Milwaukee Bucks have a big December ahead of them. They’re in the midst of playing six of their next eight games against teams with .500 or better records. As my podcast partner Mitch pointed out to me yesterday, this is old hat for Milwaukee as they’ve seen tough opponents all year. Last night marked the third meeting between Boston-Milwaukee in the first two months of the season. Celtics handed the Bucks another loss beating them 111-110 in a game where defense didn’t exist in the first half and too much reliance on Giannis.

Jason Kidd goes back to his old ways
You may have seen me rant about this on another blog post, but Jason Kidd had his defense blitzing again which is not good. Milwaukee went away from it against Sacramento and Portland then it somehow comes back to life against a better team. It made no sense. Not sure if Kidd outsmarted himself against Brad Stevens, or he thought the non-blitz defense was only a ‘once-in-awhile thing.’ We’ll see what Milwaukee does on Wednesday.

Giannis dropped 40 but received no help
Look, it’s great to have Giannis Antetokounmpo take over basketball games. He played like a man possessed in the third quarter to help Milwaukee cut a 20 point lead all the way down to seven. That said, Giannis cannot do it on his own. We’ve known that for awhile, and it felt like this was the first game with Eric Bledsoe where that became an issue again. Khris Middleton only shot the ball 11 times all night, and Eric Bledsoe had two shot attempts until late in the third quarter. That can’t happen regularly. The team needs to spread the offense more.

John Henson and Thon Maker are ghosts
For the first time in a long while, John Henson did virtually nothing in this game. He finished with 0 points and three rebounds in 21 minutes of work. Henson’s backup Thon Maker did not do well either going 0-for-4 and coming up with a goose egg as well. Henson needs to be more of a factor in the paint. He shot the ball six times but could not connect on any of those jumpers

Next up
Milwaukee heads back home for the start of a three-game homestand. They play Detroit in another December test. Like Boston, this will be the third meeting between the two teams already this season. It’s 1-1 as the Bucks controlled last game for the entirety even if it got close.