Tonight, Milwaukee begins a four-game West Coast road trip. It’s the first West Coast trip in awhile for Milwaukee. It’s a very important set of basketball games for Milwaukee. They are in a weird space right now when it comes to the NBA Playoff positioning. Keep winning basketball games and you probably get a date with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round. Good news is you get to keep your first round pick in a loaded 2018 NBA Draft. Bad news is you’ll probably get bounced in the first round again. If Milwaukee stays consistent, they get a beatable Boston team in Round 1 but might lose their draft pick. These four games will tell us a lot about where the Bucks’ postseason direction.

This is similar to the Bucks’ West Coast trip last year. Granted, the stakes were a little higher for Milwaukee fighting back into playoff position. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition to read that today compare it to 2018. Like I said last year, the goal is a .500 road trip, and anything better than that is house money. Tonight’s game will be telling for this team. They had a day off in Los Angeles which could be a good or bad thing, and they play a tired Clippers team just returning from an East Coast trip. This is one Milwaukee should have even if the Clips beat them last Wednesday. Milwaukee looked different on Sunday, and it will be interesting to see if that same team shows up in L.A.

Between you and me, Bucks could run the table on this trip. It’s very unrealistic but not impossible. Golden State is suddenly beatable with nobody healthy. They might get Klay Thompson back for the game versus Milwaukee, and if they add Draymond Green too, it becomes much tougher. Still, it’s not your older brother’s Golden State team currently. Lakers pose a threat, but they play zero defense with no real answer for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Nuggets are easily the hardest team on this trip. Milwaukee struggles to figure out how to guard Nikola Jokic who tears them up in the paint. That said, Denver’s defense has looked very shaky over the last few weeks.

Let’s all hope Milwaukee shows up tonight.

Charlie.