Recap/Box Score

Another sign that the Bucks are moving in the right direction as the playoffs are nearing was Scott Skiles’ post game reaction to a question about whether or not he was happy with the team’s effort in a Wednesday night loss to Cleveland.

“It’s not that I don’t care about that right now, but we should have won that game.  We gave them that game.”

Moral victories no longer have a stall in the Bucks locker room, be it on the road or at home.  These days, the Bucks are only interested in actual, real life, concrete victories.  Citing a botched layup attempt rather than a dunk attempt and a missed open three, Skiles was clearly annoyed and it may have had to do with more than just his players’ execution.

The Bucks have had problems with allowing free throw attempts all year, but those numbers reached a new low Wednesday night.  The Cavs attempted 45 free throws to the Bucks nine.  The Bucks previous largest free throw attempt deficit this season was 22.  An exhausted and exasperated John Salmons looked none too pleased about it after the game.

“It’s a discouraging stat.  Nine to 45?  That’s got to be a record.  I don’t want to lose my money.”

Part of Salmons appeal to the Bucks has been his knack for getting to the free-throw line and he was at it again Wednesday, finishing 7-7 from the line.  The problem was the two free throws the rest of the team attempted.

The foul differential was silly, but I’m hesitant to throw out the “BOO STERN OMG THEY FIXED IT FOR LEBRON OMG!” card.  Milwaukee is generally a team that doesn’t attack the hoop a lot, except for Salmons.  And Salmons got his from the line.  Andrew Bogut scores the majority of the Bucks points in the paint and he is constantly drifting away from the hoop on his shots.  Most post scorers get tons of points from the line, but while Bogut is a classic post-up scorer, he doesn’t rely on fakes to get into his opponents.  His superior touch allows him  to glide across the lane moving parallel with the hoop, this doesn’t leave defenders crashing into him very often.

Milwaukee worked for everything they got and while it was valiant effort, they came up short.  Two years ago that would have been exciting, a year ago it may have been acceptable, but now it’s just a disappointing loss.  Welcome to the top half of the conference Milwaukee. Read more…

From ClipperBlog comes a video on last night’s miniature dust-up between Steve Blake and the Bucks.

The part that stands out to me is how easily Blake tosses aside Ersan Ilyasova. Which makes sense, from a guy who trains with Mixed Martial Artists.  Check out the 1:15 point in the video below.

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 41-32

At

Cleveland Cavaliers (Mike Brown) 58-16

Date: March 31^st, 2010

Time: 6:00 PM (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin

Matchups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Mo Williams

Williams struggled mightily in the Cavs trip to Milwaukee in early March, scoring just seven points while shooting 3-17 from the field.  Even worse, he was dealing with a hot shooting and especially lippy version of Brandon Jennings.  Jennings, sporting a red Mohawk that had Lebron James calling him “The Rooster” torched the Cavs for 25 points and many more than 25 words for the Cavs typically chipper bench.  There was no dancing from Cleveland on that dark day in Milwaukee.  But Williams and the Cavs will surely be looking for some redemption, largely at Jennings expense Wednesday night.  Whether or not Jennings will be ready to back up the chatter from his last performance will be an interesting subplot.

Advantage: Cavaliers Read more…

Recap/Box Score

Even if it was a game later than Bucks fans would like, the REAL Los Angeles Clippers showed up in Milwaukee on Tuesday night.  You know, the team that doesn’t (can’t?) defend, that takes bad shots and appears to go without an offensive strategy for significant portions of the game.  That’s the Clippers we’ve all come to know and love, that’s the Clippers that opposing teams love to see, that’s the Clippers Milwaukee got on Tuesday.  The results were predictable.

Using runs of 10-0 in the first quarter and 18-8 in the second, the Bucks never lost their double digit lead in the second half.  And that was before a dust-up renewed the Bucks interest in a game that they had been keeping at arms length.

That seemed to pique the interest of the Bucks and more importantly, drew the interest of a crowd that had been in and out of the game beforehand.  I’ve carried with me the vague memory of the Bradley Center crowd’s airline hangar noise level from the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals, but it’s hard to recall that.  That was nearly 10 years ago and rarely has there been much to get all that excited about since then.  So when a moment crops up that get the crowd more than just “involved” in the game, those are the best.  After the miniature dust-up, Squad Six began an “An-drew Bo-gut” chant.  Soon the whole crowd joined in.  Bogut noticed.

“That was pretty cool.  I haven’t seen the place rockin’ like that for a while, where the whole crowd got involved.  Hopefully we can encourage the rest of our fans out there to feel free to join in when Squad Six is chanting, it brings a great atmosphere.”

That atmosphere Bogut has been looking to recapture?  That’s called a playoff atmosphere.  It helped that Bogut’s Squad Six has been at it game in and game out, but Milwaukee has a history of stepping up in the moment.

And its basketball team is looking like they can play that game too. Read more…

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 40-32

vs.

Los Angeles Clippers (Kim Hughes) 27-46

Date: 3/30/2010
Time: 7:00 (CST)
TV: FS Wisconsin

Matchups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Steve Blake

Baron Davis is not accompanying the Clippers on their road trip due to back spasms, leaving Blake at the helm.  This is significantly good news for the Bucks.  Davis is quite physically imposing and really played well the last time these teams met.  Blake is more of a fit in kind of guy, rather than a take over kind of guy.  He can hit threes and he runs an okay game, but he won’t be able to punish Jennings or harass him too much defensively.

Advantage: Bucks Read more…