Advertised as a shot-blocker coming out of college, we’d seen glimpses of Larry Sanders rejection abilities before Wednesday, but it’s safe to say he had his shot-blocker coming out party in Denver.  Sanders tossed eight Nuggets shot attempts in the opposite direction in Milwaukee’s 105-94 loss.  Last week, Scott Skiles noted the difference between blocking shots in college and in the NBA.

“He was a good shot blocker in college, but in large part because he just kind of stood by the basket, people came in and he blocked shots,” Skiles said.  “Up here you’re actually guarding a guy who can shoot, and not only shoot, but sometimes shoot threes at his position.  So you’ve got to be ready to move around and react to things that are happening and he’s gotten a lot better at those things.”

The improvements have shown quickly.  On Sanders’ third block, he stops a penetrating guard, picks up Chris Andersen in the lane and then helps over onto the driving Ty Lawson to get the block.  That’s exactly the kind of reaction defensively that will keep Sanders on the court.

A number of years ago, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard that shot-blocking was “a dying art.”  He said no one got excited about interior defense any more, but that was before this Bucks crew was assembled.  If Sanders can continue to log regular minutes at the power forward slot, the pairing of he and Andrew Bogut could prove to be one of the NBA’s most effective shot-blocking duos.  Bogut is second in the league in blocks per game and, if he qualified, Sanders would lead the league in block percentage at 8.6%.

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His eight blocks Wednesday not only tied Dwight Howard for this season’s highest output in the NBA, but they secured a place in Bucks and rookie lore as well.

They were the most blocks by a rookie since Sean Williams had eight for New Jersey on Dec. 18, 2007 (NBA.com) and most by a Milwaukee rookie since April 9, 1982 when Alton Lister had nine.

His eight blocks tied for the third most ever by a member of the Milwaukee Bucks and were the most a Bucks player has had since Ervin Johnson blocked eight shots on April 7, 1998.

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Since I know you’re wondering ….

Andrew Bogut’s career high for blocks in a game is seven, set April 2, 2010 in Charlotte and tied earlier this season, November 13, 2010 against Golden State.  And the player Sanders has earned some comparisons to thanks to his energy and athleticism as a rookie, Dan Gadzuric, also once blocked seven shots in a game on November 15, 2003.

The Bucks record for blocks in a game is 10 by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on November 3, 1973.  Abdul-Jabbar combined those 10 blocks with 19 points and 16 rebounds to record his sixth triple double.

Player	Blocks	Date
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	10	Nov 3, 1973
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	9	Oct 12, 1973
Elmore Smith	9	Dec 7, 1976
Alton Lister	9	Apr 9, 1982
Elmore Smith	8	Mar 23, 1976
Ervin Johnson	8	Apr 7, 1998
Larry Sanders	8	Dec 1, 2010

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com.  Follow him on Twitter.  Then become a fan on Facebook (in the sidebar).

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I have never raced home to watch one quarter of a DVR’d basketball game that I attended.  I have never known a player was about to do something terrific.  I have never had over 50 Bucks related texts messages in a half hour.  I have never been so at a loss for words when describing what someone on the Bucks did.

But then again, I have never seen a Buck like Brandon Jennings.

Brandon Jennings performed so well in the third quarter he damn near made it impossible to use hyperbole in describing his performance.  Let me hit you with some key statistics.

First, from ESPN Stats and Information:

* Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings scored 55 points in Saturday’s win over Golden State, including 29 in the 3rd quarter. He capped the game off by scoring 12 points in the last four minutes.

Brandon JenningsBy Quarter

FG       FT    Points

1st Qtr    0-3      0-0      0

2nd Qtr    4-10     1-2      10

3rd Qtr    12-13    1-2      29

4th Qtr    5-8      4-4      16

NEXT-LEVEL

Brandon Jennings

Shot Type

FG     Points

Jump Shot    16-25    39

Layup        5-9      10

Free Throw   6-8      6

>>18 of 21 FG were unassisted

- 35 of his 49 points from the floor came from 15 feet or farther from the rim- His five assists led to 11 points, second-most in the game

- Drew five fouls, including three shooting fouls

Now from me:

• That 29 points?  A new Bucks record for a quarter.  The previous record stood for 39 years.  It was held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  He’s kind of a big deal around these parts.

• That 55 total?  A new Bucks rookie record and good for second all time on the Bucks single game list (Michael Redd 57)

• Jennings is the youngest player to score 50 points in a game.

• He either scored or assisted on every basket in the third quarter except four.  That’s 15 of 19.

• He finished the third quarter 12/13 with 29 points two assists and 0 turnovers.  13 shots and ZERO turnovers.  Not a one.

• It’s Jennings seventh game.

I could find numbers for days to point out how impressive this performance was, but I’ll stop.  I think you get the point.  This was a transcendent effort.  I may sound like a bit of a lunatic right now, but this sort of thing just doesn’t happen in Milwaukee.  The Bucks have been the child forgotten at home on a family trip in the Milwaukee sports scene ever since 2003-04.  On a monthly basis, I hear almost as many people tell me the Bucks are moving soon anyway so why should they care, as I hear people telling me they’re going to a Bucks game sometime during that month.

The most exciting part about this performance for Bucks fans was that this did not appear to be a fluke.  I swear on anything I wrote this sentence in my notes after Jennings hit his first shot of the third quarter, “Jennings hits his first shot…he shook his head, he has the look.”  I asked Brandon about the head shake after the game:

It kind of happened off the second shot.  The second shot hit, right after that I was like, ‘it’s time to get going’.  The Detroit game kind of ran through my head again and I just started to hit shots.

We’ve seen the look before.  He had the look in the third quarter against the Pistons.  He had the look in the fourth quarter against the Nuggets.  The Bucks have lacked this sort of a presence on the court since the days of Kareem.  Sure, Redd has been a volume scorer, but even when Redd was averaging nearly 30 points a game he lacked the ability to will his team to victories.  Knowing that Jennings was thinking of the Detroit game while he began to scorch the Warriors makes me feel even better about it.  That’s a clear sign that he’s operating in a different way than any guys the Bucks have had in a long time.  The Brandon Jennings Zone has thus far resulted in two exhilarating wins.

David Thorpe described Jennings as having “infectious enthusiasm” and that hits it right on the head.  While Jennings was hitting one shot after the next, his teammates sensed the moment and played even harder. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute flew around the court grabbing rebounds.  Andrew Bogut stayed ever ready to catch alley-oops or post up.  Jennings had the least greedy 55 points I’ve ever seen.  Skiles noted Jennings ability to be cognizant of his teammates despite scoring at will:

It’s hard to say this when he gets 29 points in a quarter, but it’s not greedy.  He hit three or four in a row and when they came off he directed it to Charlie Bell in the corner.  He’s still playing basketball out there, not just searching for his own.

One of the most frequent comparisons at this point with Jennings, has been Allen Iverson.  Iverson is a terrific player and if Jennings ever turns out to be as good as AI, then Milwaukee is in good hands, but they have some huge differences that were on display tonight.  Jennings never stopped playing like a point guard.  It’s going to sound insane to anyone who didn’t watch the game tonight, but there was rarely a moment when Jennings played outside of himself.  It never turned into an isolation fest.  Jennings and Bogut ran the high screen and roll to death and what gave Jennings the looks he had was the threat that he would find an open Bogut cutting to the hoop.

I broke out the notes once already, but I’m going back to them.  I wrote this after the very first play of the game!  “Terrible pick and roll defense on play one and probably will continue for the rest of the game too.”  The Warriors sagged off Jennings and played a very soft switch.  It’s almost like they didn’t realize Jennings was the Bucks best shooter or they thought it was all luck.  I’m confident they know it’s not luck now.

And just as I’m confident in the Warriors (and everyone else) learning that, I’m fairly certain Milwaukee is about to start taking notice of the Bucks.  The 4-0 at home Bucks.  The 4-0 at home Bucks who have yet to fill up even half of the upper deck.  Brandon Jennings has been a one man marketing machine, but he shouldn’t have to be.  If you come to see Jennings (and he’s worth the price of admission) I assure you you will like more than just him when you leave.  Bogut has been terrific after the first two games.  Ersan Ilyasova runs around and does all the things people say they love about college basketball.  Jodie Meeks is all hustle all the time or at least when he’s not shooting.  The defense is back to where it was in the eighties when the Bucks had a rabid fan base.

There is a lot to love about this Bucks team.  But really, who am I kidding?  It all starts and ends with number 3.

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