Recap/Box Score/Enemy

In Orlando Wednesday night, Milwaukee made a run in the fourth quarter to make things look respectable, but trailed by double digits virtually the entire game.  The culprit?  A shooting percentage that hovered under 33% again for the majority of the evening.

It was the same story that’s played out so many times before for the Bucks this season.  Shoot so horribly throughout the majority of the game, then try and furiously scramble back into the game once a few shots finally fall.  The Bucks made exactly one third of their shots before the fourth quarter, and then shot 12 of 21 in the final period.  They pulled within five at one point, but after Hedo Turkoglu answered with a three, they failed to get inside of eight points the rest of the way.  They got close enough in the fourth that it seemed feasible and really made you damn their 15 of 32 outing from the free throw line.

But an offense like the Bucks holds them back so dearly.

If Milwaukee was just bad offensively, and by that I mean a steady 40% shooting team through the first three quarters, they would have kept the game close enough for their final run to possibly put them over the top.  Milwaukee’s rarely just bad offensively though.  They’re more frequently historically bad offensively.

Their outing dropped their offensive rating to 99.7 for the season.  No team since the pre-Chris Paul New Orleans Hornets of 2004-05 has been so bad.  Those Hornets are the ones that were held hostage by Baron Davis and suited up 22 different players that season while starting 19 different faces.  Starters on that team include: Casey Jacobson, Lee Nailon, Jackson Vroman, Bostjan Nachbar and Junior Harrington. That’s the team the Bucks are playing like offensively.

The season before though, two teams finished with an offensive rating lower than 99.7.  The Toronto Raptors and … Scott Skiles’ Chicago Bulls.  Skiles was fired after 66 games, but the team continued to play horribly after his exit.  That scenario likely won’t play out this season, as Milwaukee is still one of the league’s premier defensive squads and firing Skiles hardly seems like an offensive solution for this team, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless.  The last time a Skiles team performed this poorly offensively, he ended up out of a job. Read more…

Enemy: MagicBasketball.net

Point Guard
Keyon Dooling vs. Jameer Nelson

Nelson is a good matchup for Dooling.  He’s small and not overwhelmingly fast, so Dooling should be able to put lots of pressure on him using his length advantage.  Nelson knows this offense very well though and always keeps spacing on the court.  He’s a very good shooter and certainly someone who Dooling cannot leave to double team Howard should the Bucks choose to do so.  Historically, Milwaukee wants to prevent the Magic from getting many open looks outside, so look for Dooling to rarely stray from Nelson.

Advantage: Magic Read more…

The Bucks don’t do a lot of back to backing, at least they haven’t yet this year.  After the up-coming couplet with Toronto, the Bucks have double takes with Miami and Washington later on this year.  In the interest of avoiding repetitiveness, this preview is intended to cover the both of the Raptors games.  In reward for your going along with this, I’ll do my best to cook up a fun little feature in lieu of a preview before the Raps game on Friday.

Enjoy.

Milwaukee Bucks (16-23)

(Probable) Inactives: Francisco Elson and Joe Alexander

vs.

Toronto Raptors (21-21)

(Probable) Inactives: Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Reggie Evans

Dates: 1/20/2010 & 1/22/2010

Time: 7:00 (CST) & 6:00 (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin & None (Boooo)

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Jarrett Jack

Jennings is coming off a statistically aesthetically pleasing game against the Rockets.  This is no small feat, as he hasn’t done a lot of fine box score work in the past month or two.   It will be fun to see how he performs against a larger guard coming off a strong game.  Jack checks in at 6′3, 202 pounds and has taken the reigns as the starting point guard in Toronto after the team’s upswing under his guidance with Jose Calderon out for a while in the last two months.  Since the start of December, Jack has been up around 50 percent shooting and hitting nearly 40 percent of his threes.  He also provides more defense than Calderon, who has never been known as a lockdown defender at the point.

Advantage: Bucks Read more…