Bucks Buzz: Monday November 11th

The Bucks Buzz is a bi-weekly SnoTap post featuring Charlie Tritschler and Mitch Pratt. Charlie writes the Monday post while Mitch handles Thursday. This could change, but they both bring a unique style to the post. 

Hot Recap Take
Saturday's game against Dallas featured many players going up against their former teams. Dallas had Monta Ellis and Samuel Dalembert while Milwaukee had Caron Butler and O.J. Mayo. Ellis heard some boos from the Milwaukee fanbase, but he got the last laugh as Mavericks won 91-83 in a solid performance from Dallas.

Themes were the same for Milwaukee in this one as they failed to get off to a fast start, and they had trouble scoring through most of the game minus a 17-4 run in the third quarter. Take away the first quarter, Milwaukee won the game by seven points. They cannot come into a game sleepy-eyed and expect to come back because they are not a good enough team to just turn it on a quarter later than the normal. Dallas came out firing and the Bucks were never able to climb the mountain back.


O.J. Mayo had another big performance scoring 28 points with six rebounds and two dimes. This is Mayo's second straight game with 28 points. Mayo whom improved his 3-point shooting at Dallas last year seems to be on his way again as he hit made four of seven from deep making him 10 of 14 in his last two games from outside. As of now, Mayo is the Bucks go-to scorer.  While Caron Butler had a nice statline of 19 points and 13 rebounds, I do not think him shooting 19 times is a part of the long-term plan for Milwaukee. It is nice though to see Mayo and Butler off to solid start for their Milwaukee's career.

Appropriate YouTube video: Monta Ellis Have it all - Monta had 18 points with most of it coming in the first half. Is it weird I hope Dallas makes the playoffs so we can see Monta in another playoff atmosphere getting death scores from Mark Cuban?



Larry Sanders... Sigh. 
I wish I had an answer for Larry Sanders. I am sure Mitch and I will talk about it in the podcast later this week yet Sanders is now out for six weeks with a torn thumb tendon. The injury happened during his off the court incident where he was accused of breaking a champagne bottle over someone's head. In the fracas, Sanders hurt his thumb. The team originally said it happened during the game against Toronto, but it occurred in the off-court incident. This is disappointing to say the least.

Sanders seemed like he would be the leader of this team. He seemed to be different than Brandon Jennings, the former face of the franchise. This is a guy whom genuinely loves Milwaukee, the city, and not many athletes are like that. It is hard to believe a fanbase that does not have a casual following will not get behind Sanders. They will see as the same old shit they have seen for the last couple of years. It is like a person getting into a new relationship thinking this significant other will be different than the ones before but in reality, he or she is completely the same after a couple months of dating.

Can Larry repair his image?  Yeah probably. The NBA is a long season. If Sanders ends up having a massive year, this will be a blip on the radar. But if he continues to struggle, people will bail ship on him because casual Bucks fans have the patience of an undisciplined first grader.

Also shoutout to Larry for making it a triple play of Wisconsin fans getting shit on for the year of 2013. First, it is the Ryan Braun suspension, then Aaron Rodgers gets hurt and now we have Larry Sanders fighting in the club like he's I-20 Really a #Blessed year for Wisconsin.  

Appropriate YouTube Video: Fightin' in the Club -I-20 


Carlos Del3ino's Milwaukee Return That Wasn't
Some of this offseason the Bucks tried to bring a band back together. No, it was not Led Zeppelin, it was a cover band for Zeppelin as they tried to reunite some of the Fear The Deer team with Luke Ridnour and Carlos Delfino. The Argetinian sharpshooter will not be playing this season as he will miss the year with the same foot injury he suffered last year in the NBA Playoffs.

This is not at the level of Sanders' injury, but it still bums you out because I have to think Houston knew about the severity and just did not care. They did not take of it and Bucks paid for it which is fantastic and a typical Milwaukee move to happen. Deflino will be back with Milwaukee next year as he signed for two years with a team option for a third year.

Appropriate YouTube Video: Leigh Ellis cannot stand Carlos Delfino - This is an old TBJ episode where Leigh rails against Delfino. He is the Aussie's least favorite player and it is strangely hilarious.

Links
Zaza Pachuilla wants to the Bucks old court - Mr. NOTHING EASY wants the current court the Bucks are playing on when they get done with it in a couple weeks. Zaza is hoping to put it in a gym in Georgia, his home country and the gym where he began to play basketball. (Grantland) 

This Bucks quiz is pretty difficult. I did not do as well as I thought I did. But then again, Mitch calls me a fringe Bucks fan anyways. (Brew Hoop) 

This is not really a link, just a recommendation to follow Andrew Gruman of FOX Sports Wisconsin. He does a great job with not only the Bucks, but other Wisconsin sports teams. Ideal follow.

What to Watch
Basically, how they figure out this team without Larry Sanders. They already played without him really as his minutes dwindled before his injury, but now he is completely gone. Hopefully, there will be more from John Henson. If Henson continues to develop into a starter, maybe Sanders being out will not be the worst thing in the world.

What's Next for Milwaukee
Milwaukee does the Florida Two Step. I realize this is what they usually call the trip to Texas, but I feel like they always do this two-day venture against Miami and Orlando. Weirdly, the Bucks have played these two teams back-to-back eight times in the last three years. The Bucks have only won two of those games.

Charlie.