Enemy: Portland Roundball Society

Point Guard
Keyon Dooling vs. Andre Miller

For the first time in 107 games, the Milwaukee Bucks will not be starting Brandon Jennings.  Having hurt his foot/ankle on a hard fall against the Spurs in San Antonio, Jennings didn’t look like his normal self against the Jazz Saturday and revealed after the game that he in fact was not his normal self.  Dooling will get his second start of the season, and it’s probably coming at the right time for him.  Over his past five games Dooling has hit eight of 12 threes while averaging a respectable 8.4 points and 3.4 assists.  Miller is slow of foot – just ask Brandon Roy - but having a very strong season for Portland.  He still can’t shoot from outside, but he does everything else the Blazers need.

Advantage: Blazers Read more…

Recap/Box Score/Enemy

It’s difficult to even break everything that happened after the first quarter of the Bucks 90-76 loss Tuesday night into words.  Let’s just take a simple look at the numbers.

11-20: The respectable showing Milwaukee had from the field in the first quarter.

16-52: Milwaukee’s field goals made and attempted after the first quarter.  Milwaukee went from shot 55% in the first quarter and just 31% the rest of the game.

2-14: John Salmons shooting line for the evening.  Everyone knows by now that Salmons is working his way back into the lineup after a knee injury that shelved him for all of the pre-season, but injury or not, if he’s going to do this kind of damage to the Bucks chances to win a game, it’s worthwhile to question whether or not he should be active.  Everything about Salmons seems off.  When he catches for open shots in the corner, he drives hesitantly into the paint, not sure whether to shoot a fallaway jumper or attack with a move that won’t draw a foul thanks to his lack of explosiveness right now.  It doesn’t look like Salmons trusts his long range shot, and it’s not tough to see why.  After Tuesday’s 0-4 performance, Salmons is now shooting just 25% on 3-pointers this year, by far the worst he’s shot in his career.  Salmons confidence in himself on the court is not evident and it’s showing in the results.

3-15: Milwaukee’s futile efforts at successfully shooting 3-point shots.  There’s some upside here though: one player hit all three of their threes!  Carlos Delfino finished the evening 3-5 from deep, continuing his phenomenal shooting performance this season.  Unfortunately, Nicolas Batum got very serious after some first quarter lapses that saw Delfino finish with 11 points (4-5 FG 2-3 3FG).  After the end of the first quarter, Delfino could hardly breathe without Batum finishing his breath, much less get an open look from deep.  Batum played some of the most physical off ball defense I’ve seen in quite some time and played a big role in keeping the Bucks lone consistent 3-point threat this season from getting many touches.  After the first quarter, Delfino went just 1-3 from the field with one made 3-pointer.  Salmons and Brandon Jennings each missed all four of their attempts.  So much for Jennings’ consistency. Read more…

Milwaukee Buck s (Scott Skiles) 15-20

(Probable) Inactives: Dan Gadzuric or Joe Alexander

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Portland Trail Blazers (Nate McMillan) 23 -16

Inactives: Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla and Nicolas Batum

Date: 1/13/2010

Time: 9:00 (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Andre Miller

That never ending run of injuries finally landed Miller in the starting lineup after a turbulent beginning with the Blazers and results seem to have been generally positive.  It’s hard to say it hasn’t been when a team has suffered as many injuries as Portland and is still six games above .500.  Starting for Portland hasn’t been much different than starting for Philly for Miller though, as he still cannot hit a three for the life of him: 21 percent on the year.  Miller’s three-point shooting is one of those phenomenons I’ll never understand.  How could an NBA point guard be so brutal?  Miller is generally pretty efficient though, running the show, getting to the line and playing good defense are all his things.  Look for him to attempt to take Jennings in the post here and there, as he likes to post up little guys like Jennings and then shoot the mid-range jumper.

Advantage: Portland Read more…

Recap/Box Score

Let’s go through our checklist for what makes a classic regular season game (and I mean for the teams, not in terms of the entire league):

• Two overtimes

A lot of NBA games go into overtime.  Teams usually end up going into overtime somewhere between five and ten times a season (the Bucks did it four times last year).  Going into overtime in itself is nothing special.  Two overtimes?  Now I’m listening.  Regardless of whether the game is intra-divison, out of conference or whatever, it’s going to hold some appeal.  The last time the Bucks went into double overtime was December 17th of 2007.  So this is not an everyday situation.  Check.

• Memorable plays

Andrew Bogut’s tip (actually, his NOT tip).  Brandon Roy’s fall away jumper to tie it with 12 seconds to go in regulation.  Brandon Jennings’ pull-up jumper to tie it with four seconds left in the first overtime.  Jennings Nashian lay-up with 43 seconds to go in the second OT.  Yeah, we had a number of memorable plays in this one and I haven’t even mentioned Jennings’ floater near the end of regulation or a number of big dunks late from LaMarcus Aldridge.  Check.

• Memorable Moments

Beyond the shots that we’ll remember for the rest of the season, we were treated to a few tense instant replay ref calls.  Was Bogut’s tip shot at the end of regulation good?  It wasn’t, but it was fun waiting for the refs to tell us whether or not he touched it before the buzzer went off.  Did Luc Richard Mbah a Moute tip the ball out of bounds in the first overtime with the Bucks down two, or did Aldridge hit it last?  The tape wasn’t super clear, but it did appear Aldridge’s fingers were the last thing the ball touched in play.  Squad Six had the building rocking by starting a “this way” chant while pointing in the Bucks direction.  Soon everyone else joined in on the fun and the arena filled with electricity.  Check.

• Significance

Was there any better way for Jennings to get his very first NBA double-double than in a double overtime win at home?  I say no.  Jennings has always fed off the energy of the Bucks crowd and today was no different.  Especially when he got it going in the third quarter to the tune of 12 points after not even attempting a shot in the first half.  Jennings would finish with 18 points and 11 assists.  Check.

While regular season games only hold so much significance in the long run (I’d never compare this game to any of the great playoff games of recent years) this one was still fun to watch.  If you missed it, you likely won’t be able to catch a better Bucks game this year, which is actually pretty wild, since I didn’t find the first half to be all that special.  I mean, it wasn’t bad, Bogut had it going and the Bucks were playing better defense than they had in some time, but I never suspected I’d be thinking of this one as a classic when it was all said and done.  That’s the beauty of sports I guess. Read more…

Portland Trail Blazers (Nate McMillan) 14-10

(Likely) Inactives: Greg Oden, Travis Outlaw, Patrick Mills

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Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 10-11

(Likely) Inactives: Joe Alexander, Francisco Elson and Dan Gadzuric?

Date: 12/12/2009

Time: 7:00 (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Steve Blake

Blake has retained the starting spot despite the off-season acquisition of Andre Miller.  Blake is a better shooter and can work off the ball a little better, which allows Brandon Roy to do a lot more ball handling, something he enjoys.  Blake’s primary requirement is to stand off the ball and get ready to shoot open three’s.  He’s having a slightly down year at 37 percent, but can knock them down with pretty good regularity on the right night.  Jennings had a strong game against Toronto and has performed very well at home this year.  The Blazers will likely look to contain him and are a pretty good defensive squad.  They held the high scoring Aaron Brooks to six points on nine attempts the game following center Greg Oden’s injury, so they’ve had at least some success against high scoring point guards this year.

Advantage: Bucks Read more…