Recap/Box Score

Fortunately, the NBA doesn’t decide standings with a poll that measures the strength of each win.

No, in the NBA, every win, regardless of who it’s over, the margin of victory or the location of the game, counts just the same.  So if anyone tells you that the Bucks wins over teams missing their star players (the Hornets without Chris Paul, the Heat without Dwyane Wade and now the Cavs without Lebron James) don’t mean anything, you can simply point to the Bucks current position in sixth in the Eastern Conference and inform them of their error.

A Cavs team sans James, Shaquille O’Neal and Zydrunas Illgauskas is a significantly weaker opponent than one with those three, or any of them for that matter.  In two weeks, Shaq will still be out, but James will surely be back in the lineup, Illgauskas will be back and the Cavs will again be a force to be reckoned with.  But that’s not important today.  What’s important right now is that the Bucks won another game and even better, it’s one that not many people had penciled in a day or two ago.  It’s important the Bucks are now two games up on Chicago for the sixth seed, it’s important the sold out Bradley Center had plenty of reason to cheer all night long Saturday and, most of all, it’s important that Brandon Jennings’ mojo finally returned.

Ben Gordon :: Trendsetter :: Brit

For just the third time since February 1 (17 games), Jennings topped 40% shooting, finishing 6-14 from the field and 5-7 from behind the arc.  Jennings finished with 25 points and had a season high number of “three-point monocles.”  Popularized in last year’s playoffs by Ben Gordon, the “three-point monocle” is an especially braggadocios celebration of a three-point shot.  Seeing Jennings break it out was especially joyful for me for a number of reasons.  First, it’s good to see Jennings having fun out on the court again, especially in light of his recent comments about packing in his shot for a while.  Second, I just love the trey monocle.  Jennings explanation:

I did a little mocking, a little dancing for (Lebron). Hopefully (Lebron) caught that, I think it got his attention.

That being said, it would have been nice to see just where the Bucks measure up against the NBA’s best team, especially with Jennings having it going. Read more…

I guess this is the life of a jump-shooting team that plays better than average defense.  If you’re looking for someone that can hang around against the best teams, the Bucks are the squad for you.  If you’re looking for someone that can actually beat those teams?  Well you might want to keep looking, because game after game the Bucks continue to fall justshort.

And to be honest, I don’t even know how they kept this one close.  Typically it hurts the Bucks quite a bit when Brandon Jennings doesn’t have it going, but they’ve at least been capable of surviving thanks to the strong play this year of Luke Ridnour.  But neither of them had it going Friday.  Jennings could have built a small town house after his 5-21 effort (though the 7-7 contribution from the line was a nice change of pace), and Ridnour looked passive and ineffective in going 0-3 in 17 minutes.

Furthermore, Andrew Bogut battled foul trouble all night long and was limited to just 17 minutes.  The minutes limited his effectiveness, but even when he was in there it wasn’t the usual Bogut Show we’ve been seeing lately.  2-7 with just four points.  The Bucks aren’t going to win a lot of games that Andrew Bogut gets just four shots in.  I guess that whole consistency thing remains on hold for the time being.

At this point, even I am wondering, how the hell did the Bucks even hang around in this one? Read more…

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 11-12

(Likely) Inactives: Roko Ukic, Francisco Elson and Joe Alexander

at

Cleveland Cavaliers (Mike Brown) 19-7

(Likely) Inactives: Leon Powe, Danny Green and Coby Karl

Date: 12/18/2009

Time: 7:00

TV: ESPN, FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Mo Williams

Mo just keeps hitting three’s.  He’s up to 44 percent this year, a career high, and it’s easy to assume he’s feasting on kick outs from Lebron James, but that might not be the sole explanation for Mo Money’s success.  68 percent of his three-point shots have come off assists, or the lowest percentage in his last four seasons.  Last year, 80 percent of his three’s came off assists.  When he gets ready to pull up or catches a pass outside, it’ll be important for Jennings or Ridnour to run Williams off the three-point line, as his shooting percentage takes a sharp turn for the worse between 16 and 23 feet.  From 44 percent to 34 percent, the lowest number he’s put up in years.  This is another national stage for Jennings to burst back out, but that sort of thing doesn’t really seem to matter to him.   He’s more focused on a win for the team than the spotlight for himself.  If they both happen, they both happen, but Jennings has shown that wins mean a whole lot more to him.  It should be interesting to see how Jennings and Redd mesh over these next few games.

Advantage: Cavs (If only for the cohesiveness) Read more…

Note: This will not be a thorough preview.  It’s Sunday.  I’m lazy.

Cleveland Cavaliers (Mike Brown) 14-5

(Likely) Inactives: Leon Powe, Coby Karl and Jawad Williams

at

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 9-9

(Likely) Inactives: Joe Alexander and Michael Redd

Date: 12/6/2009

Game time: 2:00 (CST)

Television: FS Wisconsin

Match-ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Mo Williams

Eventually Jennings will surpass 33 percent shooting in a game.  Could happen any day now.  I’m not super worried about it.  Development year.  Mo Williams does a great job of watching Lebron do work and waiting for kick out passes so he can shoot three’s.  He did such a good job of it last year that he made the all-star team despite having no ALL as apart of his game.  He does fit Cleveland very well though.

Advantage: Cavs

Shooting Guard

Charlie Bell vs. Anthony Parker

A friend of mine once hit eight three’s in a game with Anthony Parker against me in NBA 2K9.  I disputed the reality of that … until Parker actually did it a week later.  He’s not bad at all for this team.  A good passer, shooter and active defender.  Plus he has good size.  A lot to like about Anthony Parker in a super-supporting role.

Advantage: Cavs

Small Forward

Carlos Delfino vs. Lebron James

ADVANTAGE: CAVS

Power Forward

Ersan Ilyasova vs. J.J. Hickson

Hickson is the guy I’d love to be apart of any Mike Redd to Cleveland deal.  I think that’s a pipe dream at this point though.  His rebounding still isn’t great but he’s looking a lot better in his second year than he did in his first.  He’s big, strong and athletic, so he’s the exact power forward the Bucks have always wanted.  Ilyasova has been dealing with foul problems the last few games and the huge Cavs frontline could put him back in foul trouble today.

Advantage: Cavs

Center

Andrew Bogut vs. Shaquille O’Neal

Bogut struggled against Brendan Haywood and Ben Wallace. How do I think he’ll do against Shaq?  The words not and good come to mind.

Advantage: Cavs

Bench

Luke Ridnour, Hakim Warrick, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Kurt Thomas

vs.

Zyndrunas Ilgauskas, Daniel Gibson, Anderson Varejao, Delonte West and Jamario Moon

The Cavs second lineup would win more games than the Nets starting lineup.  Sigh.  Usually the Bucks bench is able to scrap the Bucks back into the game, typically because Luke Ridnour has been off the charts good this year, but that seems unlikely today.

Advantage: Cavs

Prediction: Cavs 104 – Bucks 90

The Cavs are very very talented.  I’m not sure if Shaq gets them an NBA title or hurts their chances, but either way it doesn’t matter until the playoffs.  To me it seems like he clogs the middle and makes it more difficult for Lebron, but when things break down in the playoffs it should be nice to have him.  Regardless they’ll likely destroy the Bucks.  Lebron said if Jennings wants to go for 40 he’ll join him.  That would at least make this game entertaining.

The Bucks do play better at home and they have marketed this tailgate thing pretty hard over the past week or so, so I’d expect a loud crowd.  Crazier things have happened, but a Bucks win here after playing so poorly in their last two games seems exceptionally unlikely.  It’d be something though.