It’s one thing when a team is caught off guard and unprepared. Sometimes reserve players have huge games or rookies that haven’t been around the league yet show off a part of their game that the league hasn’t caught onto yet. Those situations are understandable.  It’s another thing when a team does a few things repeatedly and keeps having success with it, even when an opponent knows what’s coming.

That was the frustrating scenario the Milwaukee Bucks lived through on Tuesday night. The Denver Nuggets were hitting the outlet off made baskets. They were hitting it off misses. They were going coast to coast. They couldn’t be stopped in the first half, even though the Bucks knew it was coming.

Layups and threes. It was so simple for the Denver Nuggets  Tuesday and it wasn’t an accident. Denver averages 33.5 shots at the rim per game, the highest number in the league and it isn’t even close. Miami ranks second with just under 28.5 attempts at the rim per game.

“The percentages league wide show that’s where you win: At the rim and behind the line,” Scott Skiles said before taking on the Nuggets Tuesday night. “People are always looking for the guys that have sort of the in-between game. But the percentage show, not that they’re meaningless shots, but that it’s the shots at the rim and behind the line. They pass the ball very well and you have to get back. They penetrate very well.”

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Recap/Box Score/Enemy

For the Bucks to score consistently and be a good offensive team in general, someone different has to step up every game.  That was the line on the Bucks earlier this season.  Since then, things have kind of went awry and rather than having someone step up every night, more often than not, no one has.

That’s the drawback to the Bucks model.  Players that aren’t stars won’t be as consistent about getting it done every night.  But with so many options, the theory went, everyone wouldn’t be off every night and that would balance out the inconsistencies.  But there has been no balance.  Just a lot of missed shots all season.

But Wednesday night?  Wednesday night was a little bit more like the Bucks expected this season.  It seemed to be the exception to a season long funk.  But then reality set in.  At about the same time it always does for the Bucks.  Late in the fourth quarter.

With 4:22 remaining, Milwaukee scored points 85 and 86 on a John Salmons jumper.  That would be their final field goal.  Only one Andrew Bogut free throw down the stretch prevented the Bucks from going scoreless, as they blew a lead that was as large as five points in the fourth quarter in a 94-87 loss to the Denver Nuggets Wednesday night.

Milwaukee missed its final 10 shots as the Nuggets slowly pulled away.  The Bucks saw their shooting percentage plummet from 44.3% to their final total of 38.8%.  It was a scene all too familiar to Bucks fans, even though the rest of the game seemed to be a revolution.

Brandon Jennings and Bogut were unable to find their form early, at halftime, late or ever, but players around them rose to the challenge.  Salmons in particular seemed to seize the ESPN spotlight before Milwaukee melted down. Salmons finished with his highest scoring total as a member of the Bucks, 33 points.

At about the same time he seems to do so annually, Salmons has begun to look like the guy the Bucks traded for last February.  Against the Nuggets, all those shots that had been rimming out earlier this season found the bottom of the net.  The more they did, the more confident Salmons looked.  There was no hesitation by the fourth quarter.  He attacked the hoop not worrying about anyone on the Nuggets impeding his progress and, most importantly, he finished.  At least until the finish.

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Recap/Box Score

After intensity lagged considerably against the Clippers and Kings, one could only assume things had to get better against the Nuggets for the Bucks Saturday.  Unfortunately, they were coming off a double overtime game Friday night, got to their hotel around four in the morning Milwaukee time and were facing a team with the third best home record in the league.  So this one was over before it started.

I mean, you just can’t expect to write the Bucks off so easily and then not have them win.  That’s just not how they roll.

Forgive me for sounding like a broken record lately, but once again, the Bucks have another win that can be placed on the pedestal as “their best win of the year”.  That’s becoming a recurring theme, no?  Beat the Cavs, (still a good win even if they were without Lebron James) best win of the year.  A full strength Celtics team drops one to the Bucks: Milwaukee’s best win of the year.  The scorching hot Jazz can’t topple the Bucks either?  That was the best win of the year.  Regardless of which win was your personal favorite or which one should stand out as the signature on what’s becoming a thrill ride of a Bucks season, they all count for one and they’re all sending the same message: these Milwaukee Bucks are for real.

I will say I enjoy the road wins a little more, especially the ones against upper-echelon teams.  For so long the Bucks have been automatic losses when heading into opponents territory, even as recently as earlier this season.  Now the Bucks have a fighting chance wherever they go.  Scott Skiles said earlier this year that he thought it’d take 15 road wins for this team to make it to the playoffs.  As he was saying that he was pining for a signature road win too.  He wanted to beat a real legit team on their court, probably for the sake of his own guys’ mentality.  If they want to win in the playoffs, they’re going to have to beat some playoff teams on the road.  As recently as Saturday morning, the Bucks still hadn’t proven to themselves that they could do that.

Well, they finally did it Saturday night.  Even sweeter?  They did it in their 15^th road win.  Playoffs … playoffs … playoffs … Read more…

Box score/Recap/Roundball Mining Company/Brew Hoop

A trait you’ll often see in the best point guards is the ability to know when to get others involved and when to take shots themselves.  Often, early in the game they like to get their teammates involved, get them in rhythm and comfortable.  If the other guys are feeling it, that makes a point guard’s night much easier.  As the game goes on the best point guards may take things upon themselves a little bit more though, if things are getting tense and the team needs a big basket or two, the greats have always had the ability to turn the meter to 11 and guide their team to victory.  So what’s the best way to explain what Brandon Jennings did against Denver?

First quarter:  0 points 4 assists

Fourth quarter: 14 points 0 assists

He knew when it was time for him to take over. Read more…

Denver Nuggets (George Karl) 5-2

(Likely) Inactives: Johan Petro

At

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 3-2

(Likely) Inactives: Michael Redd, Joe Alexander and Francisco Elson

Game Time: 7:00

TV: Fox Sports Wisconsin

Match-ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Chauncey Billups

Billups is the ideal result of any combo point guard in the league.  He bounced around, people weren’t sure if he was a scorer or a passer, but he figured things out about six years into his career.  The idea of Chauncey Billups is probably as intimidating as any match-up for point guards in the league.  Billups is the go-to-guy whenever someone is describing a veteran, muscley, big, winning point guard.  Upon arriving in Denver last year, Billups changed the culture and held players accountable as defenders and teammates.  At 33, Billups is still going strong thanks to a game that relies on strength and smarts rather than speed.  Jennings will learn a lot by watching the tape of this one when it’s done.

Advantage: Nuggets Read more…