Game #66 Preview – Not Suitable for ANY Audience

Indiana Pacers @ Milwaukee Bucks
Sunday, March 14th
1:00 pm EST
Bradley Center
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In the midst wandering aimlessly around the internet yesterday, I came across this tweet:

Which apparently I can’t show you, because twitter is down right now.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s protesting the fact that those bastages stole an hour from us today.  I don’t know who “those bastages” are, but I hate ’em.  For approaching 40 years of my life, I never had to change the time on all the clocks in my house.  Now, I have to do it twice a year while some nimrod tells me it’s easier.  I love that almost as much as having to wait until midnight to set off fireworks on the Fourth so that it’s dark enough.

You do realize that the Pacers haven’t made the playoffs since we first started to have this bi-annual ritual of stupidity?  Coincidence?  I think not.

In any case, had I been able to quote the tweet, you wouldn’t have been subjected to the preceding, and you would have seen that neither the Pacers nor the Bucks were televising the game today.  The tweet also mentioned that the NBA had informed whoever had tweeted it (I don’t remember, it was a retweet from somebody I don’t follow) that this would be the last NBA game to be not televised.  I guess next year, they’ll change the rules to require that at least one of the two teams televise every game.

Of course, that does little good to the thousands of Bucks fans and dozens of Pacer fans who would like to watch today’s game on TV.  This happened to the Pacers one other time this season.  Neither the Pacers, nor the T-Puppies, elected to televise the January 8th game at Minnesota.  The NBA did a workaround on League Pass Broadband by streaming the arena’s closed circuit feed with the Minnesota radio broadcast as audio.  This was OK, as long as you don’t mind “Brick” graphics or Advertising while players are shooting Free Throws, or large portions of the game being viewed from roughly the same vantage point as the dust mop used by the ball boys.

I’m not sure if they’ll do this today, but if not, then you can listen to the best in the business, Mark & Slick, on 1070 the fan or over the internet by becoming an NBA All-Access Member (it’s free).

In any case, today’s game is an excellent opportunity for the Pacers to notch their 27th double digit loss of the season.  (As I typed that, I just realized that the Pacers have more double digit losses (26) than wins (21).  And the beat goes on…)  (Well, crap.  Now I have that gawdawful Sonny & Cher song stuck in my head.)  They’ve lost two close ones to the Bucks in Conseco, but fell by a dozen in Milwaukee at the end of February.

A month or so ago, everybody was looking at Charlotte as the surprise team in the East that no one would want to play in the playoffs.  Well, Charlotte stumbled out of the All Star break, and, despite their current five-game winning streak, have been surpassed by the Bucks as the Eastern Conference team on the rise.

Milwaukee is 11-2 since the All Star break.  More impressively, since dropping seven games below .500 on January 26th, they’ve won 17 of their 21 games to catapult themselves all the way up the the fifth seed.    The Bucks are 3rd in Defensive Rating, and 8th in Defensive eFG%, and 2nd in DefRB%, and the Pacers’ weaknesses will feed right into those items.

Andrew Bogut has pretty much destroyed the blue and gold this year, averaging 22 & 12 while shooting 70%.  O’Brien went small in the last game, and Bogut only got 15 and 10 (I guess that’s a little better), but the Pacers still lost.  I would expect to see Roy back in the starting lineup today, and McRoberts getting some burn off the bench.

At last notice, T.J. Ford was doubtful for today’s game.  I’d expect to see Earl Watson back in the starting lineup, with A.J. Price backing him up.  The last time the Pacers played in Milwaukee, A.J. Price got the start with Earl Watson out for personal reasons.  Price suffered a concussion in the game, and T.J. Ford came off the bench to score 20.  Then, much to the chagrin of Pacer fans everywhere, T.J. replaced A.J. in the rotation.  The over/under on number of times that Mark and Slick say that they wish they could see A.J. play more today is set at five.  I’d take the over.

Finally, when if the Pacers lose today, it will be the first time in 28 years that the Bucks have swept the Pacers in a season series.  Well, we’ve got that going for us.

A tale of two Brandon’s, as shown in their eyes.

Brandon Jennings – “OK, I’ve got ‘Sova in the corner, Andrew at the rim, or I can give you a shimmy and kill you with the pull up.  Pick your poison, Bunk.”

Brandon Rush – “Wait, this isn’t Tralfamadore!”