Especially in April.

In meaningless April games, the court becomes wet with opportunity.  Rookies who typically wouldn’t be playing find themselves thrust into action, given a chance to show what they can do and veterans get the opportunity to either rest or work on parts of their games that they don’t showcase all year.  More importantly, guys get to gun for stats.

If a player gets even a whiff that he may be able to do something cool, you better believe he’s going to try and make it happen in April.  For everyone saying these games are meaningless, you’re half right.  In the grand scheme of things, yes, they are.  But in the small picture, they are huge opportunities for players to do outrageous things.

Being a Bucks fan has taught us that much.

Remember Ramon Sessions?  The little used rookie had played in just seven games, all in the month prior to April of 2008.  In April, Sessions averaged 38.8 minutes per game and produced 11.35 points and 11.3 assists per game, peaking with a 20 point, 24 assist effort against the Bulls.  His season ending hot streak left his name on the minds of Bucks fans all summer, as they waited to see if he would take the reigns the following season.

The season before, it was Dan Gadzuric tossing around double digit rebound games like he was an NBA center or something like that.  Gadz logged three straight April double-doubles and had everyone thinking for a second that he may still have something to offer.

And while Sessions was stacking numbers that April, he had a teammate right with him.  Charlie Villanueva finished off a mediocre second season as a Buck in stylish fashion, averaging 17.9 points and 8.3 rebounds.  Charlie V. was at his sweet shooting finest against the Raptors that month, making seven of 12 threes en route to 38 points on April 9.  It seemed as fine a performance as any Buck would have on an April 9.

At least until this season, when Drew Gooden went out and did the cool thing I would have loved to have seen in person but couldn’t because I was out of town for the first time all season.  Gooden has hinted all season that he could have some special nights with his passing.  He’s dropped in the occasional no-look and swung the ball to open shooters more than I expected from a guy with a “shoot first, ask questions later” reputation.  So, when I saw that he logged five assists in the first quarter, I wasn’t totally shocked.

When I saw that he had a triple double though, I was damn near floored.  Bucks players haven’t been much of a threat to dish 10 assists this year.  They haven’t shot well enough, plain and simple.  But against the Cavs, the Bucks have had some success this year, as most teams have.  And as shots kept falling, Gooden knew he was close — he said as much to the media after the game.

And that’s the beauty of being out of it in April.  Guys can smell those rare achievements and chase after them.  It’s fun, even if it is relatively hollow.  As Sessions and Villanueva before proved, racking up special numbers at this point in the season isn’t necessarily an indicator of future success as a Bucks player.  Both of them were gone just a season after their late season surges.

Gooden’s big game likely won’t buy him the same goodwill Sessions and Charlie V.’s comparable acts earned them, not after an injury plagued, underwhelming debut season as a Buck.  It will take a few more triple doubles to sway the masses when Gooden’s long term, moderate money contract is figured in.  But this isn’t about all that.  It’s about April, and the fun it can produce when a talented player meets an opportunity for noteworthy statistics.  It may not be The Masters, but it’s a Bucks tradition.

Thanks to Drew Gooden, the tradition lives on.

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vs

Golden State Warriors (Keith Smart) 6-3
Inactive: David Lee, Louis Amundson, Ekpe Udoh

Date: 11/13/2010
Game Time: 7:30 PM (CST)
TV: FS Wisconsin / NBA TV

The Other Guys: WarriorsWorld.net

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Stephen Curry

Jennings is still working towards establishing consistency in his game, but he’s taken baby steps towards that with back-to-back solid games in blowout Milwaukee wins.  He’s been more aggressive in looking for his shots at times in each of the past two wins, but hasn’t been overbearing about shooting.  There’s an important distinction between the two.  It’s good for a point guard to be aggressive, but it’s bad for a point guard to be too shot happy.  At times last season, often because of a lack of talent around him, Jennings got shot happy.  That hasn’t been the case lately.  Of course, it helps when he’s making his shots too.  In the past three games, he’s connected on 8-14 threes.  Curry has gotten even better this season after a strong rookie year last year.  He’s shooting close to 50% and has boosted his percentage of field goals assisted on while he’s on the floor from 24.6% to 34.1%.  He gets the edge over Jennings for his seven fairly consistent games, but if Jennings keeps up the stellar play of late, this could easily be a push.

Advantage: Warriors

Shooting Guard

John Salmons vs. Monta Ellis

Last season, Ellis took a ton of shots, hit an okay percentage of them and was the kind of volume scorer that some people love and some people hate.  There wasn’t much else to Ellis.  Now?  He’s taking fewer shots than he did last season (even though he still leads the NBA) and has hit them at a much better percentage (44.9% last season, 51.1% this one).  Ellis struggles with his outside shot, but is one of the finest at the league when it comes to getting inside the paint or hitting mid-range jumpers.  His quickness could pose a significant problem for Salmons all night and could lead to more Jennings/Keyon Dooling back courts.

Advantage: Warriors

Small Forward

Luc Mbah a Moute vs. Dorell Wright

Carlos Delfino is still out with what is either a neck strain or a concussion, it seems up for debate at the moment.  Sigh.  That’s okay though, because LRMAM (by the way, I’m not sure, but I think the Richard has been dropped) has been working well in the Bucks starting small forward slot.  Mbah a Moute’s defense has been stellar as always and could prove especially helpful against a perimeter shooting team like the Warriors.  The Warriors are seventh in the league in 3-point attempts, but only thirteenth in accuracy.  Even though they have Dell Curry’s son, Wright has been by far their finest shooter this season.  He’s taken a team leading 57 threes and hit 28 (49.1%).  Mbah a Moute will have to run Wright off the 3-point line tonight.

Advantage: Bucks

Power Forward

Drew Gooden vs. Brandan Wright

Without David Lee, Wright has stepped into the Warriors starting power forward role.  Wright doesn’t have the offensive package of skills that Lee does, but is athletic and a good shot-blocker.  He’s still thin as a rail though and could get handled by Gooden.  That’s saying a lot.  Milwaukee went to Gooden early in their win over New York and got some pretty impressive returns.  With a smaller power forward like Wright on him, he could get the ball early again.

Advantage: Bucks

Center

Andrew Bogut vs. Andris Biedrins

I hope more than anything Biedrins gets to shoot free throws tonight.  He’s 0-5 on the season and owns the league’s ugliest looking free throw form.  Always a good rebounder, he should have his hands full with Bogut.  Milwaukee hasn’t needed to go inside much the last two games since their perimeter players have finally begun to find their stride, but at some point, they’ll need to get the ball back in to Bogut.  If Milwaukee’s shooters struggle at all, Bogut should be able to operate inside effectively against Biedrins.  Milwaukee will need Bogut to be at his rim protecting best against the penetrating Ellis and slippery Curry defensively too.

Advantage: Bucks

Bench

Corey Maggette, Earl Boykins, Keyon Dooling, Ersan Ilyasova and Jon Brockman

vs.

Vlad Radmanovic, Reggie Williams, Rodney Carney and Dan Gadzuric

Ilyasova leads the Bucks in +/- this season at +52.  It’s a dangerously small sample size with regards to overreacting, but that’s impressive considering he’s dealt with jumpshot problems for a large part of the year.  His +16 in the Hawks game surely helped.  Boykins looks like he’s, at the very least, splitting the backup point guard minutes with Keyon Dooling and has been very effective offensively, without getting handled defensively.  I think we’re all excited to see the return of Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Bell, though I’d only expect Bell to play late in the game or if Golden State tries to get some revenge minutes out of him.  Maggette always plays with a chip on his shoulder, so I wouldn’t expect anything different out of him against his last team.

Advantage: Bucks

Prediction: Bucks 104 – Warriors 90

Milwaukee’s so thoroughly dominated their last two games that the bar is high against the Warriors.  Don’t let their record fool you, the Warriors are still not a very good team.  They’ve taken advantage of a soft early season schedule to get to 6-3.    The keys for Milwaukee in this one will be keeping the Warriors from getting hot outside the 3-point line and prevent a Monta Ellis/Stephen Curry explosion.  If they can do that and perform adequately offensively, this should be a win going away.  I would be surprised to see another 50% plus shooting performance from Milwaukee, but if they can keep their shooting percentage in the forties, that should be all the offense they need.

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com.  Follow him on Twitter.  Then become a fan of Bucksketball on Facebook (to the right).

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The Bucks completed a trade late Tuesday afternoon to acquire forward Corey Maggette from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for guard Charlie Bell and center Dan Gadzuric, according to basketball sources.

Gardner has since updated his post to include the Bucks receiving the Warriors 44th pick in Thursday’s draft.

I addressed some of the pluses and minuses of the hypothetical deal that’s suddenly turned very real earlier in my post about a few Bucks rumors. As is the case with many deals in the NBA, this one is financially motivated from the Warriors perspective. Here’s the table I had in my first post which breaks down the three players respective contracts.

The eye popping number here is that the Bucks are taking back a contract that has $30,786,207 left on it over three years. However, they’re shipping out contracts that add up to $15,199,685. This leaves the Bucks on the hook for an additional $15,586,522.

The question now is, with regard to their roster now and for the rest of the summer, where does this leave the Bucks?

Well, a friend of mine texted me minutes after the deal was made to let me know he’d heard Maggette already took 10 shots. He failed to mention that he attempted six free throws too.

All kidding aside, it certainly now seems difficult to envision John Salmons returning to Milwaukee. The reported $28 million that was being offered to Salmons to spend his next four seasons in Milwaukee will now likely be the money sitting in the future pants pockets of Maggette. But the Bucks are freeing up an additional $1.5 million this off-season which seems like it could fall into the hands of Luke Ridnour, someone the Bucks have said they absolutely want back.

As far as Maggette’s role with the Bucks, it seems like something that could fluctuate.

If Brandon Jennings shows up in October looking like the star that it seemed he was certain to be last November, Maggette won’t be this season’s John Salmons. He’ll be running with Jennings, picking up the slack when the offense is stalling and playing a secondary role to Jennings and Andrew Bogut. But if Jennings is still struggling with an inconsistent jump shot and inability to finish inside the paint, Maggette’s role grows. He’ll be more heavily relied on for offense and Jennings, who always says passing is his first love anyway, will be feeding the beast that is Offensive Corey Maggette. And that’s not an awful thing. Maggette was 17th in the NBA last season in points per possession out of isolations according to Synergy Sports. The question that hangs over Maggette like a thunderstorm cloud is whether or not he’ll be able to fit inside an offense that (sometimes unsuccessfully) prided itself on its balance last season. Will he be able to survive and thrive while keeping teammates happy? For now, all we can say is we’ll see.

But here in Milwaukee, one gets the sense that Coach Scott Skiles would bench Wilt Chamberlin himself if he didn’t feel like he was cutting it on the defensive end. So regardless of what’s going on offensively with Maggette, it’s crucial for him to hold up defensively if he wants to earn time. And this is where he may struggle. I don’t know for a fact whether or not Maggette is a good or bad defender, numbers alone can’t tell you that. And in playing in the chaos that was Don Nelson’s system in which he was occasionally a center, sometimes a power forward and always without much help, numbers suffer. But his numbers didn’t hold a candle to Milwaukee’s primary small forward last season Carlos Delfino. Against Delfino last season, opponents shot 38.8%. Against Maggette they shot 46.6%. Their respective defensive ratings were 103 and 113 and if you’re into win shares, Delfino had 3.7 defensive win shares last season while Maggette had just .7.

Some suggested that Delfino’s versatility and defense were a quietly huge factor in the Bucks success last season. When I spoke with Dave Berri last season, his numbers suggested that after Andrew Bogut, Delfino had played better than any other Bucks player. Replacing the majority of his minutes with Maggette’s, if that’s what the Bucks will be doing, could prove detrimental from a defensive and “little things” standpoint. But since Maggette is essentially sliding into John Salmons’ roster spot (assuming that’s the case) it’s possible that Delfino could be shifting down to the two guard position, leaving the Bucks less susceptible to losing that production.

At this point, there are a ton of questions to still be answered with regard to this trade and very few of them will actually be answered until next season is well underway. I urge everyone to refrain from overreacting. The Bucks 2010-11 season is not over yet, it’s not a championship and there is still a lot of time left this off-season for the roster to take a new shape. Maggette may not have been a good fit in terms of producing wins and playoff appearances in Los Angeles or Golden State, but we aren’t exactly talking about model organizations there. Perhaps this is just the sort of trade Maggette’s needed to jump start his career and turn him from proverbial loser that puts up numbers, to an important part of a winning team. See Randolph, Zach last season (and ignore the recent drug lord stuff). This certainly may shift Milwaukee’s emphasis further into power forward territory come June 24th’s draft, but as we saw a few years ago with Joe Alexander’s arrival immediately after Richard Jefferson’s, this could have no impact at all on the draft.

Either way, thing have certainly gotten more interesting in Milwaukee today.

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It may remain just a memory if things play out a certain way in the coming days.

First, Lance Stephenson is reportedly in the mix at the 15th pick for the Bucks and would be even more realistic if the Bucks were to trade for a lower pick (that’s what I call trading down if I haven’t been clear on that) in the first round. Stephenson, um, wasn’t a great passer in his one season at Cincinnati. In fact, he wasn’t much of a passer at all, finishing 11th in the conference in shot percentage and possession percentage. That wouldn’t be all that striking, if not for the fact that Stephenson was a largely average offensive player last season, finishing 75th in the Big East in offensive rating and turning the ball over on nearly 20% of his possessions.

But Stephenson has been one of the most sought after prospect in the United States since he was a 15-year-old. Attitude and criminal concerns have been real problems for him and leave him staring the life of a second round pick in the eye. In the NBA though, talent generally wins out over everything. It’s possible that the Bucks have become enamored enough with Stephenson that they’d be willing to take a chance on an incredibly talented prospect. Chad Ford has this to say in his most recent mock draft:

It’s a long shot but Cincinnati’s Lance Stephenson has impressed in workouts and the Bucks have had their eye on him for a while. It seems like that’s a bit of a reach at 15, but John Hammond rolled the dice on a former high school phenom with a bad rep last year and it paid off. Will he do it again this year?

And now, from one suspected future jacker to a certifiable shot machine, the Bucks have reportedly been kicking the tires on Corey Maggette says Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. The deal that the Bucks would reportedly like to offer would include Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Bell for Maggette. Here’s the quick salary breakdowns of the three:

Maggette’s strengths? Getting to the free throw line and looking mean come to mind. Maggette’s averaged 7.1 free throws to 11.2 shots per game in his career. He’s one of the league’s best a finishing with contact and annually has a true shooting percentage hovering around or above 58%. Maggette would give the Bucks a lot of what they’d be missing if John Salmons does not return and does it for only $15 million more dollars over the next three seasons than it’s costing Milwaukee to keep Gadzuric and Bell. Maggette’s age, he turns 31 in November, is a concern, but as I’ve earlier said about Salmons, three years seems a reasonable commitment for a player of that age.

But with strengths come weaknesses. Maggette’s primary weakness being his inability to operate much without the ball. Maggette, a player who’s only been on one playoff team and has never made an all-star team, is 51st in the HISTORY of the NBA in usage percentage. Maggette will be shooting or he will be getting to the line, there’s a high probability those things will happen. Milwaukee has to think hard about whether or not they can live with that kind of player at the three. There’s no question he can score effectively, but at what price? Will he alienate teammates with his constant shooting? Even if the other players accept his offensive outputs, will is cause them to unintentionally lose interest on defense if they aren’t involved enough on offense? Maggette is the kind of player that can drive a wedge into a team without even being a locker room problem. Offenses are generally best when teams have a number of productive players that can score and move the ball. The Bucks had players that could move the ball last season, but lacked players who could score.

They may be sacrificing the latter to get the former if these two moves go down and that could just result in a sideways step for a team that seemed on the right track last season.

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If it hadn’t been done before, and it’s probably foolish that it wasn’t, the word “can’t” was officially removed from the dictionary on the Milwaukee Bucks 2009-10 season. It’s uses were once prevalent. Milwaukee can’t get to the line. They can’t score inside without Andrew Bogut. Brandon Jennings can’t finish. The Bucks can’t hang with the Hawks in the playoffs.

Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t. These Bucks seem to know not of this word. Every time the rest of the world decides they aren’t capable of doing something, they go on and do it anyway. Milwaukee shot 32 free throws Monday night. They outscored the Hawks in the paint 44-26. Jennings was 9-16 from the field and didn’t hit a 3-pointer.

And the Bucks tied up their first round series with the Hawks at two.

In front of a raucous crowd with only a few pockets of empty seats in a sold out Bradley Center, the Bucks squeezed every last drop of effort out of 10 different players and played as close to flawless a game as they have without Bogut. The Bucks, a team once known for their selfishness on the court and corrosive chemistry off of it, relied on the formula that’s been working for them all season: above average ball movement and a sense of togetherness I haven’t seen in Milwaukee.

Asked about this being one of those games the old Bucks used to lose, Jerry Stackhouse had a very appropriate answer after the game:

I don’t know any of them old Bucks teams.

Can’t? Not these Bucks, not yet.

Offense

That 44-26 edge in points in the paint I mentioned earlier was no joke, and it all started with Jennings. For the very first time in his NBA career, Jennings shot over 50% in a game in which he failed to connect on a 3-point basket. Time and time again his failures inside have been documented, but Jennings forgot all about those on Monday. He repeatedly got in the lane against the Hawks Monday night and converted. Coach Skiles had been harping that Bucks guards needed to do a better job attacking the Hawks bigger defenders on switches, and Jennings did just that all night. Not only was he converting his own shots, but he found Luc Richard Mbah a Moute for a few open layups inside with some sweet interior passing. 23 points (9-16 FG 0-3 3FG), six assists and one turnover for the “rookie”.

• Jennings was huge again, but Carlos Delfino stole the show early. Through three games, the chorus was the same, “if Delfino gets it going, the Bucks might be tough to beat.” Well, he got it going in a big way. Delfino had 13 in the first and never looked back. Carlos finished with 22 points (8-14 FG 6-8 3FG), one big dunk, four rebonds, three assists and a fresh batch of confidence. Delfino’s first three rattled around and hit virtually every part of the rim before nestling in the bottom of the net. His thoughts on it:

I’ll take it. For me personally, the ball falls through the net, I don’t know how, but I’ll take it.

• 55.1% shooting? Milwaukee hit 7-18 on 3-point attempts, not as sparkling as Atlanta’s 10-19 effort from deep, but won this one inside. When I say inside, I don’t mean Milwaukee was tossing it to Kurt Thomas or Dan Gadzuric on the block, though. Milwaukee was penetrating like they rarely had this year. John Salmons was consistent as ever in this field (22 points 6-9 FG 10-10 FT), but it was Jennings and Delfino and company who really took this part of their game to another level Monday night. When asked if a win without relying on 3-point attempts was a revelation, Coach Skiles had this to say:

The revelation is more how many free throws we shot. It’s important for us at some point early in the game, because we penetrate usually pretty well and are pretty unselfish, that we’ll get some open three looks early in the game. It could be any number of guys, but it’s important that somebody steps up and knocks a couple down early and gets us feeling good about ourselves offensively. That’s what happened with Carlos tonight.

Defense

You often hear about veterans and their tricks defensively, but it’s not always clear if it’s a myth that they actually have these tricks up their sleeves. Let me assure you, it’s no myth with Kurt Thomas. All night long, Thomas was prodding the Hawks with little forearms off the ball, physical play and extra long screens. When Hawks guards tried to blow through him, he’d go down. When Hawks players would penetrate, he’d go down. Thomas nestled inside the Hawks heads at some point and was laughing about it by the fourth quarter. He helped limit Al Horford to just eight points and eight rebounds on a night Horford fouled out. I asked Thomas about his tricks, only to see him start to beam like a proud parent before breaking out in laugh.

“That’s a part of the game. Do what you can, try to keep them guessing and not let them see the same defensive coverages every time and try to keep them on their toes.”

• I swear, at the end of the third quarter, everyone in the Bradley Center had forgotten about Dan Gadzuric’s contract and was just thrilled to see him on the court. In a classic Gadzurician moment, Danny G. blocked a Joe Johnson layup attempt out of bounds and then converted on a bunny that he almost fumbled away just before the final buzzer in the third quarter sounded. Gadz may have only had seven points, five rebounds and two blocks, but his energy was a catalyst for the Bucks in the first half and then again in third quarter in which they pushed their lead to 11.

• Josh Sm…BOOOOOOO

Jo….BOOOOOOO

It was that kind of night at the Bradley Center. Whenever, umm, a certain Hawks forward, caught the ball, a chorus of boos rained down like a nasty thunderstorm. He had a nice bounce back game, 20 points (7-11 FG 1-1 3FG 5-6 FT), nine rebounds, two steals and a block, but Milwaukee didn’t allow this certain athletic Hawks player to get his transition game going. His numbers looked good, but his impact was demonstratively smaller than it had been in the first couple games. Keeping him and the rest of the Hawks from running (just eight fast break points for Atlanta) when this one gets back to Atlanta will be huge.

Final Thoughts

Well, at this point, this is up in the air. We could have a series that features one home team win after the next, we could see Atlanta figure it out and win the next two or watch Milwaukee steal one on the road before finishing it out at home. Throw out the seeding, throw out the regular season and every game this series, it’s a best two out of three between two teams that know they can beat one another. Milwaukee will certainly savor a win in a game that Atlanta shot 47.5/52.6/85.7. While the Bucks were capable defensively, the Hawks were still able to have a pretty good night from the field. That tells Milwaukee if they play their game and hit their shots, they can survive even a good night from the Hawks. Confidence is high and it seems like the Bucks can’t wait to get to Atlanta.

I guess I’ll let a can’t slide right there.

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vs.

Atlanta Hawks (Mike Woodson) 2-1

Date: 4/26/2010
Time: 7:30
TV: NBA TV & FS Wisconsin

Keep Smith Contained

Milwaukee and Josh Smith combined to do a great job stopping Josh Smith in game two. As much as I’d love to slather all the credit on Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, I’ll admit that it seems like Smith just didn’t have the same lift he’d had in the previous few games. Specifically on the offensive glass and in transition, he wasn’t the same. Smith had five dunks and layups in transition and on the offensive glass in game two. Saturday at the Bradley Center, Smith was 1-6 combined in transition and after offensive rebounds. Some of this was good help defense after he grabbed boards, some of this was luck. For the game, Smith was 2-10 at the rim. Don’t expect another performance like that. Milwaukee will just have to make the Hawks top athlete work hard for everything he gets and keep a body on him at all times. Making his life difficult should be the Bucks focus once again.

10 3’s Again?

Okay, so Milwaukee had enough breathing room, they didn’t need all 10 of the threes they hit Saturday. But three point shooting will still more or less define the Bucks for however long this season goes on. Saturday didn’t appear to be much of an aberration either. No Bucks player hit more than three from distance and no one shot over 50% on their three point shots. If anything, the Bucks could expect Carlos Delfino to perform slightly better than he has been lately. Milwaukee’s game is all about moving the ball and finding open shooters and their seven assists on 10 three point shots indicates they did that very well on Saturday. Maybe Milwaukee won’t hit another 10 threes Monday night, but there is some reason to expect another strong performance again on Monday night and not the disastrous ones that were games one and two.

More (or just as much) Gadz

I vividly recall thinking Terry Porter’s biggest mistake in 2004 was not giving Dan Gadzuric virtually any burn in the Bucks first round series against a much larger Detroit Pistons squad. This was back when Gadz was still young and before he got “The Contract”, so everyone loved him and he seemed to have a bright future. I called for him over and over, but he logged just nine minutes in the Bucks 4-1 losing effort of a series. Predictably, as I look back, I see that in those nine minutes his PER was 24.6 and he had the teams’ second best defensive rating.

Now, all these years later, I’m still finding myself wanting Gadz on the court in the post season. Sure, it has a lot to do with Andrew Bogut being out and Kurt Thomas being most productive in limited minutes, but it’s strange how some things stay the same. Gadzuric was a terror in his 17 minutes Saturday night, racking up five fouls and 10 rebounds in classic Gazuric style. He had an absurd 33.2 rebound rate, meaning he grabbed roughly a third of available rebounds while he was on the court. If he plays to his strength, rebounding and running around like a mad man, he can impact this series in a positive way.

Brandon Jennings Early and Often

Jennings started things out with a bang on Saturday, then had plenty of time to rest in the fourth quarter. I can’t see Atlanta coming out with the same lackluster effort that allowed Milwaukee free reign on Saturday, so he’ll likely log more minutes and more meaningful ones Monday night. When Jennings gets the Bucks going they seem to play loads better. If he’s feeling it on Monday night, he should absolutely not be shy about getting his shot off whenever he pleases. Sometimes when he’s feeling it, it seems like he backs off to get other guys involved. I guess that’s the instincts of a guy who’s a classic point guard, but sometimes Milwaukee needs him to take over like he did in game one. I have a lot more confidence in Jennings than I do in a lot of other players on this team

Keep Dodging The Crawford Bullet

The likely sixth man of the year, Jamal Crawford has made a season of blowing up off the bench for the Hawks. This series he’s 11-34 and has served as more of a thorn in the side of Atlanta than Milwaukee. But, this is Jamal Crawford we’re talking about. He’s liable to go off for 30 at any given time. In game one he did some typical Jamal Crawford stuff, pulling up for crazy threes and drilling them to take the air out of the Bucks sails when a potential comeback was on the horizon. Milwaukee will need to keep doing whatever they’ve been doing against Crawford and hope his tough shots keep out of the net.

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What was once so bright, had turned so dim that the light was nearly off

And then Brandon Jennings hit a three and busted out the three point monocle.

And then he did it again.

And again.

Then John Salmons got involved. When it was all said and done, Milwaukee was up 36-19 after one, the Jennings/Salmons duo was 9-10 and the brightness had officially returned to Milwaukee’s season.

Surprise seems to be the appropriate reaction, but should anyone really be shocked? Atlanta was a below average road team this season, MIlwaukee was an above average home team and Milwaukee had shot very poorly from three in the first two games. All those factors seemed to work in Milwaukee’s favor.

There was some smaller things Milwaukee did well to get themselves off first round life support — switching Luc Richard Mbah a Moute onto Josh Smith comes to mind — but remembering that they at one time used to hit open shots this season was by and large the most important thing Milwaukee did in game three.

Offense

I’ve been saying it and saying it: eventually the Bucks would start hitting some shots. All it took was getting back to the comforts of home. After three point shooting percentages that rivaled the temperatures on a normal winter day in Wisconsin, the Bucks finally found the bottom of the net on Saturday evening, hitting 10-21 3s. I actually pinpointed 10 as the number of threes the Bucks would need to hit to win game two, so I guess I was just a game early.

For all the coaching adjustments, matching up and other things that go into a playoff series, sometimes it’s the simple things that end up making the biggest difference. For the Bucks, that “little thing” was finally hitting the three at a respectable clip.

• I said this during the Daily Dime Live Chat and I’ll say it again: what a relief it must have been for the Bucks coaching staff and entire Bradley Center crowd to see Kurt Thomas’ long lost 15-foot jumper. Thomas finished 4-4 from the field. He looked good scoring eight points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Thomas and Delfino have deservedly shouldered plenty of blame for the Bucks struggles in the first two games, but it’s only appropriate to mention how Thomas’ playing his typical game played a big part in the Bucks taking game three.  Milwaukee doesn’t need Thomas to do anything outside of his comfort zone, they just need him to do things longer than he might be built for at this point. The three days off seemed to do wonders for him.  

• Yes, Brandon Jennings did cool off once again. But that didn’t mean he stopped contributing. As my first defense in this case I’d present his behind the back pass to Jerry Stackhouse after hounding Mike Bibby into a turnover. Stack finished with a dunk and senior citizens everywhere were suddenly inspired. Jennings was 5-11 (3-6 3FG) and scored 13 points to go with five assists.

• While Jennings couldn’t maintain his hot start, John Salmons did. Yet again.  The Bucks big pickup (seriously, shouldn’t he get to hold John Hammond’s executive of the year award for a few months a year) came through when Milwaukee needed him the most with 22 points on 9-11 shooting. Even better, Salmons tallied seven assists and was creating for the Bucks who can’t create so much for themselves. He’s a humanitarian that John Salmons.

Defense

If I had the power to write things on the Bucks chalk board before games I would have wrote these three words in all caps: STOP JOSH SMITH. And you know what? I would have been pleased with Milwaukee’s effort in doing just that. Unequivocally the biggest thorn in the side of the Bucks through the first two games, Smith finally was contained a bit. Smith had been feasting on offensive rebound putbacks and fast break dunks, but the Bucks weren’t giving anything easy away to him on Saturday. Sure, he still managed  nine offensive rebounds, but few of them resulted in dunks for him or points at all for the Hawks. Atlanta scored just 12 second chance points on 6-18 shooting. After shooting over 70% through the first two games, Smith finished Saturday’s game 2-12. Someone find Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s belt and put another notch in it.

• So what’s the more accurate representation of this Hawks team? The over 50% efforts from the field they had in games one and two, or this sub-40% shooting effort they produced Saturday night? It’s probably somewhere in the middle. The key to keeping them down for Milwaukee was preventing all the easy baskets they got in games one and two. When Josh Smith was heading in for a dunk, he had Mbah a Moute, Ilyasova, Thomas and Dan Gadzuric meeting him at the rim. Defensively, Milwaukee was simply a much more confident group.

• I’d be remiss to let a nice night from Dan Gadzuric go by without pointing it out though. After many cries from the crowd for Gadzuric after Thomas struggled so badly in the first two games, Gadz saw 17 minutes and produced 10 rebounds. It’s just what he does.

Final Thoughts

I now find myself wondering, “will we ever get a good game in this series?”  The Hawks seem prone to both blowouts and doing the blowing out, but I can’t help but expect game four to be a lot closer than game three either way. Milwaukee will not continue to shoot at the clips they did and the hawks will probably find a way to put some more points on the board.  But as my final final thought, I did really enjoy something I saw from Milwaukee that I haven’t in years.

The mild-mannered Luke Ridnour holding his pose on a three to put the Bucks up 93-65 with the shot clock running down.  If you think Brandon Jennings wasn’t the rookie of the year, I get that.  But don’t try and tell me he didn’t have more of an impact on a team than any other rookie. This one started with Jennings and the monocle and ended with Ridnour holding his pose. These are not your slightly older brother’s Bucks NBA fans.

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It’s merely evident now that Milwaukee’s jayvee plus team can defeat the Celtics freshman team.  And I think that was probably a safe bet already.  Milwaukee has pounded into us all season that they have good depth.  From one through eleven, Milwaukee can plug different guys into different lineups and compete with most starters and defeat most benches.

Once again Wednesday night, Milwaukee got productive games out of Luke Ridnour, Jerry Stackhouse, Ersan Ilyasova and even …

*gasp* Dan Gadzuric?

Yes, under the right circumstances even old Gadzuric can look good again.

But the circumstances will be much different in the playoffs now.  The Hawks have been a problem for Milwaukee all season.  Hell, they’ve been a problem for the majority of the league all season.  A group that’s been playing together for years now, Atlanta has the versatility, the star power, the defense and the offense to make a deep run into the playoffs and even scare the East’s top two.

If Milwaukee were about to embark on a playoff series with Boston, the questions would be how many games could Milwaukee win?  Would the Celtics lose their cool during the series, specifically Rasheed Wallace. Could Milwaukee capitalize on any of those moments and gain some momentum?  Basically, the questions about that potential series were full of hope and possibility.  It would still be a long shot, but Milwaukee would at least be on the verge of a series that was going to likely have some give and take.

Now I can’t help but ask questions like, how is this series going to look any different than Monday night?  Will Milwaukee shoot over 42% in any of the games?  How many points is Joe Johnson going to average?  My feelings of hope and excitement have withered away significantly.  I know asking the big “What If” about Andrew Bogut won’t do any good, but it keeps coming back to me and gnawing at me.

But I guess it is what it is.  The bottom line is that the Bucks are still going to be playing playoff games again this year, which is still a terrific feat.  And I’m glad we got this final game of the regular season out of the way.  Now, as Brandon Jennings so elegantly put it after Monday night’s game against Atlanta, we can just “lace ‘em up and let’s hoop.”

Offense

So, when defense takes a back seat, the Bucks are able to knock a few down here and there.  That was a refreshing reminder on Wednesday.

Milwaukee shot over 50% for the first time since their April 7th victory over the Nets.  As has often been the case all year, it was the bench that really keyed the Bucks in this one.  Though, things were clearly different.  Coach Skiles wanted to get his starters some rest and none played more than 22 minutes.

Leading the bench was Luke Ridnour.  Ridnour didn’t miss a shot (6-6 FG 3-3 3FG 2-2 FT) on his way to 17 points and dropped eight assists to boot.  Jerry Stackhouse finished off his season the way I’m sure he wanted to, hitting 7-11 shots in scoring 17 points.  Stack actually really got it together over his last five games, shooting considerably better than he had been (24-48 FG 9-18 3 FG in his last five after a fairly brutal month of March: 36% FG and 27% 3FG).  I’d argue that Stack’s contributions over the past five games have been the most positive momentum the Bucks can take into the playoffs.  They’ll certainly need his fire power coming off the bench.

Ersan Ilyasova was as good as he typically is, his 15 points included a 2-3 showing from deep.  But the surprise of the night was the line Dan Gadzuric finished with.  14 points (7-12 FG), nine rebounds and even two steals from Gadz?  Really?  Had Brian Scalabrine and Shelden Williams not played a combined 58 minutes I’d be pretty excited about this.

That the Celtics backups were able to shoot 47% against his Bucks probably wasn’t even the biggest issue for Coach Skiles after Wednesday’s game.  No, it probably had a lot to do with Rajon Rondo owning the Bucks as usual.  21 points (7-12 FG 7-12 FT) and 15 assists for Rondo.  He was able to carve up the Bucks defense on numerous occasions, having very little trouble getting to where he wanted to be.

But really, it was probably difficult for Milwaukee to muster much in terms of defensive intensity during this game.  Seeing an opponent so brazenly lay down (and probably with valid reason, what did they have to play for after all?) can’t exactly inspire much fight out of a group, can it?  I say no.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the Bucks won this game more on talent than anything else.  With the Celtics resting their main men, Milwaukee simply had to show up and play like this game meant something and they were going to come away with a win.  And with Scott Skiles as the coach, it’s not very often the Bucks won’t do that.  But that’s not exactly the way this team envisioned entering the playoffs though.  The Bucks still don’t quite look as crisp defensively as they have throughout the season, Bogut or no Bogut.  And while it was nice to see them make some shots, there is still much to be desired from their offense.  But I guess there was only so much time to adjust without the big man.

So ready or not, it’s playoff time.

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One of the many keys to continued success the rest of the way for the Milwaukee Bucks was prominently on display Wednesday night at the Bradley Center.  They need balance.  A team that lacks a true star to begin with, the Bucks have needed to get something out of everyone all year, even before Andrew Bogut’s injury.  Now, they need balance more than ever.  And when they get it, good things can happen.  Milwaukee was about as balanced as they could be in their 108-89 victory over the Nets Wednesday night – 120 minutes for the starters, 120 minutes for the reserves.

While the Bucks starters were outscored 64-59 on the night, the bench did their part and then some, out-scoring New Jersey’s backups 49-25.  This shouldn’t have been surprising though.  The Nets are 11-67 for a reason.  They have some starters that are above-average players, but their bench is full of young, inexperienced and, as far as I could tell, relatively uninterested players.  New Jersey certainly looked the part of the league’s bottom feeder.  Everyone was hooting and hollering from the sidelines during a fast start by Devin Harris, but there was a clear sense of indifference as the game began to slip away.  But hey, a job is a job, and if I had a stat at my work that said we’d only had a successful day 11 out of the last 77 times we operated, I’d be waiting for a vacation myself.  But back to the bench.

Role player was a fitting definition of the Bucks reserves on this evening.

Jerry Stackhouse as “Low Post Scorer”

Upon signing Stackhouse earlier this season, Coach Skiles said he thought the veteran immediately became Milwaukee’s second best low post scorer.   Occasionally the Bucks had been going to him in the post, but with the other options the Bucks had, Bogut in the paint and Salmons everywhere, Stack’s post game had been a bit forgotten about.  Wednesday night it was front and center.  Time after time Milwaukee found Stackhouse in the post with a smaller (and often much younger) defender on him that he was able to take advantage of.  Stack finished with a much needed 18 points (6-9 FG 2-2 3FG 4-4 FT) after really struggling the last couple weeks.

“You get a couple drops here and there.  I feel like I got an advantage over whoever guarding me,” Stackhouse said with a wry smile.  “Guys know their role, they know what they do best, I think that’s what we have to do now.  We have to do what we do and don’t try and do more than that and we’ll be fine.”

Dan Gadzuric as “Awkward Hustling Big Man”

Gadz was the big goofy jumper we all remembered from years ago once again Wednesday night.  He can make you smile (eight rebounds in 17 minutes), he can make you cringe (a free throw line jumper … that went down smooth) and he can make you cry (never one to be outdone, he pulled a Brezec and fell down after a move by a Nets guard).  Gadz was out there running around and doing his best to play to his strengths, namely rebounding and shot-blocking.  He’s not getting to as many balls as he once did as a shot-blocker, but Gadz can certainly still grab some boards.

Charlie Bell as “The X Stopper”

While Bell is probably not as good a defender as his reputation suggests he is, he had another strong defensive outing against the Nets.  Devin Harris gave Milwaukee fits in the first quarter, scoring 18 of his 25 points, but Bell proved very effective on him when given the chance.

Bell played the entire second quarter, helping to limit Harris to just one point on zero shots from the field.  With Harris unaggressive, the Nets mustered little offense and were unable to build on the momentum of their big first quarter.  I joked that Bell probably hadn’t been playing much lately because he was busy traveling the country and stopping Dwyane Wade from doing things given the talk about him being the “Wade Stopper” earlier this year.  But Bell certainly played the role of top defender against the Nets.

Kurt Thomas as “A Different Kind of Center”

About the only thing Thomas does similar to Bogut is rebound.  Thomas again rebounded the ball very well Wednesday, grabbing 10 rebounds in 27 minutes.  In addition to his skills on the glass, Thomas showed he’s not going to hurt the Bucks offense.  His 15-foot jumper looks as reliable as ever and is helping to create space for the Bucks inside.

The Bucks veteran role players have traveled this path before and know what adversity is like.  Thus far, they’ve been shining examples on how the Bucks can keep the good times rolling without Andrew Bogut.

Offense

• John Salmons had 22 points (10-13 FG 1-2 3FG 1-2 FT).  This feels redundant.  In a good way.  Not like when I used to think to myself, “why can’t Tim Thomas ever grab more than five rebounds or score more than 15 points?”  That was the bad kind of redundant.

• He had a few points in garbage time to help pad the numbers, but Ersan Ilyasova’s points were on jumpers so smooth looking I wanted to grab them and put them in a commercial for milk chocolate.  15 points (7-12 FG 1-4 3FG 0-1 FT) and nine rebounds on the evening.  The consistently stellar production out of Ilyasova lately has been a total joy to watch.  It’s one thing to like having a player on a team, it’s another to have a player who is so much fun to watch on a team.  Ersan is the latter.

Defense

Bell, Thomas, Gadzuric and Stackhouse, the role players, all did their part defensively.  Stack had a breakaway dunk off a steal and that exceptional block you saw the highlight of above.  The Nets got into Milwaukee right off the bat, shooting 65% in the first quarter.  Obviously that wasn’t going to last and the Bucks made sure of it by holding them to 27% shooting in the second half.  Their point totals were 38 in the first quarter to only 31 in the second half.  Quite a difference a break makes.

Final Thoughts

I’d like to think it’s never easy for an NBA team and knowing the Nets are hungry for any wins they can get would make for a competitive game.  But I never felt like the Bucks would drop this one.  Even when the Nets were playing well, it seemed more luck than skill, save for Devin Harris.  What was surprising is how ineffective Brook Lopez was.  The Nets center has given Milwaukee fits in the past and with Bogut out, I thought he’d be the key to their whole game.  Perhaps he was too willing to defer (seven assists to just six shots).  Whatever the case may be, Lopez was hardly noticeable with just five points on 1-6 shooting.  I can live with that and I can certainly live with another Bucks win.  They’ll need all of them they can get to hold off Charlotte and stay in the top six.

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It’s a celebration. Take it away Kanye (more accurately, some kid lip-syncing Kanye).

Now everyone can take a breath.  The worst case scenario cannot come to pass.  The Milwaukee Bucks are officially going to be in the playoffs.

It was fitting the Bucks clinched in a game filled with errant jumpers, ball-control, defense and anything else that’s unsexy about basketball.  After all, this is a team that’s second from the bottom of the league in field goal percentage, has turned the ball over the fifth fewest times and has the third highest defensive rating.  “Fear the Deer” has been the team’s calling card of late, but Tuesday’s victory was certainly more the “Work Hard, Play Hard” variety.

Certainly, sub-40% shooting (36.4% on the night for Milwaukee) efforts will not strike fear into the hearts of future Bucks opponents.  But right now Milwaukee is anything but a finished project heading into the playoffs.  As nice as it is to sit back and enjoy the clinch, Milwaukee still has a considerable amount of work ahead of them before April 17^th.  Near the top of that list is figuring out how the remaining pieces fit together.

Milwaukee tried out some different lineups Tuesday and they’ll likely do some mixing and matching again Wednesday.  The playoffs will not wait until the Bucks are comfortable in their new roles, so there is no time for Milwaukee to wait to figure out who’s going to need to do what.

Offense

I’m often asked what I think Ersan Ilyasova’s ceiling is.  Sometimes I say it’s probably not much different than the average persons, but that it’s likely higher considering he’s 6’10.  Occasionally this gets a chuckle; more often than not it gets an eye roll.  The rest of the time I say it’s nearly impossible to tell.  Coach Skiles has said he thinks Ersan will end up closer to a 37 or 38% shooter from behind the arc rather than hang around his current percentage which hovers at 34.5.  There’s no reason to think that improvement would remove his desire to get inside and do dirty work though.

Ilyasova is a very unique player.  That’s probably what makes him so difficult to project.  Any time I think I’ve got him down, he has games like the one he had Tuesday.  Simply put, Ilyasova was everywhere.  17 points (7-14 FG 1-5 3FG 2-2 FT), seven rebounds, a block and drew at least one charge.  As per usual, he kept a few other balls alive that teammates grabbed and spread peskyness all over the court.  Ers looked legit.

I knew increased minutes would mean more production for him, but this was more than that.  He looked like a much more confident player than he has at times this season, he looked like someone really coming into his own Tuesday night.   His pump fakes seemed to have purpose and his drives more decisive.  If this is the Ersan Ilyasova we’ll be seeing from here on out, then maybe this Bogut injury was not without its plusses.  Already apart of the Bucks plan, the increased everything surrounding Ilyasova could make him a much bigger factor next year.

• As much as I thought Ilyasova looked better on Tuesday, I was glad to see the familiarity of John Salmons getting buckets. 26 points (8-19 FG 3-6 3FG 7-8 FT) are all in a days work lately for Salmons.  As evidenced by his eight free throws, Salmons was the Buck taking it to the hole when shots weren’t falling.

The Center Report

Kurt Thomas filled in admirably for Bogut on Tuesday, grabbing 14 rebounds in just 30 minutes.  That sounds about right as far as minutes go for Thomas, especially for the rest of the regular season.  Come playoff time, all bets are off, but I’d think Coach Skiles would want to make sure he’s not wearing out the vet down the stretch.  Fortunately he hasn’t taken too much of a toll on his body this season.

As much as everyone (me included) makes fun of Dan Gadzuric, one thing is clear: he can rebound.  He’s awkward looking and often slaps balls out of bounds trying to keep them alive, but Gadz is a pretty good rebounder (four rebounds in 11 minutes).  His rebound rate actually eclipses Ersan Ilyasova’s (16.1-15.4), even if he can never stay on the floor.  Gadz’s 11 minutes weren’t a disaster, despite the fact that a pass hit him in the back while he wasn’t looking and he allowed the Bulls a 5-4 defensive possession while he hung back to tie his shoe that had come off.  Aside from that, I think I can live with everything else Gadz did.

Final Thoughts

After the heartbreak of Bogut’s injury, I’m sure this win puts the players’ collective minds at ease a bit.  It’s hard to take the foot off the gas at any point in time during the NBA season, but making the playoffs is still a big deal for this team.  I wouldn’t be shocked to see a very loose group at the Bradley Center Wednesday night against the Nets.  It’s possible some of the Bucks poor shooting Tuesday had something to do with the clinch on the line, the injury fresh in their minds and a crucial part of their identity watching the game at home.

But that can all be put to rest.  The Bucks know they can beat a good team without Bogut, they know they can shoot better than they did Tuesday and, most importantly, they know they won’t be going home early this year.

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