Between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics, things are getting a tad chippy.

(For more on the Celtics, check out TrueHoop Network Boston Celtics blog, CelticsHub)

Well, I’ll give the Celtics one thing.  As far as a team the Bucks can learn from, they won’t be a bad playoff opponent.  It looks like it’ll make for an entertaining series to boot.

In another game that had a couple chippy moments, the Bucks lost a game that didn’t really mean all that much in front of a sold out Bradley Center crowd Saturday night, 105-90.  And when I say it didn’t mean all that much, I’m referring to the fact that it’s looking more and more like these two teams are going to end up seeing each other in the first round of the playoffs.  Atlanta won again Saturday, they’ll likely beat out Boston for the third seed and while the Bucks lost, they still hold a half game lead for fifth and have a tiebreaker over Miami.  But I think a few things in this one meant a little something.

Teams that play hard defense can occasionally rub their opponents the wrong way and both the Celtics and the Bucks do this.  Teams that have won a championship with a core that’s slipping off the top of its perch often give the impression to new challengers that they aren’t worthy.  Boston has won a title with this core.  Teams that haven’t made the playoffs in some time and are making their first run together often want to prove like they belong.  That’d be the Bucks.  So we’re looking at a first round series between the “Old Irish” and the “Young Bucks”, one on the way down, the other on the way up.  They’ll meet in the middle, chips on shoulders in tow.

So believe me when I write that the miniature dust-ups mean at least mean a little something.  No one wants to be disrespected in the NBA.  No one.

But the Celtics are a great first round opponent for tons of reasons.  Not just because they appear most beatable, but because the Bucks can learn lots from their guys.  They can see the intensity they’ll need.  They can feel the type of defense pressure that wins games in the playoffs.  They can see a star at work in fourth quarters in Paul Pierce, watch what he does and how he operates.

But not all the Celtics serve that purpose.  Some of the Celtics are in need of some learning themselves.  Frankly, on Saturday night, Glen “Big Baby” Davis looked like, well, pardon the obvious pun, but, a Big Baby.  His reaction to a hard foul by Kurt Thomas led to a technical for his time, an on court talking to by Celtics Coach Doc Rivers and … a flagrant foul on Thomas?  Perhaps Davis did know what he was doing.  It’s possible he was just working the refs.

Ah, working the refs.  Few skills seem more difficult to develop in the NBA or as valuable.  The Celtics are always reminding the refs which team has a title under the belt, though not so obviously.  Constantly, you’ll see a Celtic put their arm around the ref, scowl after a call or, in Rasheed Wallace’s case, scream “and one” every shot attempt.  This was a Michael Redd specialty and, truth be told, may be the area where the Bucks will miss him most during the playoffs.  But playing the masters of this craft will give the Bucks an up close and personal tutoring session on this ever so necessary skill.

Of course, Milwaukee will have plenty of time to watch and learn once this regular season gets out of the way and the playoffs start.  This was simply the appetizer before round one.  Hopefully Milwaukee was paying attention. Read more…

Recap/Box Score

One of the many keys to continued success the rest of the way for the Milwaukee Bucks was prominently on display Wednesday night at the Bradley Center.  They need balance.  A team that lacks a true star to begin with, the Bucks have needed to get something out of everyone all year, even before Andrew Bogut’s injury.  Now, they need balance more than ever.  And when they get it, good things can happen.  Milwaukee was about as balanced as they could be in their 108-89 victory over the Nets Wednesday night – 120 minutes for the starters, 120 minutes for the reserves.

While the Bucks starters were outscored 64-59 on the night, the bench did their part and then some, out-scoring New Jersey’s backups 49-25.  This shouldn’t have been surprising though.  The Nets are 11-67 for a reason.  They have some starters that are above-average players, but their bench is full of young, inexperienced and, as far as I could tell, relatively uninterested players.  New Jersey certainly looked the part of the league’s bottom feeder.  Everyone was hooting and hollering from the sidelines during a fast start by Devin Harris, but there was a clear sense of indifference as the game began to slip away.  But hey, a job is a job, and if I had a stat at my work that said we’d only had a successful day 11 out of the last 77 times we operated, I’d be waiting for a vacation myself.  But back to the bench.

Role player was a fitting definition of the Bucks reserves on this evening. Read more…

Recap/Box Score

Even if it was a game later than Bucks fans would like, the REAL Los Angeles Clippers showed up in Milwaukee on Tuesday night.  You know, the team that doesn’t (can’t?) defend, that takes bad shots and appears to go without an offensive strategy for significant portions of the game.  That’s the Clippers we’ve all come to know and love, that’s the Clippers that opposing teams love to see, that’s the Clippers Milwaukee got on Tuesday.  The results were predictable.

Using runs of 10-0 in the first quarter and 18-8 in the second, the Bucks never lost their double digit lead in the second half.  And that was before a dust-up renewed the Bucks interest in a game that they had been keeping at arms length.

That seemed to pique the interest of the Bucks and more importantly, drew the interest of a crowd that had been in and out of the game beforehand.  I’ve carried with me the vague memory of the Bradley Center crowd’s airline hangar noise level from the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals, but it’s hard to recall that.  That was nearly 10 years ago and rarely has there been much to get all that excited about since then.  So when a moment crops up that get the crowd more than just “involved” in the game, those are the best.  After the miniature dust-up, Squad Six began an “An-drew Bo-gut” chant.  Soon the whole crowd joined in.  Bogut noticed.

“That was pretty cool.  I haven’t seen the place rockin’ like that for a while, where the whole crowd got involved.  Hopefully we can encourage the rest of our fans out there to feel free to join in when Squad Six is chanting, it brings a great atmosphere.”

That atmosphere Bogut has been looking to recapture?  That’s called a playoff atmosphere.  It helped that Bogut’s Squad Six has been at it game in and game out, but Milwaukee has a history of stepping up in the moment.

And its basketball team is looking like they can play that game too. Read more…

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 40-32

vs.

Los Angeles Clippers (Kim Hughes) 27-46

Date: 3/30/2010
Time: 7:00 (CST)
TV: FS Wisconsin

Matchups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Steve Blake

Baron Davis is not accompanying the Clippers on their road trip due to back spasms, leaving Blake at the helm.  This is significantly good news for the Bucks.  Davis is quite physically imposing and really played well the last time these teams met.  Blake is more of a fit in kind of guy, rather than a take over kind of guy.  He can hit threes and he runs an okay game, but he won’t be able to punish Jennings or harass him too much defensively.

Advantage: Bucks Read more…

Recap/Box Score

And we have a new word for the glossary.

The Trap Game.

The trap game is simple.  Let’s say you have a team that’s been hot, really hot, like let’s say 15-2 over their last 17 games hot.  And there were some pretty good wins in that 15, like recent ones over Denver, in Denver nonetheless, and at home against a possible playoff opponent in Atlanta.  There are some tough games coming up too, like the one against another team fighting for playoff positioning in the conference.  But there’s a game before the schedule toughens up.  A game against a team languishing near the bottom of the conference, a team that hasn’t performed up to expectations and is caught in some sort of purgatory, not super bad, but without much of a future.  They come out sluggish and look like they weren’t completely ready for this team and … they blow it.

That’s your trap game and that’s what happened to the Bucks Wednesday night against the Sixers.

Milwaukee had been coming out flat for the last few games, but typically clawed their way back into them and found a way to win.  In Sacramento it took overtime and a little bit of luck, but the Bucks kept it close enough to be lucky.  Against Atlanta, John Salmons got hot and carried the Bucks past the Hawks.  But there was no getting hot against Philadelphia, there was no keeping it close and there was no happy ending, just a disappointing loss that detracts from the impressive win in Denver last Saturday.  Beating the better teams means a lot more when a team takes care of business against the dregs of the league and the Bucks were unable to do that against Philly.

So, losing a trap game is an issue, but I took something else out of this one too, something that means much more.

Coming into the year, the Sixers were supposed to be a good team and it’s possible that’s the team that showed up tonight.  They’re athletic, they have good one on one players, they force turnovers and they’re a tough matchup for a lot of teams.  In short, they remind of me of the Hawks.  The switching on screens, the length all over and athletic front court were all problems for the Bucks offensively.  Sure, Milwaukee was passive going inside or driving to the hoop (see 5-28 3FG), but when they did get in it seemed like Philadelphia had defenders waiting, with length.

Jrue Holiday gave the Milwaukee point guards lots of problems on offense and defense and with his size and wingspan, he’s reminiscent of Joe Johnson, who took the challenge of guarding the Milwaukee point guards in the last two matchups.  Coach Scott Skiles was asked why his Bucks have had problems with the Sixers this year and he was quick to answer:

“They’re very athletic, they’re quicker than we are at some key spots and, you know, they get in some passing lanes, they’re disruptive and it’s bothered us.”

Sound like anyone you know?  Hint: they won Wednesday night. Read more…