The difference between battling Robin correction:Brook Lopez for boards vs. battling Dwight Howard is ten rebounds. The freaky thing is that Ersan almost always has more offensive rebounds.

He had a fiery first and fourth, but was mostly nonexistent in the second and third quarters. Three weeks ago he would have rained hellfire and brimstone on Jameer Nelson and Chris Duhon. Right now he’s settling for long twos and lazy drives. This is mildly frustrating.

My favorite play this season has been Dunleavy running baseline, then someone setting a screen for him as he pops to the wing. Swish. The Bucks run it a lot, but not nearly enough to satisfy my bloodlust for points.

After the game I just wanted to hug Sanders and scream, “It’ll be okay!” Not that he needed any encouragement from me. Rather, I needed to do that for me.

I ended up not hugging him because that would have been weird and I would have been thrown out of the Bradley Center. Sanders had a fine performance marked by his strong defense on Dwight Howard. Howard had 28 points and 16 rebounds, but Sanders forced him into a lot of tough shots and got a few late offensive fouls for the Bucks. Plus, he caught the ball a few times! Imagine that, getting a double-double isn’t too hard when you catch the ball.

The Jon Leuer experience came to a grinding halt because of foul trouble. What a sad day for Wisconsin. A sad day for America. Once Leuer shows Skiles that he can play adequate defense without fouling then his playing time will be limitless. The sooner the better. I’ve had a really bad headache all day and Jon Brockman’s 17 minutes only exacerbated my problem.

Tonight’s loss was to the Magic was both similar and different than the last loss to the Magic. Both losses came after the Bucks held a large lead in the fourth. In the first one, the Magic buried the Bucks with a three point barrage. This time the Bucks just couldn’t convert in the paint. There was no better example of this than the many layups Livingston had to alter to get the ball above Dwight Howard’s reach.

The effort and energy seem to be back. Also back: the long twos and generally bad shot selection.

Part of being professional is saying the right things. Stephen Jackson does that more or less in his Stephen Jackson way which is to say not at all. The other part of being a professional is doing the right things. Playing a mediocre, underwhelming 10-20 minutes every game is not exactly that.

Ugh.

Harris is capable of averaging 20 points or more if he ever gets consistent, heavy minutes. His penchant for drawing fouls, efficiency and willingness to play in the post would have a great asset late in the game especially after Dwight Howard’s fifth foul.

One of these days we’re going to see a whole bunch of games in a row where Delfino knocks down a whole bunch of threes.

Or maybe we won’t.

Kudos to Gooden for taking the game winning charge. No kudos for being crazy. Also, the defense is a complete mess now and it’s mostly because he has no conviction behind his moves. He hedges. Weakly. Which has the fantastic effect of leaving his point guard high and dry and simultaneously leaving his man open.

Good news: he’s being aggressive again. Bad news: He shot like he did last year. It has become exhausting just to think about him.

It’s become more and more apparent that Jennings isn’t that good of a defender. Ramon Sessions was slashing to the paint like a mad man. And so has every other point guard Jennings has faced since Bogut has left. He can’t take the chances he takes on defense anymore. A more conservative defense from him would help the Bucks.

Still exists.

Still exists.

Gery Woelfel reported that Moute still has knee problems. It’s hurting how he establishes leverage in the post. It also explains why he’s using poor technique with his arms to guard in the post. Moute is keeping his arms extended to push back against guys backing up. Moute knows he has to body up.

Bad Drew Gooden day. And Gooden was responsible for a lot more gaffs than his one turnover would indicate. He was late to pass, late to notice passes, fumbling everywhere and just generally flubbed up everything.

Jennings followed up a blistering first half with a terrible second half. He was getting open three looks off screens, but he just wasn’t hitting them. What was inexcusable was his defense on Brandon Knight. Without Bogut, he can’t take a lot of the chances that he used to take.
The Bucks have been playing faster and that’s been a boon for Jennings. Detroit slowed him down and Jennings couldn’t respond. The next big point guard step for Jennings is to enforce his style of play regardless of what the other wants.

Still exists.

Favorite sequence of the game: Larry Sanders running the fast break and passing to a streaking Tobias Harris for a rousing dunk. I’m telling you guys: POINT-CENTER.

Dude can just score. Subtract his one three from his box score since it was just a half-hearted desperation three and you see a guy who drew fouls nearly every time he missed. He just knows how to score. The problem is that he doesn’t fit well into the “passing is magic” motif that the Bucks have adopted since Bogut went down.