From tip to finish, there were virtually no surprises in Milwaukee’s 83-75 loss to the Chicago Bulls Saturday night.  Both teams represented themselves well on the defensive end, as you’d expect the second and fifth ranked defensive teams in the league to do.  Milwaukee shot under 40%, as they often do.  Luol Deng played well against the Bucks, as he often does.  It was a pretty run of the mill evening.

Until the game was over.

Post game, Brandon Jennings let loose with some of his frustrations after another subpar performance.

“It ain’t like last year,” Jennings noted after making just two of six shots in 28 fourth quarter-less minutes.  ”I’m not the go-to guy like I was last year. When I get the ball, I guess I’ve got to do something with it, because I know I probably won’t get it back.”

Jennings statements didn’t seem to be made with much malice.  Instead they were rather matter of fact admissions regarding things out of his hands that Jennings doesn’t appear to be thrilled with.  And while things obviously aren’t like last year across the board, it’s worth looking into how much weight his words hold.

Milwaukee’s young point guard is having virtually the same exact season he had last year, having replaced last season’s flaw of terrible finishing at the rim (up to 50.4% at rim from 42.7% last season) with worse three-point shooting this season (down from 37.4% last season to 33.3% this season).  He’s attempting less than a half a shot game less this season than he did last and has a nearly identical rate of possessions used (shots or turnovers per possession on court).

It’s after dramatic statements like the ones he made on Saturday night when it’s worth noting again that Jennings is 21-years-old.  He’s being asked to play an important role on a team full of bad basketball players, and the results haven’t been good this year.  His game hasn’t progressed as many hoped and the team has taken a big step backwards this season.  He’s frustrated, just like everyone else and while he and his teammates have spent most of the season attributing blame internally first before unto their teammates, eventually players are going to start looking around, that’s only human nature.

And after a game in which Jennings failed to so much as attempt a three-point shot for the first time all year, he looked around.  Most of Jennings threes come off drive and kicks from his teammates.  There weren’t many kicks to be had on Saturday, possibly because of the Bulls defense, possibly because Milwaukee’s wings just didn’t think it was ever the correct play.

Saturday, Jennings certainly didn’t seem to factor into the game, but that hasn’t been the story this season.  He’s often controlled the Bucks offense when on the court and it’s misguided to say the Bucks offense hasn’t run through their leading scorer this season.  He’s had his chances.  Saturday night was a frustrating experience for a 21-year-old searching for answers after another embarrassing loss, nothing more and nothing less.

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Recap/Box Score/Enemy

If you only have been watching Bucks games this season, you’re certainly aware of the three-point shot, but you may not have known how quickly it can turn a game around.

Now you know.

The simple way to explain Milwaukee’s improbable comeback from down 11 points to begin the fourth quarter is like this: they got hot.  Hot enough to outscore the Atlanta Hawks by 19 points in the fourth quarter on their way to a 98-90 victory in Milwaukee Wednesday night.

It started with Carlos Delfino.  Having struggled miserably in his first three games back from injury, some were calling for reduced minutes, or at least reduced shots for Delfino.  At least until he started making shots again.  Things can turn quickly in basketball though and Delfino appeared to have found his form early Wednesday night.  Delfino had made two of four threes heading into the fourth quarter.  He then hit another on Milwaukee’s first possession of the fourth quarter to cut Atlanta’s lead to eight and by the time he made his third and final three in the period, he was putting the Bucks up five.

He didn’t do it all by himself though.

Former D-Leaguer Garrett Temple sprinkled in a pair of timely threes and Earl Boykins went on one of his patented shot-making sprees to key a Bucks offense that had been lifeless throughout the game.  Defensively the Bucks kept after the Hawks and Atlanta did little to put pressure back onto a surging Milwaukee team.  The Hawks had been moving the ball well enough to get good looks and got solid play inside from Al Horford for three quarters.  But when things fell apart in the fourth quarter, the team started relying on Josh Smith jump-shots to get them back into the game.  Predictably, that failed miserably.

And on every miss the Bucks had a little more energy and countered with the plays they needed to make.

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Recap/Box Score/Enemy

Before Saturday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Bucks coach Scott Skiles discussed how Memphis big man Zach Randolph could alter a game.

“He’s one of those rare guys who can do it in different ways,” Skiles said.  “He can get the ball in the low post with his back to the basket, he’s got multiple moves and put fouls on you and he can score.  You take that away and he’ll pop out, shoot spot-up shots from even college three type distance.  He can put it on the floor and shoot off the dribble.”

With all that in mind, Skiles said Randolph wasn’t an ideal matchup for the Bucks best defender Andrew Bogut.

“That’s not Bogues’ (Bogut’s) strength.  People tend to just drive right by him when he’s out there.”

So, while Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders spent the majority of the night guarding Radolph with mixed results, Bogut stuck with Grizzlies center Marc Gasol.  And Gasol, as if he had heard what Skiles said earlier in the evening, went to work on Bogut.

With Milwaukee trailing by just three points heading into halftime, Gasol came out in the third quarter with a purpose.  He caught the ball at the free throw line on a number of occasions, faced up and attacked Bogut off the dribble.  When he wasn’t attacking, he was crashing the offensive glass to putback misses by teammates when Bogut would attempt to block their shots at the rim.  He led the Grizzlies in scoring in Memphis’s crucial third quarter run, scoring 11 of their 29 points and was key to their points in the paint advantage in the quarter (22-12) and the entire game (56-42).

On a night when Milwaukee’s offense struggled again (37.8% shooting), it was the defensive breakdowns throughout that third quarter that allowed Memphis to pad their lead.  The Bucks would spend the fourth quarter battling back, but failed to both get stops and make shots when they most needed to.

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Recap/Box Score/Enemy

The roar of the crowd late in the fourth quarter of Milwaukee’s 100-87 win over the Washington Wizards Wednesday night seemed a little out place.  Milwaukee had been up virtually the entire period and had long put away the hapless, 0-20 on the road, Wizards.

But the crowd went wild after two Larry Sanders free throws with :12 seconds remaining.  There would be snack wraps.  For just the third time this season, the Bucks surpassed the always challenging 100-point plateau in a home victory.  Certainly not something anyone would have expected after Milwaukee’s rough first quarter.

The Bucks made just five of 18 shots in the first (27.8%) and trailed a hot-shooting Wizards team by eight after one.  But as Milwaukee’s been doing for much of the season, they spent the second quarter crawling back into the game.  Getting back into games hasn’t been much of a problem for the Bucks.  For all of their losses this season to powerhouse competitors and bottom-feeders alike, not very often have the Bucks been blown out.  It’s been getting past a tie that’s been a challenge for them.

That’s where playing the league’s worst teams comes into play.  On a night where the Bucks were by no means at their sharpest, they still were able to blow past the Wizards in a third quarter in which Milwaukee shot 68.8% and limited the Wizards to 25% shooting.  The Bucks grabbed the lead for good halfway through the third quarter and never looked back, eventually winning by 13.  It wasn’t always easy for Milwaukee though.  Coach Scott Skiles said before the game that as much as he wanted a win against Washington, he wanted to see a strong performance out of his team.

” No,” Skiles said when asked after the game if he got the game he wanted from his team.  “I don’t want to take anything away from them, but we can’t be satisfied.  If we were playing Orlando tonight, or the Celtics tonight, we gotta play better than that.  The guys know that.  We can’t be in celebration mode right now, there’s still a lot of things we need to do better.” Read more…

Lou Williams clutch shot didn’t bother me.  The mere fact that he was in position to take and make the shot?  Now that was a problem.

In the last minute of a close game in the NBA, virtually anything can happen.  Just a week ago we saw Earl Boykins dribble around for an entire possession before knifing into the lane to drop in a layup over a 7-foot-3 Zyndrunas Ilgauskas. In those final ticks, that’s just the sort of thing that happens.  So Williams draining a three with 45 seconds to go didn’t shock me.

That’s why teams that win a lot of games don’t allow games to be decided in the final minute.  Teams that are really good, that want to be higher seeds in the playoffs, that will win the vast majority of their games, they win this game by five or 10 points.  Milwaukee had their chances to do so and they failed miserably.

On three separate occasions in the fourth quarter, Milwaukee had the possession of both the ball and the lead.  And on all three occasions the Bucks blew an opportunity to extend their lead.  The worst scenario was the final.  Milwaukee led 94-92 with 1:45 to play.  22 seconds of horrific offense later, Boykins launched an errant three.  Fortunately Milwaukee was able to corral the offensive rebound.  Hope was not lost.

Until Drew Gooden was forced to chuck a 3-pointer with 57 second remaining.  He missed.  Because he’s Drew Gooden and he isn’t supposed to be shooting threes in the final minute of a winnable NBA game.  Lou Williams would not miss, just like the rest of the Sixers Friday night.

And the Bucks are now nine games under .500, the worst they’ve been since 2004-05 (H/T Brewhoop). Read more…