Sure, Lebron Was Out, but Still, It’s a Win: Bucks 92 – Cavs 85
Sunday, March 7th, 2010Fortunately, the NBA doesn’t decide standings with a poll that measures the strength of each win.
No, in the NBA, every win, regardless of who it’s over, the margin of victory or the location of the game, counts just the same. So if anyone tells you that the Bucks wins over teams missing their star players (the Hornets without Chris Paul, the Heat without Dwyane Wade and now the Cavs without Lebron James) don’t mean anything, you can simply point to the Bucks current position in sixth in the Eastern Conference and inform them of their error.
A Cavs team sans James, Shaquille O’Neal and Zydrunas Illgauskas is a significantly weaker opponent than one with those three, or any of them for that matter. In two weeks, Shaq will still be out, but James will surely be back in the lineup, Illgauskas will be back and the Cavs will again be a force to be reckoned with. But that’s not important today. What’s important right now is that the Bucks won another game and even better, it’s one that not many people had penciled in a day or two ago. It’s important the Bucks are now two games up on Chicago for the sixth seed, it’s important the sold out Bradley Center had plenty of reason to cheer all night long Saturday and, most of all, it’s important that Brandon Jennings’ mojo finally returned.
Ben Gordon :: Trendsetter :: Brit
For just the third time since February 1 (17 games), Jennings topped 40% shooting, finishing 6-14 from the field and 5-7 from behind the arc. Jennings finished with 25 points and had a season high number of “three-point monocles.” Popularized in last year’s playoffs by Ben Gordon, the “three-point monocle” is an especially braggadocios celebration of a three-point shot. Seeing Jennings break it out was especially joyful for me for a number of reasons. First, it’s good to see Jennings having fun out on the court again, especially in light of his recent comments about packing in his shot for a while. Second, I just love the trey monocle. Jennings explanation:
I did a little mocking, a little dancing for (Lebron). Hopefully (Lebron) caught that, I think it got his attention.
That being said, it would have been nice to see just where the Bucks measure up against the NBA’s best team, especially with Jennings having it going. (more…)
