• I come in a minute and a half late and the Bucks are already up 5…I like that.
• Another Jim Chones evening. I like Johnny Mac as much as anyone, but I’ve grown to like the dry assessments Chones has brought to the table.
• Ramon Sessions blows a wide open lay up and the Mavs hit a three on the other end. It seems like it always works out like that.
• Uh-oh Charlie V. is looking hot early.
• Jim Paschke refers to Charlie Bell as “kind of a Vinnie Johnson type lately” based on his recent work off the bench. Can any player put together a stretch whey they are scoring pretty well off the bench without being called a “microwave like Vinnie Johnson”? That may be the most used comparison in the NBA. I can only imagine how often it comes up in the local Detroit broadcasts when Rip Hamilton comes into games.
• A stop OR a bucket would be fine at this point. 16-0 run for Dallas right now. Coincidentally enough Marquette gave up that same run against Connecticut early tonight. That does not bode well for the Bucks.
• Chones on Antoine Wright’s technical foul: The refs don’t want to hear from you until you score 20 points more than once every six nights.
• Charlie V. is running risk of injuring his back this evening given the way he’s carrying the entire offensive burden thus far. Bucks 23 Charlie V. 19.
• Three techs in the first quarter on the Mavericks. What is going on? They got rung for one after Dirk was given an and one. I don’t remember the last time I saw that.
• Holy Villanueva. Bucks down 33-23 after the first quarter.
• Holy fouls. Mbah a Moute has three in five minutes.
• Poor Elson. He drops a nice pass from Charlie V. and then catches an earful about it. Seems like he gets yelled at more than anyone else on the team.
• Ramon Sessions and Luke Ridnour are in the game together and Sessions is taking the role of primary ball handler. ALL HAIL SCOTT SKILES.
• The Bucks are effectively using Charlie Bell with the point guards. I don’t know if this is the key to future success, but I’m feeling it right now.
• When Dallas is throwing three athletic guards/wings out there like Kidd, Antoine Wright and Josh Howard, that puts the Bucks at quite a disadvantage. Especially when Ridnour and Sessions are out there together. They just don’t have the size/athleticism to match up.
• Maybe a little defense fellas? 59-41 Dallas. Skiles looks like he’s about to strangle someone.
• Bucks down 65-41 at half. Yikes. Charlie V. was held scoreless in the second quarter, so much for that bright spot.
• Dallas is getting to all the loose balls and showing all the effort in this one. They were flat against a beat up San Antonio team yesterday, so this type of effort was to be expected from them. Hopefully the Bucks will follow suit on Friday in New Orleans.
• Luc Mbah a Moute is the only Buck starter with a positive plus minus right now. I don’t know if that is due to his defense or his inability to stay on the court today.
• Charlie V. gets back on the scoreboard in a big way with a Chris Webberesque dunk.
• Little is being done by Milwaukee to curtail any penetration – off pick and rolls or otherwise – by Dallas. This is leading to open jump shots off kick outs and easy dishes for lay-ups.
• The Bucks have trotted out a defense that has finally led to some confusion at the least for Dallas. Zone up top with match-ups in the back. It’s been more effective than it sounds, at least until Josh Howard hits a three with 11 seconds left in the quarter. It was contested though.
• Jim Chones plea for the Bucks to cut the deficit to 10 by the beginning of the fourth quarter will go unanswered. He’ll have to settle for 17. 90-73 Dallas.
• Keith Bogans is doing his best to make me regret making him a reason the Bucks will make the playoffs. He gets stripped of a rebound and then loses his dribble out of bounds on a spin move on the next possession.
• Three-pointer from Charlie Bell in the corner. Uh-oh. Gap is closed to 11.
• James Singleton does everything but stick a knife in Charlie V’s back and does not get called as Dirk grabs an offensive rebound.
• Back to back lay ups for Kidd and a fall away jumper by Dirk sandwiched around a Bucks timeout push the lead back to 17.
• Make that 22. Now an 11-0 run.
• Eddie Gill is in. That’s my cue to exit.

There is a bit of a brouhaha brewing in Brewtown. (How about all those Brew noises I just made your mind say.) I noticed this on a JSOnline thread. Apparently the Bucks are not happy with former Buck Gary Payton, who is now working on NBA TV doing a show with Ahmad Rashad and Chris Webber.

He has received his share of text messages from players after his dressings down, and teams, most notably the Milwaukee Bucks, called the league to complain about Payton’s assessment of Ridnour. Still, his on-air chemistry with former All-Star Chris Webber and host Ahmad Rashad is improving.

This seems a bit silly. I don’t know exactly what GP has been saying about Ridnour, but I bet it’s been hilarious. Is there anyone that hasn’t been roughing up Luke this year? I can’t recall one thing I’ve read this year that has said he is deserving of holding his starting spot over Ramon Sessions. Maybe GP just misses Milwaukee and is jealous of Ridnour…probably not though.

What’s unfair though is that Ridnour has actually done a pretty good job. Just not as good as Sessions. That’s awfully nice of the Bucks to come to his aid. I’m guessing Ridnour either doesn’t watch or doesn’t care what GP has to say if the article claims the Bucks and not Ridnour contacted him. Knowing what I know of Gary Payton I’m sure these spats only fuel his fire.

I’ve found a clip of GP that I feel is a pretty good demonstration that he’s doing a great job. If you watch Chris Webber he certainly thinks Payton is worth watching. Skip to about the one minute mark to really see things take off.

Tell me that man is not hilarious. If anyone knows what the apparent riff is over I’d love it if you’d drop a comment about it.

Almost to the day a month ago I did my best to break down the Eastern Conference playoff race. I was looking for a term to describe it when the comments section did it’s best and I was rewarded with “flaccid sword fight”. Thanks to “Cookies” for that one. Well the fight has changed a bit so I thought it may be a good time to rehash the Bucks chances going forward. Since I’m still firmly entrenched in the position that the Bucks will be in the tournament I thought I’d give my top five reasons why they will make it.

(And as long as we’re here I’ll take a moment to gloat about the success of my previous playoff picks. I slotted Milwaukee into 7th just ahead of Philadelphia with New York, Chicago, New Jersey and Charlotte missing out. Currently Philadelphia sits in 7th ahead of Milwaukee with the aforementioned teams missing out. I had New York and Chicago flipped, same with Milwaukee and Philly. Pretty well done. Of course I’ve also announced the death of the 2008-2009 Milwaukee Bucks 38 times, but we’ll forget about that for now.)

5. Keith Bogans
Huh? I know, I know. Keith Bogans is a relative nobody in terms of the NBA. He’s a journeyman, semi-three point specialist and semi-good defender. But Luc Mbah a Moute is wearing down. He’s still doing his best to bring his usual hounding defense, but the rookie wall has robbed him of virtually any offensive game. For the first few months of the season Mbah a Moute was shooting roughly 45% from the field and 77% from the line. As they say in golf, that’ll play. Since February began and minutes have begun to add up a bit, Mbah has shot 38% from the field and an even more frustrating 48% from the line. Bogans is a veteran and very fresh from the few minutes he was getting in Orlando and should be able to take a lot of pressure of Mbah. Bogans hasn’t shot the lights out from the field but the man hasn’t missed a free throw as a Buck yet! 15-15. I’d count on his shot coming around before Mbah.

4. Three Point Shooting
When Michael Redd went down one of the most significant things it was assumed he would take with him was any scoring behind the arc the Bucks had. Charlie Bell is an okay shooter, but simply wouldn’t be effective enough doing everything else to take a lot of minutes behind Redd. Charlie V. and RJ have never been known as outside shooters so it seemed like a long shot that they would be of great help here. Well they’ve been of great help. Did they have some quick Lasik done or something? What has gotten into these dudes? Before this year Charlie Villanueva was a 32% shooter from behind the arc. In the last two months he’s shot 43%! He hit SEVEN on Sunday! I feel like I’m watching Tim Thomas from the 2000-2001 season. If I see a newspaper headline in July that says the Notorious C.H.A.R.L.I.E. with him signing a 60 million dollar contract I’m going to faint. Jefferson has been even better than Charlie V. in February, shooting a scintillating 58%. I haven’t even been able to throw hatred at RJ lately – he’s just been too solid. They’ve certainly been getting a lot more good looks, which brings me to my next point…

3. Ramon Sessions
I don’t want to beat a dead horse here…but have I mentioned that I think pretty highly of this guy? Is it a coincidence that the Bucks have averaged over 112 points per game since he’s taken the reigns as the starting point guard? I’m not the only one who thinks this guy is pretty good. Here’s an excerpt from a John Hollinger chat on ESPN.com on February 12th.

Jeremy (Milwaukee, WI): Does anyone outside of Milwaukee even know who Ramon Sessions is?
SportsNation John Hollinger: No, but they’re going to find out pretty darn fast. It’s criminal that he was left off the sophomores’ roster for the rookie game, and it’s equally perplexing that the Bucks kept him behind Luke Ridnour for half a season. I continue to be extremely impressed by what I’ve seen from him.

I’ve wrote thousands of words about Sessions already, so I’ll refrain from my usual Sessions poetry, but the man is for real. It’ll be fun to see him against Chris Paul this week. Not on ESPN though. Jerks.

2. Scott Skiles
Here is one hope I have for the rest of the season from Coach Skiles: Please do not play Ramon Sessions at the two guard any more. If you’re going to insist on playing Ridnour and he together, just put Ridnour at the two. It makes a lot more sense. Ridnour is a much better mid range shooter and has some three point skill. Sessions ENTIRE game is based on penetration. All he’ll serve to do at the two is clog it up. There is statistical evidence that Sessions has no business playing the two. I’m confident Skiles knows this and will change things. I’m so encouraged that he has left Ridnour behind Sessions on the depth chart that I’m willing to believe he’ll either stop playing them together or will play Ridnour off the ball. Prove me right coach.

1. Andrew Bogut
Bogut has been in and out of the lineup so many times this year that betting on him making a return is a risk. But If this season was a movie I feel like Bogut is the character who comes back in the end to save everyone. He is Red in Pineapple Express. You keep thinking he is dead and gone, but no, there he is jumping in to save Saul. Saul would be Francisco Elson. Elson always has this goofy stoner look on his face. Speaking of goofy, I never really said anything about it, but Andrew Bogut must have lost a bet or something a few weeks ago, because he had the most ridiculous looking white suit of all time on. I found a picture of it at RealGM.com. Words can’t explain. Anyway, if Bogut comes back with everyone else firing on all cylinders like they are now, that makes the Bucks a for real serious playoff team. Think if only he were manning the middle right now and not Elsonzuric. They wouldn’t even need to feed him in the post and he’d still get 16 and 10 a game with the tempo right now. He would feast on rebounds and put backs from Sessions penetrations. I’m holding out hope for an April stretch run comeback on the big man. And if that happens I’ll be seeing much more April basketball than I expected in November.

I’m outraged.

ESPN takes a pass on Bucks-Hornets.

Sometimes it really sucks to live in Milwaukee.

Detroit is playing some of the worst basketball in the league right now and ESPN has decided to reward them with yet another nationally televised game. I can’t help but recall when the Knicks began their descent into the depths of the cellar of the Eastern Conference, only TNT and ESPN refused to take them off the air, because they were from New York.

I know that market size and all that fun stuff usually outweighs good basketball games when national networks are deciding who they want on, but it still stings. No one who really loves the NBA would rather see Orlando v. Detroit over New Orleans v. Milwaukee. Orlando is a fun team to watch, with their peculiar blend of hard nosed defense and love for the three point shot, but Chris Paul against Ramon Sessions is like a battle between the best point guard in the league and the best point guard no one knows about. The Bucks have been putting up well over 100 points for almost three weeks now! This is exactly why no one knows who Ramon Sessions is! Exclamation point!

This could serve as motivation if the Bucks are pissed about this.

I know I am.

I picked a helluva weekend to go out of town.

Friday and Sunday will probably go down as two of the most eventful Bucks games of the year. First, Lebron James puts his hit man gloves on and methodically destroys the Bucks to the tune of 55-9. I caught most of the 4th quarter of this one after receiving 300 text messages letting me know that Lebron had put his Dell Curry hat on for the night and even though the Bucks lost, I saw something I liked.

Now, I know it sucked that Charlie V. got himself booted. The Bucks were within three and may have had enough left in the tank to make a run, so timing really wasn’t great for a flagrant two, though I’ll say that kicking him out was extremely harsh. It did not appear malicious when Charlie V. took down Anderson Varejao and if anyone escalated the situation it was Zyndrunas Illgauskas. But I really liked the way the Bucks stood together during the mini melee, particularly Luke Ridnour. Milwaukee as currently constructed is not known for being a team of tough guys, but none of them were afraid to get their noses in there and stand up to the Cavs. I feel like this will serve them well in the future.

Second, the Bucks played the always rare Sunday game, which I don’t love because those games are rarely on television unless they make it to ABC, which the Bucks rarely do. Sunday games can be tricky. Players aren’t used to playing on Sunday and they are used to going out Saturday night I’m sure. From the recap I read of Sunday’s game at Brewhoop it sounds like it was a slopfest. That sounds like a typical Sunday game, even though this one had the slightly later 4:00 start time. Players bodies are not in the routine to do well at early hours like that, especially if they are only playing four or five games in that time slot all year. Any win over a team as good as the Nuggets is impressive and it’s always wonderful to see Charlie V. and Ramon Sessions up to their ways. The Sessions Ridnour minutes battle will be interesting to watch the rest of this year. Sessions only played 22 minutes against the Cavs, but was back up in the 40’s against Denver. As I’ve said before, handling this will be a true test of Skiles coaching acumen. Without further ado…

February 25th @ Dallas (33-22)
Dallas has rebounded pretty nicely after a pretty bad start to the year. My favorite thing about Dallas is the way Mark Cuban denies that trading Devin Harris AND TWO first round picks for Jason Kidd was a mistake. He can’t really say it was a mistake with Jason Kidd still being his starting point guard and all, but making up new statistics to help your case can’t hurt. The Bucks always have a difficult time defending the three point shot, I feel like this may be a problem on Wednesday. The Mavs don’t shoot a ton of threes and don’t make a ton either, but they certainly have guys who can get hot out there. Historically the Bucks have played well against Dallas though and Jason Terry will still be out, so if the Bucks are going to win either of their Western Conference road games this week, I think this would be the one to take down.

February 27th @ New Orleans (32-22)
Milwaukee will close out it’s Western Conference road schedule for the year against New Orleans on Friday. This is a big game for Milwaukee because….wait for it….IT’S ON NATIONAL TELEVISION!! THE BUCKS ARE ON ESPN!!! Kind of a strange game for the Bucks to make their national tv debut, I guess Chris Paul is a strong enough player to carry the whole tv audience, but we’ll take what we can get. I’ve said time and time again, the Hornets aren’t very good. Their front court without a healthy or motivated Tyson Chandler is possibly worse than Milwaukee’s without Andrew Bogut. After the James Posey deal, the most significant free agent signing the Hornets made this off season was for Sean Marks. If you’re addressing your big man needs by signing a guy who has never played in 30 games in an NBA season, due to ineffectiveness not injury, then you’re probably in trouble. Regardless of how bad their big men are, Chris Paul keeps them afloat and relevant.

February 28th vs. Washington (13-43)
What happened to Ernie Grunfeld? I was genuinely upset when he left Milwaukee, I thought he was a pretty good GM. When he first got to Washington it seemed like he was making sound moves that made a lot of sense for that team. And then it all went to hell. Now he’s throwing huge dollars at his own guys and overvaluing their worth. I just don’t know when he became Larry Harris. I really thought he was going to move Antawn Jamison at the trade deadline. What are they waiting for? The Wizards need to scrap everything and start rebuilding around Gilbert Arenas and Javale McGee. McGee because he has crazy potential and Arenas because they absolutely have to since they threw all of their money and more at him, even though he stole Charlie Bell’s knee and made it worse.