I don’t wish to alarm you, but slowly and surely over the past few years, something has changed in the Eastern Conference, little by little. And this season, it’s more evident than it has been in quite some time.

The East isn’t really the Least any more.

The 2004-05 season was the last time the Eastern Conference featured a playoff bracket without one team with a record either at .500 or below. You have to go back to the last lockout season, 1998-99 to find a season in which a team made it to the playoffs in the Western Conference with a .500 record. The West has been the best, in terms of volume of strong teams, for quite some time.

And the West is still deeper this season, with current eight seeds, the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies generally well regarded and currently sporting 10-7 records.

But this season, the Eastern Conference is as tough as it’s been 1-8 since the middle of the 2000s. The current top five is Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami and Philadelphia. Miami, Orlando and Chicago features superstars with supporting casts that have been tinkered with for multiple seasons now in an attempt to play to the strengths of their stars. Orlando has been an early surprise, but if they intend to keep Dwight Howard, and it seems they do at least through this season, they’ll always be relevant. Chicago and Miami are legitimate title contenders.

Atlanta and Philadelphia are on opposite ends of the “pretty good, but not great” spectrum. Philly is young and coming up. Jrue Holiday could still be something special and they have a number of guys in their early 20s learning how to be really good NBA players. We don’t know how good they’ll be by the end of this season or next, but we know they are a team worth watching for now thanks to their 12-5 record. The Hawks still have Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, so they still matter, as Bucks fans can attest to after Monday night’s loss. Al Horford is hurt, but the Hawks are still a tough team.

It gets no easier after that. Read more…

Enemy: Red94.net

Point Guard
Keyon Dooling vs. Kyle Lowry

Lowry is a very good defender, specifically, he’s one of the best guards in the league when it comes to taking charges.  He’s not altogether very impressive anywhere else on the court, though he can hit open threes when given a look.  Pretty much a run of the mill standard point guard, he could just be holding this spot warm until Aaron Brooks has a few more games back under his belt.  Dooling hasn’t shot well at all this season, but his 3-point shooting has come around a bit over the past two months.  He hit 38.5% of them in December and is holding fairly steady in January 36.8%.

Advantage: Rockets Read more…

Recap/Box Score/Enemy

Get familiar.

Okay, so maybe you’re not a Clinton Sparks fan.  That’s fine.  There are other ways to “get familiar.”

The Milwaukee Bucks finally looked like they had gotten familiar with each other Friday night against the Houston Rockets in their 97-91 victory.  Better yet, they re-familiarized themselves with each other.  A team that had looked so lost offensively for so long this season, finally resembled the cohesive group that shared the ball and scored inside and out last February.

As they often were last season, Milwaukee was led Friday night by the inside/out duo of Andrew Bogut and John Salmons. Bogut destroyed the Rockets front court trio of Chuck Hayes, Jordan Hill and Brad Miller and Salmons was able to play off his big man effectively.  Bogut tallied a monstrous 24 point, 22 rebound evening while hitting on 11 of 20 shots and Salmons filled in the gaps, scoring 17 points (7-12 FG 1-1 3FG 2-4 FT), dishing five assists and grabbing six rebounds.  Often in Bucks losses this season, either Bogut or Salmons and often both have left something to be desired offensively.  Friday night, they carried the load late for Milwaukee.

Bogut and Salmons combined for 26 of Milwaukee’s 50 second half points.  Bogut in particular had second half numbers that many centers would love to have for an entire game (15 points, 12 rebounds).  This may have been a sign that the chemistry between the two is returning.

“Right before Bogues got hurt last year, I feel me and him really got into a rhythm playing with each other,” Salmons said after the game.  “And I feel like today we had a similar feel.  He’s like … he’s a monster out there right now.”

So long as that monster is around and Salmons reminds the world how he earned the extension he received this summer, the Bucks could continue this miniature upswing they are on.  And then things will begin to feel really familiar. Read more…

Enemy: Red 94

Point Guard
Brandon Jennings vs. Kyle Lowry

Lowry is a muscle bound, defensive type of point guard, annually one of the league’s leaders in charges taken.  He’ll certainly turn the ball over some, that’s where the Bucks could really win this matchup.  Milwaukee is good at forcing turnovers, just not so good at scoring off them.  Jennings has a history of harassing opposing point guards as they bring the ball up the court and at the half court line; he may be able to get an easy bucket or two this way.  Milwaukee will need Jennings to rediscover his touch after a rough game against Indiana in which he made just two of five shots from 10-15 feet.  Jennings in between game often helps to make or break the Bucks.

Advantage: Bucks Read more…

It was easy to forget, considering the madness that was ensuing off the court with regard to the trade deadline, but the Bucks had a game Wednesday.

Actually, it’s important to check with sources at this time of the year.  So … let me … okay …

Yes … yes  I’m getting confirmation from numerous people close to the situation that the Bucks did indeed play on Wednesday night.

They just didn’t do it very well.

Possibly a bit rattled from speculation that each and everyone of them was about to be heading in a different direction, though don’t tell Scott Skiles that (more later), the Bucks took a snowball of a lifeless defensive second quarter and turned it into an avalanche of defenselessness in the third in an embarrassing 127-99 home loss.

Read more…