After a tough Saturday night game where the Milwaukee Bucks were embarrassed by the Dallas Mavericks, Milwaukee had a chance to bounce back before heading out west with playing the Washington Wizards. This Wizards team is banged up with John Wall and Otto Potter Jr. having injuries, therefore, they were beatable. Marquette lacked effort and offense in this game letting the Wizards take advantage in what was a sloppy game overall. This is a bad loss for Milwaukee in a winnable home game.

Giannis is slumping a little bit
It’s time to talk about a Giannis slump here because it’s not been pretty in the last couple of games. In the last two games, Antetokounmpo is 15-for-41 with zero dunks. That’s not an encouraging sign for Milwaukee. Did Rick Carlisle discover something and Scott Brooks found a way to utilize it as well? He’s taking too many low percentage shots for him. Giannis needs to be a little better off the ball and his teammates need to recognize him more when he’s starting to roll a little bit. I’m not that worried with the teams upcoming – Phoenix, Utah, Sacramento and Portland.

What to make of Malcolm Brogdon’s minutes
Joe Prunty took over the head coaching role for Jason Kidd, who was out due to the birth of a new child, but we didn’t see much differences except for Malcolm Brogdon. He played only 18 minutes and scored zero points missing all four of his shots. Gary Payton II saw a bulk of his minutes, and while he showed some nice things, this puzzled me to say the least. Brogdon won the fucking Rookie of the Year last year, and he gives the team usual meaningful minutes. It’s not time to panic here either, but he really looked out of sorts with his lack of minutes.

Not taking advantage of transition buckets
Milwaukee had so many opportunities to make some quick buckets early in this game, and they couldn’t take advantage. Bucks missed five or six layups early on that would have gave them a halftime lead plus an advantage in this game. While Milwaukee’s effort sucked at times, Washington looked sloppy too and gave the Bucks some opportunities for quick points yet those never happened.

Khris Middleton needs to give a shit more early on
Is it okay to wonder about the effort of Khris Middleton? He looks so disinterested at the start of games. I don’t get it. He starts to cook in the second or third quarter. Is it outrageous to suggest him going to the bench and be the sixth man for the team? If they roll a lineup with Brogdon-Bledsoe with Middleton to the bench, it might not be the worst idea. The effort just isn’t there on a regular basis with Middleton, and it’s starting to be an issue.

Next up
Milwaukee heads out west to play Phoenix. This is an Eric Bledsoe revenge game plus a reunion with Greg Monroe. This could be a game to get the Bucks offense jump started a little bit with the Suns porous defense. Devin Booker has ate in this matchup in the last couple of years.