Milwaukee Bucks won three straight against bad opponents this week. They beat Chicago and Detroit twice (Although is Chicago bad or a scrappy underdog team?). They faced a good Utah Jazz team on Friday night. Jazz were hungry for a week. They tried to rite the ship of a seven-game road trip that started out in disastrous fashion. They lost three straight games heading into this one. Utah was angry and they took out on the Milwaukee Bucks early and often. The Bucks gave up three-pointers early and often. They fall to Utah, 131-119 losing their fourth game of the season.

What went wrong: Bucks got no bench support – Part of me wants to be mad that the Bucks bench only scored six points. That they were wildly ineffective and part of the reason they lost. But the other part of me knows these guys wouldn’t get that much run in the postseason. If these Bucks are different, this is a loss that will happen from time to time. Still, they need to get a little more from someone in that second unit. Not having everyone hurts this team.

What also went wrong: The defense still isn’t there – Bud’s drop defense isn’t an easy concept to learn. I keep reflecting back to Donte DiVencenzo’s comments about how defensive concepts are going to take some time. Donte followed up by saying it might take 20-25 games. This doesn’t mean we should ignore defense during those games, but rather understand that there will be nights like this early on in the season. Jazz are a good offensive team, hungry for a win.

Player of the Game: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Honorable Mention: Khris Middleton

Next up: Bucks welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers to town this evening. The turnaround time is quick for Milwaukee in their first matchup against the team from The Land. Cleveland has not beat Milwaukee in a couple of years, but this is an improving Cavs team. Milwaukee will need to come out as aggressors in this one.

Charlie.