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.

Offense

As lopsided as the free-throws were, the Bucks still had some chances in the last minute.  But a turnover by Salmons off his knee after a strip and a pass to Lebron James by Luke Ridnour with the Bucks down three in the final seconds sealed the deal.  The Bucks have been so successful of late largely because of their sharing of and taking care of the ball.  Oddly enough, it was a carelessness that undid them in the end on Wednesday.

But honestly, if you give Lebron a chance at the end of the game, he’s going to make the most of it more often than not.  The Bucks were up three with two and a half minutes left when Bogut botched a layup attempt that could have made it a two possession game and had the Bucks in the driver’s seat.  Naturally, the Cavs scored the next four points and took the lead.  They are far too good a team to be given opportunities with the game on the line.

• Salmons was once again a load: 28 points (9-16 FG 3-7 3FG 7-7 FT) seven assists and five rebounds.  It’s funny that in a game hyped up as a bit of a revenge match for a team that talks too much for some people against a rookie that talks too much for some people, the best player was the quietest guy on the court.  Salmons goes about his business, rarely complaining and never puffing out his chest, but he keeps getting it done for the Bucks.  He’s been as reliable as it gets as a half court scorer and creator that can get to and finish at the rim.

• Bogut was close to matching Salmons production with another strong night: 19 points (9-17 FG 1-2 FT) to go with 12 rebounds and three blocks.  Unfortunately, the Bucks were unable to get consistent production out of a third source on Wednesday.  Sure, they got some scoring out of Ersan Ilyasova (13 and five), Kurt Thomas (10 and seven) and Luke Ridnour (13 points and 11 assists), but didn’t have a consistent third wheel to turn to.  The Bucks are operating on all cylinders when Brandon Jennings is that third guy, but he was shaky at the start and Ridnour got the call down the stretch again, as has been the case when he’s played well.

• On Sunday, the Bucks broke out the Thomas and Bogut frontcourt tandem for the first time this season and we saw it again against the Cavs.  I’ve envisioned this to be a top-notch defensive team, but against Cleveland they were a very good scoring combo inside.  The problem comes when Bogut tires.  It didn’t happen against Cleveland, but the fear of playing them together is that it makes way for a Primoz Brezec or Dan Gadzuric sighting.  That’s always a frightening thought.

Defense

The Bucks were lucky that Cleveland is such a poor free-throw shooting team.  Of their 45 free-throws, Cleveland hit just 29.  James found a wall of Bucks defenders everywhere he went, often starting with Charlie Bell (who put up a better fight than I expected) who had Bogut, Thomas and/or Ilyasova behind him.  James shot just 7-17 to get his 23 points and only made 9-13 from the free-throw line.  No, James wasn’t the biggest issue for the Bucks on Wednesday, it was his supporting cast that stepped up against the Bucks.

The Bucks Killer Delonte West had another 12 points against Milwaukee, continuing to find ways to punish Bucks defenders and Mo Williams rediscovered his jump shot in scoring 21 points on 6-12 shooting (2-5 3FG 7-8 FT).  When it wasn’t those two, it was Antawn Jamison (12 points) or J.J. Hickson (14 points) chipping in.  There was a lot of Cavs finding the bottom of the net.

Final Thoughts

As cool as this win would have been, it wasn’t the most important game of the week even.  That would be Friday’s game against the too-close-for-comfort Charlotte Bobcats.  A win in Cleveland would have been a terrific boost heading to Charlotte, but it was just not meant to be.  Tough as it may be to do, Milwaukee needs to get past this game quick, because Charlotte isn’t going to be any easier or more friendly.

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(Likely) Inactives: Roko Ukic, Francisco Elson and Joe Alexander

at

Cleveland Cavaliers (Mike Brown) 19-7

(Likely) Inactives: Leon Powe, Danny Green and Coby Karl

Date: 12/18/2009

Time: 7:00

TV: ESPN, FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Mo Williams

Mo just keeps hitting three’s.  He’s up to 44 percent this year, a career high, and it’s easy to assume he’s feasting on kick outs from Lebron James, but that might not be the sole explanation for Mo Money’s success.  68 percent of his three-point shots have come off assists, or the lowest percentage in his last four seasons.  Last year, 80 percent of his three’s came off assists.  When he gets ready to pull up or catches a pass outside, it’ll be important for Jennings or Ridnour to run Williams off the three-point line, as his shooting percentage takes a sharp turn for the worse between 16 and 23 feet.  From 44 percent to 34 percent, the lowest number he’s put up in years.  This is another national stage for Jennings to burst back out, but that sort of thing doesn’t really seem to matter to him.   He’s more focused on a win for the team than the spotlight for himself.  If they both happen, they both happen, but Jennings has shown that wins mean a whole lot more to him.  It should be interesting to see how Jennings and Redd mesh over these next few games.

Advantage: Cavs (If only for the cohesiveness)

Shooting Guard

Carlos Delfino vs. Anthony Parker

Anthony Parker will hit a three or two in this game, make few mistakes and generally go unnoticed.  But that good kind of unnoticed, like how you don’t really think about an offensive linemen or fullback, because they don’t have fancy jobs, they just do dirty work.  This is the perfect role for a smart veteran shooter like Parker.  He’s absolutely perfect for the Cavs, much better than a Wally Sczerbiak type of guy who can shoot, but can’t pass or play defense or anything else for that matter.  Parker is nice.  Delfino is a roller-coaster.  Good games, bad games.  Great plays, boneheaded three-point shots.  Terrific defense, mental lapses.  It’s all there with Delfino.  At any rate, his minutes could be on the fast track down now that Redd may be back in basketball shape, especially if Ridnour keeps delivering at the two.

Advantage: Cavs

Small Forward

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute vs. Lebron James

Luc’s going to give the King everything he’s got.  He’ll make him work and did an okay job on him in the Cavs last game against Milwaukee.  Of course, Lebron didn’t need to break much of a sweat with Delonte West in full on beast mode.  The Bucks would be wise to match LRMAM’s minutes as close to LBJ’s as possible.  If only LRMAM could bring ANY offense to the table at all he’d be worlds more valuable than he already is, which is quite valuable.

Advantage: Cavs

Power Forward

Ersan Ilyasova vs. J.J. Hickson

Ilyasova has the highest plus/minus of any Milwaukee Buck, and at plus 73, is the only Buck that ranks in the NBA’s top 50 in this category.  That says a little about his importance.  When he’s really got his stretch four game going, it helps open the floor for Milwaukee and get their offense flowing.  The problem is he doesn’t always have it going and as primarily a jump-shooter, he is part of the problem when the Bucks fall into their offensive funks.  But Ilyasova’s plucky rebounding effort has been symbolic of the hard work mentality the Bucks have taken on this year.

Advantage: Bucks

Center

Andrew Bogut vs. Shaquille O’Neal

Shaq was saddled with some foul trouble early in the Cavs romp over the Bucks earlier this month, but did catch a nice lob or two from Lebron as I recall.  He’s still someone to be reckoned with, but seems to cause more problems for the Cavs still at this point than the other team.  It’s a work in progress and he’s really there for the playoffs, but so far I still don’t love the Shaq move for Cleveland.  Bogut has strung together four straight above average games, some of them coming against tough, lengthy defender, but he’s had Shaq problems in the past.  Bucks fans are always hedging on whether or not they should truly rely on Bogut for that nightly near double-double or not, this will be another good test on how far he’s come with regard to reliability.

Advantage: Bucks (if only for importance to team)

Michael Redd, Luke Ridnour, Hakim Warrick, Charlie Bell and Kurt Thomas

vs.

Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varajeo and Jamario Moon

West is the wild card here.  He torched the Bucks in the aforementioned previous meeting, but it’s unclear if he’ll play and unclear what his current issues are.  He’s been dealing with a variety of personal issues and has some mental health problems that we can only help clear up at some point for him.  Those things are tough for anyone to deal with, much less a celebrity like West.  Even without West the Cavs boast a deep and talented bench, with the shooter Gibson, the skilled big man Ilgauskas and hustlers Varajeo and Moon.  Redd was back to form Wednesday getting up shots left and right and occasionally carrying the Bucks offense.  It looks like the days of 29-0 droughts are over for Milwaukee if Redd has anything to say about it.  If the Bucks can get Redd, Jennings and Bogut all going at once, they’ll be a very interesting team to say the least.

Advantage: Milwaukee

Prediction: Cavs 102 – Bucks 98

Road games are still no walk in the park for the Bucks.  It’s great to see them take the Lakers down to the wire at home, and beat the Raptors and Blazers, but the road is still another challenge.  I wouldn’t bet against them figuring it out a little better in the coming weeks than they did earlier in the season, but they still have yet to beat anyone important on the road.  If Milwaukee’s able to rely more heavily on the veterans Redd and Bogut they’ll be much better served in road games, as Jennings seems more hesitant outside of Milwaukee without a crowd behind him.

All that being said, if we saw a repeat of the early December shellacking that took place in Milwaukee, I’d be astonished.  Milwaukee’s confidence has risen considerably after it was near an all-time low when these team’s last met.  Milwaukee will be up for this one, but simply don’t have the talent at this point to pull it out.

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