06 « February « 2010 «

February 6th, 2010

Game 49 Preview: Bucks vs. Pacers

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 22-26

Inactives: Michael Redd, Francisco Elson and Joe Alexander

Vs.

Indiana Pacers (Jim O’Brien) 18-32

Inactives:Tyler Hansbrough, Jeff Foster and Earl Watson

Date: 2/6/2010

Time: 7:30

TV: Nah

Matchups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. A.J. Price

The rookie matchup to end all rookie matchups, JENNINGS V. PRICE.  Okay, so not really.  Price’s rise from late second round pick to starting point guard on a bad Eastern Conference team hasn’t been a popular story, but is intriguing nonetheless.  With Earl Watson out after a death in the family, Price got his first start on Friday against the Pistons.  Price can hit an open three, but often won’t burn anyone from deep, he’s a fairly consistent 33 percent shooter from deep.  He probably won’t see more than 25 minutes or so, as T.J. Ford has come back with a vengeance or something like that.  After being banished to the bench for some time, Ford got some minutes on Friday and made the most of his time hitting five of seven shots and dropping five assists.  Either way, Jennings shouldn’t have his hands full with them on either end.

Advantage: Bucks (more…)

Defense Not Necessary: Bucks 114 – Knicks 107

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Box Score/Recap

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Hak' = Dunk

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Hak' = Dunk

New York’s basketball team isn’t typically apart of my basketball viewing schedule.  They aren’t on national television very often and when they are I tend to look the other way.  I’m not big on teams that have gutted their roster in order to pursue free agents.    While I generally liked Mike D’Antoni’s Suns teams, I know the Knicks can’t be as efficient, mainly because they have few shooters and even less competent point guards.  Plus they play even less defense than those Suns teams did.  There’s a word that I can’t think of right now that would describe them aptly I assumed, but I had little proof since I never watched them.  But I had high hopes for the Bucks on Friday night coming into their game on Broadway.

Then Andrew Bogut got hurt.  So I went from hopeful that the Bucks would be able to leave the Big Apple with a win, to downtrodden that Bogut’s injury might be more than a migraine.  My thought process went something like this:

Migraine?  What?  He’s never had migraines before.  Didn’t he just take a charge a minute or two ago?  Is this another back injury?  Will we see Bogut again this season?  Is his career in jeopardy?

So that may have been an overreaction.  Call me a little snake bit after years of injury problems that seem to never end and spread across the roster.  Bogut walked out fine, no limp, no slouch, no teammates dragging his body to the locker room, so I’ll operate going forward under the assumption that all is well.  As for Friday night’s game, I thought of the word I was looking for and it isn’t even very fancy.  Simply put, the Knicks are defenseless. (more…)