With four games left until the first season of the Scott Skiles era is over coach Skiles appears to want to make it clear that things will continue to be done his way. After a lethargic effort defensively and offensively in quarter two on Saturday Skiles pulled his favorite move out of his pocket: bench those not giving enough effort to satisfy.

Charlie Villanueva, Richard Jefferson and Ramon Sessions were the men who started half two on the bench. Skiles has been known throughout his career for being as hard as anyone on his guys and that held up Saturday. With the season having slipped away in the last few weeks perhaps this was Skiles letting his guys know that on his squads the players will play hard whether it is game one or game 81 and whether they are playing for playoff position or ping pong balls.

I once heard somewhere that the only thing a coach had at his expense to use for the purpose of teaching players lessons was playing time. This seems accurate. It may have been in David Shields “Black Planet”; largely about George Karl and the 1994-95 Sonics. Karl may have said that, I wish I could remember. Karl was constantly battling with Kendall Gill and used minutes as his weapon. Gill complained up and down about Karl. The next year Gill was gone and the Sonics gave the Jordan and Company a couple of games during the finals of the Greatest Season Ever from the Bulls.

What does this all mean with regard to the Bucks? Maybe nothing; maybe everything, we’ll see where we end up. Ultimately respect of your players is what matters. I think Skiles has that. But he always has that in year one. I’ll hold my judgement until the third and hopefully fourth year. By that time Skiles act has usually worn thin.

I’m banking on Skiles having learned from his past experiences though. Surely he won’t repeat his mistakes for a third time. Between that and the fact that most of the guys who are here now won’t be in three years, I’m really thinking that this whole Scott Skiles thing will have a positive ending.

April 8 vs. Atlanta (43-34)
The Hawks have taken a nice step forward this year. Think of how good they would be if they had an owner. If they had an owner they would probably have Josh Childress, who would fill in nicely over the likes of Mo Evans and Ronald Murray. Murray has been a pretty effective gunner this year. The Hawks might even advance to the second round of the playoffs this year. If Josh Smith can focus in and put it all together for a few weeks they could be a surprise team. The first round battle with Boston last year was the greatest thing that could have happened to this franchise. It seemed to have united them and given them a chip on their shoulder for this whole season. Too bad they don’t have an owner to guide them.

April 11 vs. Oklahoma City (21-54)
Kevin Durant is coming to Milwaukee. Kevin Durant is coming to Milwaukee. Kevin Durant is coming to Milwaukee. Kevin Durant is coming to Milwaukee. Kevin Durant is coming to Milwaukee. And they have Shaun Livingston This, my friends, is must-see TV.

“Who the hell is that dude with the crazy hair next to Bogut?”

That was my first reaction upon seeing last night’s game. I obviously hadn’t heard the big news. Sharpshooting Arizona guard Salim Stoudamire is a Buck. I love it. No, Salim isn’t going to make a huge impact and he might be a bit of a flake, but the man has a skill. There is always room at the end of the bench for players who have a skill.

Be it a defensive specialist, a free throw shooter to ice games, an athlete for energy or a great shooter, if you have one incredible talent you can make an impact.

If you don’t believe me watch Kyle Korver on the Jazz.

Stoudamire is a lights out shooter who has drifted around the league finding more problems with coaches than minutes with other players. Everyone deserves a clean slate though. The fact that the Bucks saw someone who had some talent out there and decided to take a shot is encouraging. Why waste the roster spots on the Eddie Gill’s of the world when you can take a look at a guy who could fill a specific role on a good team?

Yet another encouraging sign that John Hammond knows what he is doing.

The Joe Alexander Tour is what I’ve dubbed the rest of the season.

What is going on right now? I missed the start of the game and I tune in to see the Bucks up 11. It’s probably due to Joe Alexander. (Correction: It is not due to Alexander, but he just put in a nice dunk. RJ and the centers look like they’ve done well early.)

Pau Gasol’s beard makes me scratch my face. He looks like he smokes a pack of cigarettes while he’s at the club listening to techno. Not every European player has this feel, but he does. I love watching him play though, he has a Kukocian ability to make passing look fun.

Alexander is carrying himself with so much more certainty these days and it is paying off. He’s already hit a jumper and took it strong for a dunk.

DJ Mbenga has the biggest head in the NBA and if you don’t believe me get NBA 2K9 and look at his picture.

So far Milwaukee has had as much energy as they’ve had at any point in the last month. I have a hard time believing that they weren’t bringing it because they weren’t playing the Lakers or Celtics every night, I mean they’ve been in the thick of a playoff race all month. What is responsible for the sudden burst in energy the last two games?

Whatever it is that’s gotten into the Bucks it has gotten into them in a major way. Case in point: Charlie Villanueva just took a charge.

Kobe Bryant just held Luc Mbah a Moute’s arm blatantly in front of a ref – to the point both of them were looking at the ref wondering who would get the call – then caught the ball, traveled and hit a fall away jump shot. Fun.

It feels like the wheels are loosening. Seven straight from Odom and Kobe have the Lake show within three. It seems like the Bucks don’t have the necessary tools to get easy shots to continue to drop all game. Today they got off to a good start and were finishing but here we are in quarter two and some of the bunnies aren’t going down. Another question to think about: Is it a lack of talent or fatigue with a lack of depth that keeps them from consistency on the easy shots?

RJ just got fouled and they didn’t call it a shooting foul – despite the fact that it obviously was – and Skiles dropped two or three non-muffled F bombs for the cameras. He’s not afraid to voice his opinion.

57-55 in favor of the Green Guys after one half. I’ll take it. Kobe hasn’t missed yet by the way, 7-7.

Alexander with 11 first half minutes is especially pleasing. I haven’t seen anything out of him lately that makes me think he won’t be a serviceable plus NBA player; I’m thinking a Kerry Kittles type career. With that I’d be okay.

Gadz just picked up his first foul by walking onto the court at the 12:00 mark of the third quarter. He has four. Energy has been the theme in the past two games and Gadz plays a big role in the Bucks energy game. If he misses most of the second half it’ll be all bad for the Bucks.

Kobe finally misses and Gadz gets another dunk on the other end. I’m surprised Skiles has Gadz in there with four fouls. He’s usually an ardent subscriber to the foul trouble removal theory. I guess with Gadzuric he figures let him stay in there and foul out. After Gadz hits a jumper he attempts some sort of spinorama move and makes everyone cringe. To his credit he then runs the floor and gets a lay-up. That’s three straight shots out of Gadzilla.

Bucks pull back out to a six point lead after a breakaway lay-up for Ramon Sessions. Opening back up a mini-lead like that is nice after a battle right before halftime.

The Bucks aren’t giving away this lead easily; every time the Lakers crawl back the Bucks extend things back out to five or six. And I just realized Charlie Bell does not have a knee brace on today. Like no brace at all. Nada. How is that possible? He was wearing a bionic leg earlier this year! He does seem frisky on Kobe, maybe he’s feeling his best. By the time I finished typing that mini-paragraph the Lakers turned a three point deficit into a one point lead.

Elson went down off camera and no one can really say why he went down or what is wrong. Let’s hope the big man is okay.

Bucks are back ahead after a great cut and finish by Sessions and pass by Bell after Alexander did some bumbling. Sessions grabs a rebound before the quarter ends and he’s sitting at 14 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds. Bucks up 81-80 at the end of three.

Alexander starts the fourth with a three as I look up Kerry Kittles stats. Before I finish typing Kittles at basketballreference.com he puts up a near air ball on his next three point attempt. Oh well.

Kittles: 14 points and four rebounds per game. That seems about right, give or take a few points and rebounds. I think Alexander will be more active as a shot blocker and perhaps less with regard to steals.

Another charge taken by Charlie V. Milwaukee is fired up. Unfortunately Elson has been escorted to the locker room with what Jim is calling a knee injury. Gadz is in serious foul trouble and so is Charlie V., this could be trouble in the making.

Case in point: Mbah a Moute gets absolutely DUSTED on a spin by Gasol and then fouls him on his dunk. The Lake show is up one after the throw. Gasol takes it back in on the next possession this time against Villanueva resulting in another basket.

Ugh. Kobe gets a lay-up on an inbounds play and gets fouled for the three point play, Lakers are now up six.

Gasol is abusing everyone the Bucks put on him. Gadz came back in and stopped him once but he can only do so much against Gasol. Gasol has got a plethora of post moves and is trying to foul out Gadzuric ASAP.

Kobe takes care of it on a plus one to put the Lakers up 10 with just under four minutes to go. The Lakers have noticeably turned it up on the defensive end and look like they’ve got this one wrapped up.

John and Jim are ecstatic about Sessions triple double. As they should be.

No complaints here. The Bucks played their asses off and had a lead into the fourth quarter. Against a team as good as the Lakers that is all you can ask for at this point. Alexander looked good and bad at the same time usually. Sessions popped his triple double cherry and seems to have found at least some sort of happy medium between shooting jumpers and penetrating.