Bucks Buzz: November 21 - "Four Subs with Mayo"

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. 

Quick Recap:

Wednesday vs. Portland: The Bucks have been trotting out some sad, sad starting lineups for the past few games and that trend continued last night as they started Ridnour (over Wolters)/Mayo/Butler/Udoh/Pachulia for their game against Portland in front of a raucous BMO Harris Bradley Center crowd (obvious sarcasm). In reality, despite Wes Matthews returning to his motherland, it was a typical, early-season, Wednesday night crowd that one would expect for an apathetic fanbase against a Western conference paper tiger. They'll make me eat crow on that one, you watch.

Hence the title: "Four Subs with Mayo". These are four guys that should be coming off the bench for any team with any expectations save for SG OJ Mayo. Mayo actually tweaked ankle against Portland but said he'll be fine to go in Philly on Friday (he might then be called "light" Mayo or "low fat" Mayo). And you know what, we're going to have fun this season because of it.

As far as the game, the Bucks held on for a bit, having a good first half, going into the locker room with a two point deficit, only to fall apart in the third quarter. The Bucks ended up losing 91-82. That's their sixthi loss in a row to fall to 2-8 on the season. The Deer were led in scoring by Ridnour who had a whopping 13 points. Surprisingly, the Bucks weren't destroyed on the boards, which has been a problem all year but somehow, starting power forward Ekpe Udoh didn't record a rebound in 19 minutes. You'd think he'd fall into one in that amount of time.

Good news for the Bucks is that Caron Butler returned from missing a few days with a shoulder injury and Ersan Ilyasova returned from his ankle injury and played 22 minutes off the bench.

At the end of the day, Giannis Antetokounmpo didn't see the floor last night and let's be honest: No Giannis, no care. That's his third DNP of the season. He's the guy everyone wants to see, I've said it just about everyday since he arrived in Milwaukee. He's a charismatic young man that just wants to play basketball. Free him.

Appropriate YouTube video: "Tom Petty - Free Fallin'"




What to watch:

THE TANK IS (OSTENSIBLY) ON. That is until this team gets healthy finally...but who knows if that will ever happen? When and if this team gets healthy they may be able to win some games to hurt draft position and that's the opposite of what is good. Now, I know I come across as negative and I've taken some heat in my personal circles for being a "bad fan" by being genuinely more happy when the team loses but I just want what's best for my team in the long run. This fan base is no longer going to be fooled by Herb's "win now" mandate. This city is going to rally around this team as they barely win 25 games. No matter what, this team isn't going to compete for anything this year.

Appropriate YouTube video: "The Birth of a Tank"



Links:

This is a fairly new site called SAVEOURBUCKS.com. It's a very cryptic site. I don't think it's called 'Save Our Bucks' because the author is worried about them leaving town (well...perhaps) but more a coming to Jesus for this incompetent front office. It's a useful site because it breaks a lot of things down. It gives the problem(s) of this organization and offers solutions and lays out plenty of facts. Good stuff.

What's next?

The Bucks will go to Philadelphia to take on the lowly Sixers and then return home to take on the mediocre Bobcats on Saturday. These are two winnable games over the weekend. Let's see if they can get it done. If I were a betting man, I'd say they split these two games. Most likely a win over Philly and a loss to Charlotte on a back to back.