Carlos Delfino has quietly been the best perimeter defender the Bucks have. Good thing too since Moute needs to play heavy power forward minutes with Bogut out. He bodies up hard on his man. And against everyone except Kobe Bryant, he plays the passing lanes aggressively.

Seriously, how versatile is Moute. Guards Kobe one game, the next he has to guard Greg Monroe. He used his long arms to deny Monroe the ball. And when Monroe was backing up, those same arms pestered Monroe’s dribble resulting in a few turnovers.

Didn’t think it was possible, but Drew Gooden pump fakes on defense. Will Bynum’s just scorching to the basket and Gooden’s all like, “I’m going to get in your way. . . no I’m not.” It’s a lot of fun to watch.

The Pistons’ point guards had the audacity to step onto the same floor as Jennings. This infuriated him greatly. He scorched Bynum and Walker Russell Jr. around the corner, but was often met with a horde of Pistons big men. No matter. Jennings just torched the Pistons from three. And after each one, he defiantly strutted back on defense.

The Bucks ran a sweet pindown for Dunleavy in the fourth. It was a swish. And it put the Pistons away for good. But Dunleavy had no mercy and kept burying them. If they pindown that play a lot more often, some good things are in store for the future. It’s not a coincidence that since Dunleavy started replacing Jackson’s minutes that the ball movement and offense has been off the charts.

Sanders did a very simple power move to the basket and converted a lay-up. No foul. No travel. No double dribble. I don’t know how to say this in any way that won’t sound condescending, but I was so proud of him. I wasn’t the only one in the Bradley Center that felt this way, he got a few cheers when he checked out in the middle of the fourth.

Drew Gooden will get by a guy like Pau Gasol for a layup and get a technical foul two seconds later. Drew Gooden will finish a wide open fast break layup and fall down for no conceivable reason. Drew Gooden will do his damnedest to defend Andrew Bynum and throw a pass through traffic into Derrick Fisher’s body. None of these things, not the good ones, not the bad ones, should be surprising.

Gooden was all Milwaukee really could counter the Lakers front line with, and he did his best. He’s typically a pretty uneven player, but Saturday night, he was better than that. He made a higher percentage of his shots and performed as well as you could expect against the Lakers tough front line. He often has the best numbers of any of Milwaukee’s starters, but Saturday night, he actually played the best too.

Elbow jumpers. I wonder how many Livingston has made in his life. It’s a pretty effortless shot for him, especially when he’s able to take it coming out of a post up. He displayed an uncommon blend of leaping ability and power with a dunk on a scrambling Andrew Goudelock. I’m sure Bucks fans are getting more comfortable with the idea of him as the starting shooting guard each game.

Before the game, I was thinking if the Bucks were going to be competitive, it would be because Jennings has 30 points and eight assists or something like that. Jennings had 10 points and five assists coming into the fourth quarter and the Bucks led by seven. Huh? Your guess is as good as mine. Saturday night’s was an okay game from Jennings – he handled the ball well, had only one turnover and pressured Laker point guards well, but only scored 12 points. And the Bucks still won and even shot 50% from the field. Weird.

He was like the perimeter version of Ilyasova. He hit two threes, helped facilitate ball movement, grabbed some boards and shot a good percentage. If Milwaukee’s reserves can make shots at a rate better than 50%, that would go a long way towards moving them forward without Bogut. Obviously they won’t every game, but on a night when the starters were solid, but not great, it was a big pickup.

While using most of his energy guarding the Lakers tough front line, he wasn’t the rebounding force he’s often been this season. But he helped the Bucks shoot better than 50% with his efficient night. Hit a three, grabbed enough boards in the fourth quarter to keep the Lakers from coming back – a game you’ll certainly take from Ilyasova.

Offensively, Bogut isn’t where he wants to be, he isn’t where the Bucks want him to be and he isn’t where Scott Skiles wants him to be. Skiles was asked about Bogut after the game and he said he thought Bogut struggled tonight. Asked if he was concerned this far into the season that Bogut hasn’t been able to find his touch on his post-up moves and Skiles said, “A little bit.”

Take that for what you will. The center’s absence late in the game did little to increase Skiles’ popularity in southeast Wisconsin.

It can’t be all 30 point games and it can’t be all 5-20 nights for Jennings. There has to be some kind of middle. Monday night was just a little better of the middle. He shot a decent percentage, but most importantly, he was in attack mode all night and was finding teammates regularly. Jennings detractors often point to his low assist totals as a sign he’s not much of a real point guard. They didn’t have much to point to Monday.

Maybe he was tired of hearing everyone complain about his shot-selection or his ball holding or whatever else we’ve all been complaining so much about. Whatever the reason, Jackson took just one shot on Monday night, which was a fair amount of unbelievable. It wasn’t like he wasn’t playing hard – he drew a particularly nice charge on Joe Johnson in the fourth quarter. It was strange to see him so uninvolved with the offense though. He just moved the ball quick and went on his way while Jennings, Gooden and Dunleavy did the heavy lifting in the fourth quarter. Very un-Jacksonlike. He’s a man who could stand some balance in his game now that we’ve seen both extremes.

He said after the game that shots didn’t come tonight and that his role was no different. He went as far as to say a question about whether or not his role was different tonight was dumb. For the record, this is the first game in Jackson’s career that he’s played at least 25 minutes and attempted one or fewer shots. Seemed like a relevant question.

Gooden is so many things. Ridiculous. Polished. Aggressive. Complacent. Clever. Foolish. He’s all these things at once. It makes for a maddeningly frustrating player to watch and it was curious that he played so much of the fourth quarter. Yes, he has the ability to make a shot and his drives to the basket do often result in the free throws that Bogut never draws, but he’s just so damn all over the place. Despite the okay numbers, he had some costly defensive three second violations in the fourth. But hey, somehow he hit a three to tie it with a minute to go.

I give up.

Dunleavy still didn’t hit a three. So he decided he could be useful in other ways. Instead of coming off screens behind the arc, he curled in an extra step and shot twos. His form is terrific, spin unreal and release the same every single time. But really, he needs to start making some threes too. A good time to start would have been the one he missed with Milwaukee down three and no one within five feet of him with 30 seconds to play. Also he turned it over on Milwaukee’s last important possession. Sigh.

Ilyasova is very, very tough. He has to be leading the Bucks, if not the league in one handed rebounds that were tipped away from two or three other defenders. Jon Leuer has lost some playing time, a lot of playing time, lately, but be sure that Ilyasova is earning his share of what were Leuer’s minutes.