Milwaukee Bucks (18-24)

(Probable) Inactives: Michael Redd, Joe Alexander and Francisco Elson

at

Dallas Mavericks (29-15)

(Probable) Inactives: Eduardo Najera and Matt Carroll

Game Time: 7:30 (CST)

Date: 1/26/2010

TV: FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Jason Kidd

Kidd was absent from the Mavs 50 point shellacking of the New York Knicks on Sunday, but should be ready to go when Milwaukee comes to town.  Kidd doesn’t have the necessary quickness to stick with Jennings anymore, so Jennings should be in full on attack mode Tuesday night.  I’ve said it many times before, Jennings needs to get to the rim for the Bucks to get easy shots and he should be able to get into the paint for those shots against Kidd.  The hitch in that plan could come if the Mavs go to Rodrigue Beaubois at all – he has more than enough speed to stay with Jennings.  Of course, the flip side with Kidd is that he can hit the open three if Jennings gets lost, which he’s prone to do on picks.

Advantage: Mavs Read more…

Box score/Recap/The Two Man Game

The Bucks got Dirk’d, that much is clear.  You simply cannot allow the Dallas Mavericks to have the last shot.  Dirk Nowitzki is too big and too good of a shooter to stop when the game is on the line.  If he misses, it’s a fluke.  His fade-away is indefensible.

So on one hand it’s a huge disappointment that the Bucks let this one slip away.  Score one for being upset.

But on the other hand, they had no business being in the game anyway.  Milwaukee was down 18 with eight minutes and 11 seconds to go in the third quarter.  Plenty of time was left, but there were few signs of life from a group that followed their worst defensive game of the year with an equally putrid start.

So in some ways it was a minor victory to even have been in the game at the end.  But that’s not the way successful teams look at these types of games.  Successful teams say, “we never should have been in the position to lose this game and then when it was close we should have closed it out.”  And that’s what the Bucks want to be, a successful team. Read more…