If there’s one thing Delfino has always done well as a Buck, it’s get inside Carmelo Anthony’s head. For whatever reason, the Knicks star doesn’t seem to like Milwaukee’s role playing forward. As he often has done, he drew a tech on Anthony in the fourth. Unfortunately, he was getting lit up by Anthony before that and failed to make any impact on offense. And Milwaukee missed the free throw. So that’s a bummer.

Coach Skiles said he thought Ilyasova looked really anxious. He threw away an easy pass across the court and had some foul trouble early. This isn’t a great match up for him. Does he play center and deal with Chandler? Or the power forward and guard ‘Melo? Tough spot.

Gooden played just five minutes, largely due to an injured back that’s left him looking kind of like a shell of his former self.

The game of Ellis’ Bucks career for sure. He passed well out of the pick and roll, shot well on his spot up threes and finished on his drives to the hoops. His mid-range jumper was going down too. Defensively some of his gambles paid off, but he was beat on some really simple drives at times and on J.R. Smith’s eventual game winning three, he went so far over the top that no one could recover out on Smith (H/T @DrewOlsonMKE). But he carried the Bucks through the first half, so there’s that.

He and Ellis both played very well and made some big shots, timely shots. But on the Bucks final worthwhile possession, down three with nine seconds left, he let fire on a broken play. The look wasn’t great – a 3-pointer over Tyson Chandler’s seven-foot arm. Ellis didn’t seem thrilled about what happend, but Milwaukee needed to do something. If Jennings could have worked to get it back to Ellis somehow we don’t know.

A typical of late Dunleavy shooting night and the Bucks probably take this one down. He had a great look with 43 seconds remaining that would have put the Bucks up three and probably would have gone down on another night. After grabbing his own offensive rebound, he got another look and was either blocked or altered by Carmelo Anthony. A bummer of a way to shoot given how automatic he’s been lately.

Someone had to absorb Carmelo’s body blows in the fourth. His defense was solid, and the help was generally pretty good. ‘Melo scored seven points in the fourth quarter, two of which came after a Mbah a Moute block that hit off the backboard and fell back into Anthony’s hands for a layup. The easiest of Anthony’s looks came at the hand of Delfino. Mbah a Moute was physical with him and picked him up full court when Anthony went all point forward.

Minus one grade for the hideous jump shot attempt from 15-feet in the fourth quarter that barely, if at all, drew rim on the long side.

He found himself so open around the free throw line with the ball in his hand at one point early in the fourth quarter that he had no choice but to shoot. Possibly to his surprise, he made the shot, his second bucket in the fourth. That little bit of offense was icing on the cake of another fine defensive outing from the undersized center, forced to cover a lot of Drew Gooden’s five minutes.

I tweeted at one point that this may have been Sanders’ best game ever. That was too much. My bad. He had a very good game. Sanders battled admirably with Tyson Chandler inside and even gave him a hard foul at one point much to the delight of the crowd. Sanders is playing with more edge recently, which is fun and necessary out of a backup big man. He also had two electric blocks that led to fast breaks.

When he wasn’t missing open threes with no one within five feet of him, he was attempting to guard Kevin Durant. Not an enviable defensive assignment. If Delfino isn’t making threes, he has become substantially less valuable this season than he was in the past two. He wasn’t completely hopeless on defense Monday, but he wasn’t above average either. He needs to be above average again.

If ever he could have used a big center next to him, Monday was the night. He attempted to guard Kendrick Perkins on one possession. Perkins caught the ball in the post and in just a few dribbled had Ersan under the hoop and an easy layup. He couldn’t match-up physically with the Thunder front line, even if he had a nice shooting night from the field. He needed to be a compliment that caused problems on Monday, not a focal point in Andrew Bogut’s old role.

Gooden gave it his all, which wasn’t too much. He hobbled around, his back bothering him noticeably. He managed to hit a few jumpers and a three and give the Bucks a bit of scoring punch up front. He couldn’t help the Bucks much on the glass though, either on offense or defense. It was obvious early on that Perkins and Ibaka were going to be too much for him to handle given his health.

Shots didn’t go down for Ellis. If they don’t, he becomes infinitely less valuable. Sure, he distributed a bit, but if ever there was a night Milwaukee could have used a 30 point outing, it was against a terribly difficult to contain Thunder team.

I’m not sure what Jennings did to Russell Westbrook, but the Oklahoma City point guard attacked him early, often and with great pleasure. He wouldn’t let up on Jennings, forcing the Bucks point guard to work hard to simply keep him from exploding on offense. Jennings turned extra aggressive on offense himself in the third, but he was no match for the Thunder point guard’s athleticism and edge on this night.

His trademark shooting touch abandoned him when the lengthy Kevin Durant was the one chasing him around screens and forcing him to make quick decisions. Oklahoma City’s defense didn’t let him get free behind the arc and he was largely turned into a passer. He did well in that role, tallying five assists, but he wasn’t the multi-dimensional threat he is against a weaker bench when matched up with the Thunder.d

After one of his finest games, Sanders struggled to produce. He fell victim to the Thunder’s sizable, physical and aggressive front line and fell victim to his emotions early in the fourth. He disputed a number of fouls called on him and earned the first ejection of his career. He’s since tweeted a picture that paints his complaint vividly.

I did not envy Ersan Ilyasova during this game. He was guarding either Marc Gasol or Zach Randolph for the majority of the evening, guys that are much larger and stronger than him in the post. He split his time absorbing punishment and drawing charges as a defender, but found a way to contribute on offense anyway. Also he was the only Bucks player with more than five rebounds. IT’S ON YOU ERS must have been the whiteboard message pre-game.

There was a lot of talk from coach Skiles about Gooden before the game. Apparently he’s quite the hot topic amongst Milwaukee media. I’ll sum it up for you: Milwaukee knows they are losing something without a true center, but they expect to make up some of that with Gooden’s offense forcing other centers to come out and defend him. He’s being asked to do a lot and he’s answered the call.

Against the Grizzlies things fell in line with what Coach Skiles said before the game. He had his hands full on defense, but he got Gasol to step away from the hoop and was fairly productive on offense. Still, the Bucks could really have used another center option this season. Gooden’s five rebounds at the end of this game helped make that abundantly clear yet again.

I know he’s getting adjusted and that he’s got to find himself and figure out how he can best interact with new teammates and all that stuff. I know. But the Bucks didn’t trade for Monta Ellis to not score 20 points. Everyone saw this as a home run for the Bucks because they gave up two inactive players for a guy who would step in and get them points. We’re 10 games into this thing and Ellis still isn’t doing his thing the way he did it in Golden State. He’s missing difficult shots. The shots he gets within 10 feet may be shots he can make, but he isn’t going to magically start making difficult shots at a 40% clip.

The plus with Ellis is that he’s done well to hand out assists despite shooting about 40%. For those of you who were so ecstatic about his acquisition, I ask, is that what you were hoping for? Probably not. Fortunately, he still has time to turn it around. But it’s running out.

Jennings came out firing. Seven shots in his first stint, a few of them that had me wondering what has this guy shooting these shots tonight? Was he still feeling himself from yesterday? Was he approaching a matchup with Jeremy Pargo the way a lion approaches a gazelle? Whatever the case, he came out firing. He got more accurate as the night went on fortunately after making just two of his first seven.

He and Ellis still haven’t really seemed to find a rhythm together. We’re not exactly seeing that dynamic guard play we were promised when they share the court. Just same old Jennings with a fairly average Ellis.

Dunleavy was basically all of the Bucks bench scoring. He had 10, the rest of the bench chipped in six. He wasn’t the superhero he’d been lately though. Milwaukee needed Super Dunleavy if they wanted to win this one. It almost seems like he was a little too deferential or that the team needed to do more to get him looks from outside. Given the way he’s shot lately, two 3-point attempts hardly seems like enough. Dunleavy spoke after the game about the lack of ball movement and a failure to make the right reads. Against better teams that kind of thing comes back to haunt you was his overall message.