Recap/Box Score

Fortunately for the Milwaukee Bucks, one team had to emerge victorious Wednesday night.  It’s a rule.  Otherwise, the powers that be may have juts called the game at halftime to spare the crowd, because after an ugly looking first half, things rarely got much prettier in the second.

(Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images) Good Brandon Jennings hits these. It was Good Jennings Wednesday.

But basketball isn’t always a beauty contest and sometimes it’s just about pushing through tired legs and out-lasting the opposing team.  That seems like a fit way to describe Wednesday night’s game, it wasn’t so much a win for Milwaukee as it was an out-lasting effort in a proverbial scrum of a game.

And when I say this game wasn’t a thing of beauty, I mean right from the start it was hard on the eyes.  The Sixers were handling the ball with little worry on where it was ending up, at one point turning it over or having their shot blocked on five consecutive possessions in the first quarter.  The problem was that the Bucks couldn’t do anything on the other end after causing problems with their defense, thanks to three misses, a block and a turnover themselves at that point.  Milwaukee shot just 30.8 percent in the first quarter, yet led by one after winning the turnover battle 7-2.

Turnovers would end up being the theme all night.  While the game continued to be as sloppy an affair as the Bucks have been apart of all year, Milwaukee did their best to take care of the ball and not let the Sixers get out and run off turnovers.  The Bucks turned it over nine times in all, resulting in just six Philadelphia points, whereas the Sixers coughed it up 18 times, turning into 23 Milwaukee points.  In a one point game in which they lost the rebounding battle by 16, were outshot 46.2-43.5 and missed nine of 21 free-throws, that plus 17 points of turnovers differential was huge. Read more…