There is a saying in baseball that goes ‘2 out of 3 at home and .500 on the road and you’ll be a good team.’ That applies to basketball too. You don’t play a team three times in a row, but if you win, 66 percent of your home games and 50 percent of your road games, you’re likely going to be a pretty good team. That holds true for Milwaukee this season. They’ve won a dominating 81 percent of their home games this season and won 50 percent on the road. That results in the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and third-best in the league. Bucks have the same amount of losses as the East-leading Toronto Raptors. With four of next time on the road, Milwaukee needs to flex their muscles a bit.

What happened last week?
Bucks went 2-1 with both wins coming against lowly Cleveland. A part of me enjoys Milwaukee taking care of business against some of the bad teams in the league this month. Remember, they struggled with Phoenix and Chicago last month, and it appears that’s not as much of a thing as it in November. They handled Cleveland in both games. Indiana was a struggle, but the Pacers are scorching hot winning their last seven games. They’re now the three seed in the Eastern Conference and tied with the Bucks for the Central Division.

THIS WEEK
Monday: at Detroit – Bucks-Pistons get together for another matchup. Milwaukee dominated them at home two weeks ago, but the Pistons are a very good team at home. They notched a big win versus Boston on Saturday night breaking their long losing streak. Even though the teams are different, Detroit has been unkind to Milwaukee. Bucks have loss three straight at Detroit, and they’re 2-8 in their last 10 games at Detroit Rock City.

Wednesday vs. New Orleans – All this road talk and you forget the Bucks do have a home game against the Pelicans. Anthony Davis vs. Giannis is always a sight to see when these two go up against each other. Bucks looking for some belated payback after blowing a 20 point lead to the Pellies last year at home. New Orleans has been an awful road team this year, and they will be well-rested though having a few days off before this one.

Friday at Boston – Milwaukee returns to Beantown to play the Celtics for the second time this season. Celtics snapped their undefeated season earlier in the year. Sadly for the Bucks, Boston found their mojo again and they’ve won 8 of their last 9 games. Biggest game of the week because if the Bucks win, they have a shot at the season series victory in February. If they lose, Boston will own the tiebreaker.

Saturday at Miami – Ohh boy, this is probably the game I feel less confident about as a Bucks fan. This will be their fourth game in six nights. Third game in four plus a back-to-back. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some Bucks playing resting in this one. Miami is unpredictable this year, and they’ve been bad at home. Hassan Whiteside usually torments Milwaukee, but with Brook Lopez, hopefully that puts a stop to it.

WHAT TO WATCH?
Khris Middleton – Simply put, all eyes will be on Middleton. Bucks Twitter is turning its demonic-like head on Middleton and want him gone for some odd reason. He is in a slump, but I feel like Mike Budenholzer and staff need to do a better job of giving him easy bucket opportunities. Even if that means mid-range jumpers which I know all the smart people hate with a passion. Do something to get Middleton going a little bit more than the usual.

Bench support – When Milwaukee is cooking, they have the bench helping out with the scoring load. That isn’t the case last week. In the last four games, Milwaukee had only three players score 10 or more points off the bench. The high of those three where 12 by Sterling Brown on Monday night versus Cleveland. Milwaukee needs a little bit of support from their bench to be really successful.

As always, go Bucks.

Charlie.