The Bucks have faced a pillow soft schedule thus far, fattening up on the dregs of the NBA. Bobcats, Grizzlies, Nets and Knicks are all no Spurs. They offer little in the ways of crisp ball movement. None of the teams the Bucks have been able to knock off has had a go-to guy like Tim Duncan. So a logical question to be raised after this particularly brutal defeat is, are the Bucks close to being as good as their record indicates?

Well, probably not. But I don’t think they’re as bad as this game would indicate either. They fall somewhere in the middle. It’s easy to panic now that they’ve lost a game on the road to a good team. It’s easy to look back and say the first 11 games were a mirage and the Bucks are as bad as everyone thought coming into the year. And it’s even easier to say Michael Redd is killing the Bucks and needs to be shipped out on the next flight out of Milwaukee. But those are all very reactionary responses. We knew this road trip would be difficult with Bogut and even moreso without him. Realistically, the Bucks ending this trip 1-3 is no disaster. 2-2 is terrific and 3-1 would be special. I just urge Bucks fans (and Brandon Jennings fans who’ve begun watching the Bucks) to remain calm and recognize this is only one game and the Bucks can learn from it. Not every team has Tim Duncan.

via Bucksketball.com – TrueHoop Network Milwaukee Bucks Blog.

Things are going to start settling in, now. We’re past the newborn part of the season and heading for December, when good teams that struggled early come to form and bad teams that started hot start to fade. The Bucks shouldn’t be looking for a 4th seed. They’re not contending for an Eastern title. Making the playoffs should be the goal. Well, that and finding anyone to take the corpse of Michael Redd off their hands.

They lost to a pissed-off Spurs team that’s tired of looking like ass, they were without Bogut, and Matt Bonner (!) had an amazing game. The best part about this? I can already hear Graydon doing what he did last season, talking himself into believing Matt Bonner is a quality NBA basketball player. “Matt Bonner can play defense and rebound!” is the new “Matt Bonner can shoot threes!” in the category of “Reasons Why Matt Bonner should get playing time that will inevitably end with someone destroying him in the playoffs making Spurs fans wonder why he sees the floor.”

But last night? Money.

Nothing to fear, Bucks fans. Grow, don’t bro.

That actually doesn’t make sense, I just wanted to rhyme.