Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 11-14

(Likely) Inactives: Dan Gadzuric, Joe Alexander and Roko Ukic

at

Indiana Pacers (Jim O’Brien) 9-16

(Likely) Inactives: Travis Diener, Jeff Foster and Danny Granger

Date: 12/21/2009

Time: 6:00 (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. T.J. Ford

I get that Brandon Jennings can occasionally frustrate Bucks fans.  He’s struggled recently and sometimes puts up a lot of shots.  In the box scores it’s not always so pretty.  So the next time you find yourself complaining about something Brandon Jennings has done, mosey on over to Basketball-Reference.com and look at T.J. Ford’s page.  T.J. Ford is 1-25 on three’s.  His assist percentage is lower and turnover percentage is higher than Jennings’.  And this is just who Ford is as a player.  He isn’t likely getting any better, we now can feel comfortable expecting this out of him.  Ford is one of many great examples of players Brandon Jennings is better than, despite being significantly younger.  So next time you’re in panic mode, just go check him out and realize the Bucks could be in worse shape.

Advantage: Bucks Read more…

Recap/Box Score

(Note: Sorry about the lack of a game preview and slow to arrive recap of the Kings game.  It’s the holidays, friends are in town, things are going on, I’ll try to see to it that this doesn’t happen again.  The Kings game was the first game I was unable to make it to, and naturally it wasn’t on TV either, so it’s hard for me to be exceptionally thorough about this one.)

• Another night, another last second loss.  This type of thing is becoming as common as flying and dribbling for the Milwaukee Bucks of 2009-10.  After a particularly gut-wrenching home loss to the Sacramento Kings Saturday night, I’m left with a number of questions.

• Why can’t the Bucks win close games?

• Why do other teams get good looks in important spots and the Bucks are left to flail contested impossible heaves?

• How could Andrew Bogut ever go 6-20?

• Has anyone ever before seen such violent swings in minutes as in the case of Charlie Bell?  His four minutes Saturday come after 32 and 27 in the previous two, which followed two DNP-CD’s.

• And speaking of Bell, it comes to my attention that he was on the court for the very final play of the game.  On offense.  Which may be a little more difficult to succeed at after not having played for a while.  He came back in, after having played four minutes all night.  Didn’t Luc Richard Mbah a Moute not come in against the Lakers because he hadn’t been playing?  Didn’t that happen!?  DIDN’T IT!?  Sigh.

• Will Michael Redd ever again hit two free throws in a row?

• Why can’t Redd hit free throws?

• Did Brandon Jennings and  Bogut combine to miss their last 13 shots?  Is this an accurate figure?  I counted twice.  What are the odds of that?  50-1? 100-1?  5-1?

• After a rough two games at the office, has Luke Ridnour finally come back down to Earth?

• In games LRMAM plays at least 30 minutes, the Bucks are now 4-2.  In games he plays less the Bucks are 3-7.  Has he proven he needs over 30 minutes a night yet?

• Now that the Bucks are healthy, is there any hope for a semblance of a rotation emerging?  Kurt Thomas has appeared to grab hold of backup center minutes, Hakim Warrick is entrenched as the backup power forward and Ridnour at point, but when will a rotation work itself out amongst the swingmen?

• And if a rotation is established, will Jodie Meeks be facing the D-League?  He had a nice line against the Kings, five points two assists and two steals in nine minutes, but doesn’t Redd squeeze him out?

• When the Bucks staff watched Jason Thompson, were they thinking, “This is exactly the guy we need here,”?  Because they should have been.

• Isn’t Tyreke Evans the other piece the Bucks need?  But I’d love him to be playing NEXT to Brandon Jennings, not instead of him.  Evans is a helluva wing player, but this point guard thing will never makes sense to me.  In the last few minutes, sure.  Then just give him the ball and let him make a play, but I’d rather have Jennings running my team for the first 45 minutes.

Lots more questions than answers at this point for the Milwaukee Bucks.  But when a team is trying to reincorporate it’s ex-star with it’s new stars, it’s not easy.  Yes, Redd’s been struggling the last two games after one  nice game, but it’s all just a work in progress.  Give Milwaukee at least ten games with Redd before panic is allowed to set it.  As long as the Bucks keep games close, they’re bound to win a few more of these last second games.  I refuse to panic until after ten games of Redd’s return or a dip down to five games below .500.

I guess this is the life of a jump-shooting team that plays better than average defense.  If you’re looking for someone that can hang around against the best teams, the Bucks are the squad for you.  If you’re looking for someone that can actually beat those teams?  Well you might want to keep looking, because game after game the Bucks continue to fall justshort.

And to be honest, I don’t even know how they kept this one close.  Typically it hurts the Bucks quite a bit when Brandon Jennings doesn’t have it going, but they’ve at least been capable of surviving thanks to the strong play this year of Luke Ridnour.  But neither of them had it going Friday.  Jennings could have built a small town house after his 5-21 effort (though the 7-7 contribution from the line was a nice change of pace), and Ridnour looked passive and ineffective in going 0-3 in 17 minutes.

Furthermore, Andrew Bogut battled foul trouble all night long and was limited to just 17 minutes.  The minutes limited his effectiveness, but even when he was in there it wasn’t the usual Bogut Show we’ve been seeing lately.  2-7 with just four points.  The Bucks aren’t going to win a lot of games that Andrew Bogut gets just four shots in.  I guess that whole consistency thing remains on hold for the time being.

At this point, even I am wondering, how the hell did the Bucks even hang around in this one? Read more…

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 11-12

(Likely) Inactives: Roko Ukic, Francisco Elson and Joe Alexander

at

Cleveland Cavaliers (Mike Brown) 19-7

(Likely) Inactives: Leon Powe, Danny Green and Coby Karl

Date: 12/18/2009

Time: 7:00

TV: ESPN, FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Mo Williams

Mo just keeps hitting three’s.  He’s up to 44 percent this year, a career high, and it’s easy to assume he’s feasting on kick outs from Lebron James, but that might not be the sole explanation for Mo Money’s success.  68 percent of his three-point shots have come off assists, or the lowest percentage in his last four seasons.  Last year, 80 percent of his three’s came off assists.  When he gets ready to pull up or catches a pass outside, it’ll be important for Jennings or Ridnour to run Williams off the three-point line, as his shooting percentage takes a sharp turn for the worse between 16 and 23 feet.  From 44 percent to 34 percent, the lowest number he’s put up in years.  This is another national stage for Jennings to burst back out, but that sort of thing doesn’t really seem to matter to him.   He’s more focused on a win for the team than the spotlight for himself.  If they both happen, they both happen, but Jennings has shown that wins mean a whole lot more to him.  It should be interesting to see how Jennings and Redd mesh over these next few games.

Advantage: Cavs (If only for the cohesiveness) Read more…

Recap/Box Score

(I know I just put out a piece complaining about the refs, but typically I’m not overly ridiculous or biased.  So this is a more true to form recap.  If you’re a Laker fan and that borderline cry-baby piece I put out before was your first taste, give this a shot.  I’m not typically so homeriffic.  At least I hope not.)

We’ll start with the Kobe shots.  Because really there were two that were the same.  He missed it at the end of regulation and sunk it at the end of overtime.  I’d like the think that shot’s difficult for him, but it probably really isn’t.  Yes, it’s a fade-away and for most of us it would be borderline impossible, but for Kobe?  That’s just all in a day’s work.  And with a 6′3 defender guarding him?  Come on.  So that’s where we’ll start. Read more…