Recap/Box Score/Enemy

Depleted opponent be damned, this game was about the Milwaukee Bucks.  No one in the home locker room Saturday night was feeling bad for their flu-stricken counterparts from Orlando.  Only 19 games into this young season, the Bucks have seen Andrew Bogut, Carlos Delfino, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Corey Maggette and Drew Gooden all miss games with injury.  They’ve been out of sync on offense, sometimes incapable on defense and one of the league’s biggest disappointments.

Milwaukee was sorely in need of a performance that could give them some hope going forward.  I’m not talking about one of those hollow wins like they got against the Warriors or the short-handed but more impressive win against the Bobcats.  Milwaukee needed a win that gave them a formula they could replicate.  With a lineup that’s as healthy as it’s been since the seventh game of the season, something needed to happen for the Bucks on Saturday night that would allow them to believe they could be the team everyone expected them to be before this season began.

Essentially, the Bucks needed the old Andrew Bogut back.

That wasn’t exactly what they got, but they’ll take the one who scored 31 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in their 96-85 victory over the Orlando Magic.

For as much as Milwauke’s offensive struggles fall on the shoulders of John Salmons and their off-season acquisitions, they fall on Bogut’s too.  Not only the center, he’s the centerpiece of the franchise.  Milwaukee didn’t add the Gooden’s and Maggette’s of the world to carry the load offensively this summer, they brought them on to complement their go-to-guy: Bogut.  If The Elbow Explosion left Bogut incapable of progressing and being the all-star everyone hoped he’d be this year, Milwaukee’s offense wasn’t ever going anywhere, not for more than a game or two at a time at least.

Saturday though, Bogut was all he used to be and more.  He started the game with his patented left-handed hook shot, and followed that up with a running layup at the hoop.  After one more lefty hook came the moment of truth.  He established deep position against Marcin Gortat on the right block and turned towards the baseline rather than towards the center of the court.  It was time to give it a go with his right hand on a hook.  Previously this season, never was it more evident that Bout was in pain than when he tried this move.  He’d fail and fail, eventually shelving it and relying just on his left.  Saturday though, he brought it back out and hit hit first one against Gortat, dropping the ball in gently without it touching the rim. 

Bogut’s fourth quarter free throw troubles should still give fans pause, he was 5-16 in the game from the line thanks largely to a fourth quarter in which he shot just three for 10 when Magic coach Stan Van Gundy employed a foul strategy.  Going forward that could be a problem that won’t go away so easily, as he’s now shooting just 42.1% on the season.

It’s a concern, but tonight is not a night for concerns.  Just one for hope. Read more…

(Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images) Warrick found little room to operate Tuesday night

One thing was very clear by the end of Tuesday night’s Bucks game in Orlando: Orlando is very good, much better than Milwaukee.  Breaking news, I know, but I just wanted to get that out there so we were all on the same page, just in case by some chance we weren’t.  The Magic are a NBA Finals contender and the Bucks are finally scraping back towards respectability, unfortunately that’s just the reality of the situation.  So it’s hard to be too heartbroken about a blowout loss in The Magic Kingdom.  The Bucks had been playing some of their best basketball of the season before Tuesday’s game, but it was apparently too much to ask for that to continue on through the evening.  The question going forward will be whether or not Tuesday had more to do with playing against Orlando or whether the not-so-long-ago inconsistent Bucks have once again reared their ugly head.

Offense

Non-existent once again, the Bucks shot just 36.3 percent.  When Jodie Meeks is getting playing time at this point, it’s generally a bad sign.  It seems to mean no answers are apparent or the Bucks are looking tired and ragged.  Both of those schools of thought applied to a Bucks team in the second game of a road back-to-back. Read more…

The NBA is a funny place.  In almost every way, the Magic are a superior to the Bucks.  Milwaukee had no business ever hanging around with Orlando, but they came out with something extra, hung around with the Magic and made a game of it.  What was it that set the Bucks apart from their recent miserable selves in Wednesday night’s game?

It was more than effort and energy.

I’d say for the first time in over a month, the Bucks looked decisive and played offense with a purpose.  There was no hesitation off screens from Brandon Jennings, just him making quick decisions.  Andrew Bogut was going right at Dwight Howard and working hard to get him in early foul trouble.

But that couldn’t (and didn’t) last all game.  The Bucks eventually reverted to form in the second half as the game slipped away.  Shots weren’t falling and the defense collapsed.  The good half the Bucks played in the first seemed like a distant memory as the clock expired on this one.  76 second half points and a 40 percent shooting performance don’t really afford the Bucks the opportunity to look back on this game and smile about much.

The moral of Wednesday’s story is a team on the attack will always fare better than the opposition.  In the first half, the Bucks were on the attack often and made quick decisions.  In the second half?  The Bucks of old were back.  They were passive; they dribbled too much and stopped making jump-shots.

Offense

• When the Bucks were at their finest, Jennings was shooting or passing quickly off the pick and rolls.  In the second half he over-dribbled and that rarely helps the situation.  The NBA is all about quickness.  Make a quick move, think quickly and react.  Jennings wasn’t the only one who had trouble with this.  The Bucks too often are bogging down offensively and holding the ball too long without attacking or passively dribbling around the perimeter.  In the early part of the game this wasn’t an issue, but during the 14-0 fourth quarter run the Magic went on it was a huge problem.

• 16-46.  That was the combined makes and attempts for Jennings, Bogut and Michael Redd.  A team with the talent level of Milwaukee is sure to avoid winning a game when it’s “best” three players shoot a touch better than 33 percent.

• Speaking of Redd, it was very noticeable that he wasn’t getting many shots or even touches early.  As the Bucks found a nice rhythm in the first quarter, he took only a few shots as noted by the screen above.  It seemed like that opened up the offense for Bogut and Jennings to get the looks they wanted.  Even Luc Richard Mbah a Moute got a few early post-up touches against Vince Carter. Is it much of a shock at this point that the offense was better without Redd getting looks?  I don’t envy Coach Skiles for having to figure out how to get his guys to mesh.

• Remember when Jodie Meeks earned some more minutes?  He’s responded to a playing time increase with 4-15 shooting, including a miserable 0-7 on three’s.  He didn’t even grab a single rebound to help make up for his offensively liable effort Wednesday.  In short, Meeks was part of the passive problem and not the aggressive solution against the Magic.

Defense

• The Bucks came out with so much promise in the first quarter.  Jennings had three deflections early, Bogut a block, Ilyasova a deflection, LRMAM a poke away steal (credited to Redd who came up with it) and Kurt Thomas chipped in with a block, the Bucks were all over the floor.  And then they gave up 76 second half points.

• Orlando shot 1-9 on three’s in the first half and while that was surprising, it wasn’t a total shock, as the Bucks have actually been pretty good about defending the three-point line this year.  But the wheels fell off in the second half as Orlando went 9-12 in blowing the game open.  Jason Williams led the charge hitting all five of his second half three-point attempts.  J-Will was hitting off the dribble, off catches and with great swagger.  It was all VERY J-Willish.  After the first Orlando game in Milwaukee, coach Scott Skiles talked a lot about keeping Orlando from getting comfortable on their three’s and trying to run them off of those shots, it was clear it was a big part of Milwaukee’s game plan.  It likely was again Wednesday, but it was tough to tell in the second half.

• The insertion of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute into the starting lineup went swimmingly, as the Bucks carried their strong second half play from Monday into a 49-41 lead at half Wednesday.  Now if they can just figure out how to put consecutive halves into the same game, they’ll be in good shape.

• Carlos Delfino was the odd man out of the starting lineup, and then played only nine minutes in which he managed to miss two shots and hit one off the side of the backboard.  Not exactly a strong case for reinsertion into the starting lineup.

Final Thoughts

The Bucks are now 3-11 with Michael Redd this season and have had only fleeting positive moments with him in the game.  This season is falling apart faster than anyone would like, or not fast enough.  It all depends on where you as a fan want the Bucks to go.  Is it time for Milwaukee to pack it in and sacrifice this year in order to gain better draft position?  Or do the Bucks need to dig deep within themselves and pull out reserve energy to jump back into the playoff picture.

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 12-17

(Probable) Inactives: Joe Alexander, Roko Ukic and Dan Gadzuric

at

Orlando Magic (Stan Van Gundy) 22-8

(Probable) Inactives: Adonal Foyle

Date: 12/30/2009

Time: 6:00 (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Jameer Nelson

Nelson will be in his fourth game back since returning from a knee injury, but has had ample time to practice since the Magic haven’t had an actual game since Christmas.  Nelson was absent when in the Magic’s 100-98 win over Milwaukee on November 28th.  With Nelson back, the Magic are without question a much better team.  Neither Anthony Johnson or Jason Williams provide the consistency or  shooting touch from outside that Nelson can contribute.  Having that extra shooter and talent on the court can do wonders to help a team maintain some sort of consistency on offense.  The Magic haven’t quite figured out how all the pieces fit just yet, they were waxed by the Celtics Christmas day, but Nelson makes them very dangerous when he’s healthy.  Jennings is coming off his best performance in weeks, the majority of which came with Michael Redd on the bench.  I’m just saying.

Advantage: Magic Read more…

Recap/Box Score

The Bucks biggest (16,128, nice job Milwaukee) and loudest crowd of the year was almost treated to what would have been the Bucks biggest upset of the season.  In fact, it hardly looked like an upset at all for the first two and a half quarters.  It was simply one team outplaying the other, if you had no idea which team’s record was better and which one had supposedly better players, you’d have no idea that the Magic were the reigning Eastern Conference champions and the Bucks were a plucky overachieving team picked to finish last by virtually everyone.  But those were the facts at hand and they eventually came to fruition as the Bucks were unable to hold off Orlando in a 100-98 home loss. Read more…