Sorry for getting this up late. Holiday season has kept me busy. Here are my 5 takeaways from our loss to MKE:

1. Unsurprisingly, Giannis put up another historic statline on us. As of late, whenever we’ve played Giannis he has absolutely COOKED us. I think last season he put up a career high 55 points when we played the Bucks in MIL. This wasn’t quite that bad but it wasn’t that far off as the Greek Freak had 42 points,13 boards, and 8 assists for his troubles. It seemed like he was going half speed out there for most of the game. When I saw he had 40 points in the fourth, I was honestly shocked, because it didn’t seem like he was cooking us that BAD, but guess he was. Not a single soul or combination of souls on this team that could guard that monster of a man. Gaff tried, Deni tried, and Kuz tried but they were too small and too weak for the Greek Freak. Post game, Giannis had EXTENSIVE praise for Bilal. It’s a great sign for the youngster from France to command praise from multiple superstars and coaches in the league already. I’m sure this hit particularly close to Giannis given Bilal’s close background to his of playing in Europe since he was a young kid and the similar frame and similar skillset. Anyhow, Giannis cooked your Wiz.
2. This was actually a close game until like the last 8 minutes. It was true that the Bucks didn’t seem like they were trying till the last 8 minutes, but the Wizards managed to keep it neck and neck till the Bucks kicked it into high gear. They even briefly took the lead about 5 minutes into the fourth courtesy of Kispy. This is the type of games that we love to see. The young guys fought as hard as they could, but they were just outclassed and outmuscled when it mattered in the clutch. These are the types of losses we want. The losses that saw our young guys be competitive and actually keep it fairly close. Not games where we blow 25 point leads. This is good tanking, this is the type of tanking that we want.
3. Box score watchers are going to say JP had a good game. He didn’t have a good game, he had an okay game and probably his best game of the season, but that isn’t a high bar given how shitty his other games have been thus far. He shot average from the field, and shot average from three. It took him 26 shots to get 30 points. This was the type of JP we expected coming into the season, but it has taken him 13 games to get here. Now the fact of the matter is, if he does this every night and gets 30 points, that’s okay. However, he has been unable to find that sort of consistency early on. As a matter of fact, one can say he has been anything but consistent in the early days of the season. He has been getting a lot of hate (and rightfully) for how shitty he’s been playing. A lot of lackadaiscal and idgaf type of play from Poole. This is his first “good” game and it wasn’t even good. Says a lot about the type of season he’s had. He still has ample time to turn it around, but he needs to get his shit together. It all starts with the mindset and mental approach to the game, and something tells me he hasn’t had that figured out. Anyhow, I hope to see some sort of consistency from JP going forward.
4. Kuz had 22 points and a career high 13 assists. He did a great job finding people in transition this game and being selfless. There were two goals from me for Kuz this season: find consistency in scoring and find other ways to contribute besides scoring. He’s sort of done the first one, and hasn’t done the second one consistently. He snags rebounds some games, he assists some games, he defends well other games. Would like to see him consistently shine in another area besides just putting up 20+, which everyone knows he can do. With his frame, skillset, and experience he should easily be capable of putting up big numbers in rebounds and assists. Either way, decent game from Kuz. Shot 10-15, and the Wiz should’ve gone to him more with how effective he was scoring the rock. He did a great job attacking Giannis, and the Bucks’ Wings. He was very effective against them, and should’ve kept attacking but decided to take a backseat for some reason.
5. Shoutout to Tyus. He had what was probably his best game since joining the Wiz. 18 points for the former Grizzly. Tyus has what is probably the best floater in the league. That thing is so damn consistent and so smoooth. For Tyus, it’s all about finding his stroke from deep, and once he does that, he’s going to consistently be able to put up 15 ppg no doubt. I think if he can start to find consistency with his shot and average 15 ppg, he will be a great trade piece for us. Bilal did Bilal things. 12 points on 5-7 shooting for the teenager from France. I find it astonishing how this kid always finds a way to contribute on such limited touches. He was a pest on defense tonight as well and had 2 steals to show for his effort. Bilal’s gotten to the point where every time he shoots a three I really expect it to go in. He’s shooting a blistering 47% from three, so it’s no surprise that I feel that way. I really want to see Bilal either get more shots from three, or start to get to the basket more. I’ve seen him go to the basket early on and he tries some fancy finish and he just misses. I want to see him experiment more around the rim and try to finish there. IF he can start scoring at a high level there as well, he’s going to be a problem right off the bat. Not great game for Deni, but hey that happens. The year’s all about consistency and hopefully that will come with time for Deni. Kispy had a solid game with 12 points, and found his groove cutting and getting to the rack even if his shot wasn’t falling.

This was a good game from the Wiz. They put forth a solid effort but were out gunned. Let’s see how they’ll do against a familiar opponent: the Charlotte Hornets. The series is 1-1 so let’s see if they will take the lead tonight. See y’all in a couple hours.