

(Not) Player of the Game (Bucks): Tony Snell – What a difference a night makes as Tony Snell had a tough game after a career-high against Charlotte. He only scored three points and made only one of his six shots on the night. Not going to pile too much on him though.

Player of the Game (Celtics): Isaiah Thomas – He didn’t do as much as he usually does in a close fourth quarter game, but Isaiah Thomas had one of his better games of late. He scored 32 points with five rebounds, four assists and three steals. It’s amazing Greg Monroe prevented him from getting a final shot off because I was certain overtime could happen with him getting a final look.

Positive: Road Warriors – Much was made about Bucks final stretch where they would play 12 of 17 on the road to finish the year. Milwaukee is 6-2 with more road games on deck. Bucks aren’t afraid of taking their act on the road. One thing that’s carrying this team on the road is it’s a different guy every night. Last night, it was Snell, tonight, Prez took the stage with Giannis and Khris Middleton still doing their usual thing.

Negative: Too many turnovers – Milwaukee is an up and down team when it comes to turnovers. It depends on the team they’re playing more than anything else. Tonight, with a steal happy bunch in Boston, they turned the ball over 16 times leading to Celtics converting with 22 points off turnovers.

Next up: Milwaukee faces Detroit at home on Friday night in what should be a rowdy crowd. A couple weeks ago, people would have seen this as fighting for a playoff spot, and now, Pistons appear to be out of things. Detroit will be coming off a back-to-back playing Brooklyn the night before. Last time around Milwaukee handled Pistons in the first game where we started to see things change for this team.

Charlie.