Detroit Pistons

82

Final Recap | Box Score

103

Milwaukee Bucks

	Carlos Delfino, SF 23 MIN | 4-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 10 PTS | +5 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.
	Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, SF 28 MIN | 0-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 2 AST | 2 PTS | +4 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.
	Drew Gooden, PF 25 MIN | 7-9 FG | 2-3 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 16 PTS | +13 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.
	Brandon Jennings, PG 38 MIN | 8-15 FG | 1-2 FT | 4 REB | 5 AST | 21 PTS | +21 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.
	Mike Dunleavy, SF 26 MIN | 8-10 FG | 2-2 FT | 3 REB | 3 AST | 20 PTS | +16 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.
	Larry Sanders, C 12 MIN | 2-3 FG | 2-4 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | +14 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.

Two Things We Saw

1. Bucks won a battle they normally lose. Bucks took 26 free throws to the Pistons 20.
2. Big storyline from this game that supports some rumors: 12 players were used in this game. None of them were Stephen Jackson. And there’s no reason to actually play him. Delfino is a better defender. There are a lot of better shooters and distributors on the team. The offense just looks great when he doesn’t stop possessions with ill-advised threes and haphazard drives to the basket. And this is coming from the guy who was so excited Jax was joining the team that he compared him to a samurai.

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Los Angeles Lakers

89

Final Recap | Box Score

100

Milwaukee Bucks

	Drew Gooden, PF 36 MIN | 9-15 FG | 4-4 FT | 8 REB | 1 AST | 23 PTS | +5 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.
	Shaun Livingston, PG 31 MIN | 4-9 FG | 3-3 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 11 PTS | 0 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.
	Brandon Jennings, PG 32 MIN | 6-14 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 7 AST | 12 PTS | -3 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.
	Mike Dunleavy, SF 22 MIN | 6-8 FG | 1-1 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 15 PTS | +21 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.
	Ersan Ilyasova, PF 25 MIN | 7-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 15 PTS | +14 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.

Three Things We Saw

1. Defending Kobe was primarily a dual effort. Delfino spent a lot of time on him throughout the game, as did Luc Mbah a Moute. Poor Mbah a Moute got the duty in the fourth quarter, when Kobe decided to get serious. He was up to the challenge though, forcing Kobe into some tough shots. The Mamba made 10 of 21 shots and almost had a triple double, but he led the Lakers in turnovers and did not put another game winner on the Bucks heads. Success.
2. Did the Bucks just make more free throws than their opponent? That’s an anomaly for this group, but they love it every time it happens. With the Lakers huge front line and Kobe Bryant in the back court, this certainly didn’t seem like the game Milwaukee would win the free throw battle in, but here we are. It certainly helps explain how we ended up with such a surprising final score.
3. Milwaukee is one of the league’s best teams at forcing turnovers and they were at it again against the Lakers. 15 Laker turnovers led to 23 Milwaukee points. That’s defense leading to offense and that, is exactly what Scott Skiles wants to see.

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Sorry that grades aren’t as they usually are. Ian struggles with computers.

That bench was on fire. Good thing too because with out Andrew Bogut (albeit a struggling Bogut) the Bucks have very little going for them around the rim. The best they can do is run backdoor cuts, but that one-trick pony didn’t last long into the fourth quarter once shooting went cold late in the fourth.

Stephen Jackson

After only taking one shot against the Hawks, Jackson came back to take 16 shots.  They were the same old shots that he always takes: some good and some with hands in his face. Right now he’s in a battle with Shaun Livingston for minutes at shooting guard. If he keeps having  games like he had against the Rockets – where he’s finding cutters, playing tough defense and hitting shots – then he’ll inevitably win no matter what Livingston does.

Brandon Jennings

Had his fifth straight 20 point game. Jennings had fine shot selection; he took no long twos against the Rockets and was able to get into the paint against one of the better defensive point guards, Kyle Lowry.  The impetus for all Bucks victories normally rests on Jennings dominating his matchup. He was able to outscore both Lowry and Dragic combined tonight.

Ersan Ilyasova

The sole reason why the Bucks were anywhere near the Rockets in rebounding. If Bogut is out for any stretch of time, Ersan’s rebounding will be the only reliable thing the Bucks will have in the paint. Offensively, Ersan can’t play his game while Bogut is out. Gooden plays out on the wings which forces Ilyasova to play closer to the basket than he’s comfortable with

Mike Dunleavy

I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I smiled with Dunleavy after he hit his first three since he came back from his injury. Not just because the three was huge for the Bucks, but because he was happy. And that made me happy. Hopefully this means that Dunleavy is out of his slump. That’ll be needed because the Bucks haven’t been getting much near the basket. Their hot shooting needs to continue.

Beno Udrih

Udrih had this great sequence where he faked the shot, drove, faked the pass, faked the teardrop then passed it off to Jackson.  His seven assists were a function of hot shooting while he was out there, but a lot of those open shots were setup by his penetration.

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Atlanta Hawks

97

Final Recap | Box Score

92

Milwaukee Bucks

	Andrew Bogut, C 25 MIN | 3-10 FG | 0-0 FT | 12 REB | 4 AST | 6 PTS | 0 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.
	Brandon Jennings, PG 40 MIN | 9-22 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 11 AST | 21 PTS | -2 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.
	Stephen Jackson, SG 28 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 PTS | -1 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.
	Drew Gooden, PF 23 MIN | 4-10 FG | 4-5 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 13 PTS | -5 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.
	Mike Dunleavy, SF 31 MIN | 6-15 FG | 5-5 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 17 PTS | +2 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.
	Ersan Ilyasova, PF 28 MIN | 3-7 FG | 4-7 FT | 11 REB | 0 AST | 10 PTS | -1 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.

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Losing to the suddenly mighty Clippers itself isn’t real cause for concern. That 36.3% number from the field that’s becoming commonplace once again? That’s an eye-catcher in the same way a black spot on a broken television is. But it’s not striking me as the root of the problem with the Bucks currently. It’s more the result of what may be a broken mindset.

I present this quote from Stephen Jackson after Milwaukee’s 92-86 loss to the Clippers Saturday night.:

“We need somebody to step up and knock down shots for us. It has been difficult on this trip, for sure. We haven’t gotten anybody with any consistency knocking down shots.”

This is the same sort of thing we frequently heard from Scott Skiles last season. Here’s a Skiles quote from a loss in late January in which the Bucks shot under 40%.

“We had so many good looks again. We had our chances to create some momentum for ourselves, and we unfortunately just couldn’t knock them down.”

“Knocking down shots” was a problem for the Bucks last season and it’s been a problem early on this season. At some point, you can’t help but wonder if maybe the Bucks just aren’t getting the good shots they think their getting.

Through seven games, Milwaukee is taking the second most shots in the league from 3-9 feet. The average shooting percentage on these shots across the league is 36.4%. Milwaukee shoots right about average and attempts 15.7 of these shots per game. Literally speaking, these are not high percentage shots and Milwaukee takes a lot of them.

The highest percentage shots on the court are, obviously, at the rim. Across the league, the average shooting percentage of shots at the rim is 63.4%. Milwaukee takes the fifth fewest shots at the rim per game and connects on 67.2% of them. The second most efficient shots possible, are three-point shots. The extra point is seductive. Unfortunately, Milwaukee has failed to acquire competent three-point shooters.

Milwaukee’s best three-point shooters, Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Carlos Delfino, have been limited to eight games and 32 three-point attempts between them. Brandon Jennings and Jackson, both shooting under 30% on three-pointers this year and both coming off a season in which they each shot roughly five threes per game while failing to surpass 34% in accuracy, are shooting a combined 12 three-pointers per game.

Coach Skiles said after the Clippers game that Milwaukee’s problem wasn’t one of effort. He’s right. Milwaukee’s problems go far beyond effort. All the effort in the world can’t get the right players taking the right shots from the right spots. Andrew Bogut’s expected Tuesday return will help the team for certain, but he wasn’t the cure all to this team’s woes last season.

It’s tough to know what needs to change for the Bucks to start getting easier or higher percentage shots, and even tougher to expect these poor shooting results to improve any time soon.

Watch This Guy Not Other Guys

• Steve Nash

He’s still the real deal in Phoenix, even if his teammates are not. Aside from Nash, the cupboard is pretty bare. The Suns current scoring leader is Hakim Warrick. He averages 12.7 points per game.

The Rest

Sunday’s game, in Phoenix at 7 PM Central time, will not be one of the most enjoyable in the NBA this season, but it’s an opportunity for the Bucks to turn a road trip from horrible, complete failure, to just failure.

The Suns are in disarray, caught between being a rebuilding team and being competitive. They won’t be either this season. Think the 2006 Bucks with Steve Nash in Michael Redd’s role as star. Speaking of Redd, he’ll be with the Suns this evening, but he’s still not ready to play.

Outside of Nash and Warrick, the Suns are always wise when they involve Marcin Gortat as much as they can.

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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Milwaukee Bucks

86

Final Recap | Box Score

91

Denver Nuggets

	Stephen Jackson, SG 7-18 FG | 2-2 FT | 3 REB | 4 AST | 17 PTS | -4 There’s a clear dichotomy building in the Bucks offense. The good angel, Mike Dunleavy (out sick), promotes passing and moving without the ball. The devil, Stephen Jackson, is all heat checks and swagger. It’s way cooler to be Stephen Jackson, but the team really needs Dunleavy to balance him out.
	Andrew Bogut, C 5-12 FG | 2-4 FT | 7 REB | 4 AST | 12 PTS | -2 Here’s some pretty basic knowledge: Al Harrington is a boss. He’s also a 3/4 tweener. Kudos to him for convincingly winning his match-up on Bogut in the waning minutes of the game. Bogut couldn’t get near the rim on both ends of the court. On one end, he had to chase Harrington around the perimeter, substantially hurting the Bucks defense. On the other end, Harrington simply out-muscled Bogut. Winning similar match-ups is a mandate for Bogut in the future. Another mandate: get in shape. Bogut was visibly winded in the first quarter.
	Brandon Jennings, PG 5-16 FG | 2-2 FT | 3 REB | 3 AST | 12 PTS | -6 Down 89-86 with ten seconds left, Jennings took a long three with Ty Lawson in his face. Delfino was wide open. So it goes. Jennings missed his first opportunity to score 20 points in four straight games and shot under 35 percent for the first time this season. He also had six turnovers. He could take a cue from his counterpart tonight, the super-efficient Ty Lawson who only shoots at the rim or from the three.
	Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, SF 3-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | -5 Yeah! Moute is back. And well, he was LRMAM as everyone knows him. He was finishing well at the rim and not making anything else. His defense on Gallinari wasn’t stellar, but it was better than whatever Ilyasova was doing tonight. His perimeter defense was on point with a block of Andre Miller and steal on a bad Rudy Fernandez pass.
	Jon Leuer, F 4-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 8 PTS | -4 It’s a wonder why Leuer wasn’t playing in crunch time when he was the only Bucks whose jumper was falling consistently. Plus, Ilyasova’s play tonight could best be described as nonexistent. Leuer is quickly distinguishing himself amongst the rest of the PF platoon.

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But it’s easy to see how the performance of Ilyasova impacts the Bucks. Last season in wins, Ilyasova shot 49.5% and averaged 10.7 points per game. In Bucks losses last season, Ilyasova shot 39.8% and averaged 8.7 points per game. In our limited sample size of data this season, we’ve once again seen his performance mean a great deal. In Milwaukee’s loss to the Bobcats, Ilyasova scored just two points (though he did grab nine rebounds). When the Bucks rolled over the Wizards, Ilyasova played a key role, dropping 16 points on just eight shots.

Obviously, this isn’t rocket science. He’s a starter for the Bucks. He regularly plays lots of minutes. If he’s playing well, it’s going to make a big difference. But what’s unusual about Ilyasova is how much of a variable he can be. We know that even when Andrew Bogut shoots under 40%, he’ll be playing all-NBA type defense. We know Brandon Jennings might shoot a low percentage, but he applies pressure on the opposing point guards and usually is able to give the other team some problems with his driving.

But Ilyasova’s play, especially his play early, gives hints about his state each game.

Sometimes he misses his first open shot and he plays lost for an entire game. His effort’s alwyas there, but he quickly loses his typical effectiveness. Sometimes he catches on the perimeter and all game it becomes a pump fake and pass machine. I’m not opposed to the pump fake, it can be effective. But some games it become a crutch for Ilyasova rather than a tool. He’s indecisive and it’s something he uses to buy time rather than to make a move.

Friday’s game wasn’t completely out of the ordinary for Ilyasova. He’s thrilled a number of times over the past two seasons, displaying shooting touch, rebounding skills and even a bit of passing ability that doesn’t typically stand out as apart of his game. He put all of that together Friday. He scored on putbacks, off cuts and jumpers. Surely, this was the Ilyasova Scott Skiles envisioned when he plugged him into the starting lineup before Milwaukee’s first game this season.

The power forward spot has been a troubling one for the Bucks since, well, almost forever. Vin Baker held it down and nearly every other Bucks forward has played themselves out of the spot. Milwaukee’s been acquiring pieces at the four for the last few seasons, seemingly hoping one of their many rotating parts would prove to be the piece that fit best. Sometimes that’s Ilyasova.

If that’s is the Ilyasova that shows up often this season, the Bucks can feel a little better about their odds. If the roller coaster ride Ilyasova was on last seaosn carries over into this one, Milwaukee’s chances get that much rockier.

Tonight’s Game

Milwaukee is in Denver this evening, taking on the Nuggets at 8 PM Central. Carlos Delfino will slide into the starting lineup for the ill (ill physically, not ill like really good, but I think that he’s been pretty ill as a player this year) Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Watch These Guys, Not Other Guys

• Nene

Big contract, big player, not such big results this season. Nene will be okay. He’s a terrific finisher, can step out and hit some shots, has exceptional athleticism and plays on a team that fits his needs well. He had a big second game of the season against the Jazz and has been average in the three since. He’s capable of breaking out and is one of those rare centers that can give Bogut problems, thanks to his quickness. He shot 80% and averaged 17 points per game against the Bucks last season.

The Rest

Denver is deep. They are full of talented player, but lack that one big, Carmelo Anthony like star. I’m a jerk. But they rotate in and out, kind of like the Marquette Golden Eagles if you’re into Milwaukee’s college basketball scene. As always, they are up-temp0 (2nd in the NBA in pace this season) and can put up points. Milwaukee’s not shy about pushing the pace a bit themselves, so we could see quite a few points, despite the defensive talents of both of these teams. I

t might hurt the Bucks a bit more than they realize that Dunleavy is out, as his quick ball movement and off the ball motion helps them in transition and when things dull down in the half court quite a bit.

This is Milwaukee’s first test on a five game road trip, so don’t think they don’t realize how important getting a game on the front end of this trip will be.

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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Friday night was an exception.

The Milwaukee Bucks put on a speed clinic in the first half against the Washington Wizards, moving up and down the court like freshly slapped air hockey pucks in their 102-81 victory over the Washington Wizards. But the movement didn’t stop there. After the Bucks sprinted and passed the ball up the court quick as they could, the team took the next step that they’ve so often struggled with over the past few seasons. Their secondary breaks were producing points, their half court offense was resulting in easy buckets. They moved, they cut, they found each other.

It sounds so simple.

For Skiles it comes back to defense, as it often does.

“In the first half, I believe I’m correct on this, we had two stops in a row maybe four times, we had three stops in a row a couple times, we even had four stops in a row and we a had  a stretch of six stops,” Skiles said after the game. “So if you’re getting stops, you can push it. Long rebounds, ball’s coming out, guys are all in the NBA in the open floor and we have better ball handlers and passers this year, that’s how we’d like to play.”

But it’s often been anything but simple for Milwaukee. Friday night’s flair could be a sign of things to come though. Milwaukee’s offense has looked different with this season’s influx of ball handlers and, most importantly, ball movers. Now, multiple players feel comfortable bringing the ball up the court, making a move to the hoop and kicking out. We’ve always seen Brandon Jennings willing to grab a board and get out up the court, but so often he was pushing alone or finding teammates intent on holding the ball and planning out their attack.

But Mike Dunleavy? This dude never stops moving, never stops thinking and makes passes quick. Stephen Jackson? He might chuck up a bad shot, but at least he’s doing something quick. Remember the patented Michael Redd catch and hold? And hold. And hold. Who on this team is doing that? Evidence of the increased movement was everywhere: 26 assists were the product of players cutting to the hoop for easy buckets, the eight threes Milwaukee made often came from players making extra passes to open shooters on the perimeter and even the 20 turnovers the Bucks logged had something to do with the movement and speed.

“I thought we were trying to over pass a little bit, which we’ve done quite a bit, which I think is a good sign,” Skiles said. “It bodes well for us because of our talent at the one two and three spots. And we were moving and cutting and trying to hit cutters and they deflected a couple balls and got turnovers.”

Not that the offense can’t stagnate though. When Milwaukee stopped getting stops in the third quarter – Skiles noted they failed to get consecutive stops int eh quarter at any point – they scored just 13 points after dropping 65 in the first half. There are still bad habits that creep back in on occasion. The offense bogged down, the movement stopped and the pace became plodding.

No turnovers and no stops meant the Bucks were taking the ball out from under the basket and when they do that, Skiles noted that they become a very average paced team. Milwaukee turned back into a bunch of pieces working separately rather than a machine working together. It’s no surprise this is when they watched their lead slip from 24 to 12.

But the fun returned in the fourth quarter. Stops came again and the Bucks, especially Jennings, picked the pace back up. Jennings scored eight points in the fourth quarter (22 points on 8-15 FG with five assists on the night) and flashed some of the flair that we often see in his summer time mix-tapes but has largely been absent from his NBA game over the past two seasons, spare that first magical month.

“There’s two different BJs,” Jennings said. “There’s the summer time Brandon, where I just go crazy. But this is where I need to be more efficient. If I want to be one of the best point guards, I have to be more efficient and also, win.”

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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Obviously those numbers give any player a very, very impressive game. To watch Love Tuesday night was to watch what makes someone a good rebounder. Love isn’t a rebound spunge, he’s a rebound drainage system. He sprinted inside after shots, he leveraged his body to muscle players out of his space and he missed a lot of bunnies.

The misses were a big part of what Love did. Don’t get me wrong, he had a great night, as impressive a display of physicality as I’ve seen on a basketball court in a long time, maybe ever, but he missed a lot of shots at the rim. Love shot just 6-17 from the field and missed five of his nine shots at the rim. He had nine offensive rebounds, but four of them were directly after he missed a shot at the rim.

So the 30/20 line isn’t a huge deal to me. It’s two numbers that are impressive, and it’s cool when they are paired together, but big rebounding numbers have become commonplace for Love. That was the least of what he did Tuesday night.

Far more impressive were the 24 free throws Love shot.

Some were result of questionable foul calls, of course. The two throws Love got after pump faking Ersan Ilyasova and then jumping into him after he landed stand out as particularly objectionable for Bucks fans I’m sure, but most of them were simply the result of Love’s unique combination of physicality, balance and smarts.

If Ilyasova is a specialist in pump fakes, Love is a master of what to do after a pump fake. Love had the Bucks off balance all night after his fakes by splitting time keeping them honest with shots or alternately driving by them. When he wasn’t earning throws on his fake moves, he was grabbing boards and launching himself and a shot at the rim every time he felt contact. His strategy was sound and saw him live on the free throw line in the first quarter: He made 13 of his free throws in the quarter.

Eventually the Bucks caught up with him. They stopped biting on everything, started moving their feet and rotating better and kept him off the line as much in the second half. But Love’s instincts are sharp and he’s sure to do this to opponents all season long. He isn’t a big time athlete, but he’s always in control and has programmed himself to draw shooting fouls.

A couple other notes from last night:

• Mike Dunleavy still had trouble making shots, but he and Shaun Livingston seem to exemplify a lot of what the Bucks want to do this year in terms of shot creation and ball movement. Both of them keep the ball moving and are adept at penetrating and dishing. The lack of tunnel vision is refreshing. Dunleavy finished with eight assists against just two turnovers in 32 minutes.

• It’s been a rough two games for Stephen Jackson and he’s aware of it: “I played better. I played like shit last night (Monday). I played a little better today, I still ain’t in great shape. I still got a lot of work to do. I’m far from where I need to be. I just got the shot, so I’m still trying to get my body right.”

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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Darington Hobson, Larry Sanders, Drew Gooden, Jon Leuer and Beno Udrih were on the court for that final stretch. That’s a far cry from what the Bucks actual crunch time lineup will be. The only thing that anyone can really take from that last minute is that Sanders may continue to be in coach Scott Skiles’ doghouse, after the bouncy but occasionally brainless forward tossed away an inbounds pass and ultimately the lead in the final seconds.

For all the talk of Bucks bringing in playmakers in Mike Dunleavy, Beno Udrih and Stephen Jackson, Brandon Jennings is still the best distributor the team has (he finished with nine assists for the game). The trade-off for Jennings distribution is that he’s going to take poor shots for himself. Jennings is a much worse shooter off the dribble than he is in catch-and-shoot situations (he went 4-13 for the game, his makes were two lay-ups, a dunk and a catch-and-shoot. His misses were a whole lot of him dribbling).

At Media Day, Jennings said he could be both a scorer and a creator for the team, but his talents require that he take a far different approach for each role: playing with the ball as a distributor and playing without the ball as a scorer. So what’s Jennings choice? Trying to have his cake and eat it too hurts him as a player and leaves the team without an identity.

Dunleavy’s off-ball movement is infectious. Also infectious: Stephen Jackson taking heat checks (hit his first two threes and then nothing for the rest of the night).

“I’m not going to grade him [Jackson] too harshly with anything that happened. I was just glad to see him out there,” said Scott Skiles.

Great point, coach. With his back problems, Jackson isn’t going to be attacking the rim a lot, so expect a lot of threes in the immediate future and not too much penetration. Doesn’t matter though, Jackson looks rather dapper with the red armbands, so that more than makes up for anything he does on the court.

But back to Dunleavy. He’s been the standout of the preseason. My friend texted me mid-game to say Dunleavy was the best passer on the team. Pushing aside the fact that that’s false, but the eye-test certainly indicates that the Bucks offense hums a bit more when Dunleavy is on the court. Chalk that up to his floor spacing and movement, but also his relationship with Jennings, “He [Jennings] has a nice little rapport with Mike Dunleavy already,” Skiles commented.

The big adjustment for the game was starting Luc Mbah a Moute at the power forward in place of Drew Gooden. It was a much needed adjustment for the Bucks who needed to contain Kevin Love who had 21 points and went 4-7 from three in the last Saturday. For the first quarter, Moute held love to two points on 1-4 shooting and didn’t foul Love once. Without Moute playing at all in the second quarter, Love scored five points with four free throw attempts. That’s the reason they resigned him, folks. The great thing about Moute is that he takes so much pride in his defense. He gets visibly upset when his man scores even when he’s done everything he possibly could.

On the offensive end, Moute had 14 points on 6-11 shooting. The Wolves were leaving him open in the corner and he was hitting it. “Those 14 – 17 foot baseline shots in particular are really his shot and the ball comes around the perimeter and when his form and technique are correct, it’s usually right there for him,” said Skiles. It looked correct tonight, but what he was struggling with was finishing at the rim. Moute is normally a good finisher at the rim, but his lack of strength always forces him to double pump or shoot awkwardly in the paint.

Preseason was fun, but the arduous march toward the playoffs starts next Monday at Charlotte.

Ian Segovia is a contributor to Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter, fan us up on Facebook.

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