Recap/Box Score/Enemy

Sometimes it’s just a quarter, sometimes a half, sometimes three quarters, but rarely this season have the Bucks been able to put together 48 minutes of their best basketball against good teams.  Wednesday night would be no different.

After taking a 51-43 lead into halftime, they made just 31% of their shots in the second half.  What’s unfortunate is how typical that’s been of this team.  A miserable third quarter in which they connected on just four of 17 shots wasn’t as shocking as it sounds.  After two strong offensive performances against the Heat and Nets and three days of rest thanks to the winter storm in Atlanta, instead of looking refreshed in the second half, the Bucks looked out of sorts and incapable of hanging with a determined Spurs squad.

When talking to reporters after the game, Earl Boykins aptly described the differences between the Bucks and Spurs.

“San Antonio, they’re one of the few teams that no matter what, they don’t have the peaks and valleys,” Boykins said. “They just play consistent basketball for 48 minutes, and we didn’t do that and it showed.”

Instead of “we didn’t do that” Boykins could have said “we rarely do that” or “against good teams we don’t do that.”  A blown lead against the Spurs qualifies as yet another moral victory though for the Bucks.  Give them that, they are really cornering the market on those.  But the time for moral victories has passed.  Milwaukee will not have another chance to beat a real good team at home until January 26th when the Hawks come back to town.  This was a shining opportunity for the Bucks to take a step towards re-establishing themselves as a feared home court team, but they were unable to put away the talented Spurs.

Milwaukee’s home record has dropped to 8-9, their overall record to 14-22 and their current position in the East to 10th.  This, hopefully, will be the low point of the season.  That’s actually the good news, as it means things will only get better from here on out.

Hopefully. Read more…

This wasn’t the first time Matt Bonner swung a Bucks-Spurs game in favor of his team.  Last November in San Antonio, Bonner hit six threes and scored 23 points to help the Spurs down a surging Bucks team playing without Andrew Bogut. He’s been in the league long enough and had enough success that he shouldn’t have been a surprise then and he certainly shouldn’t be a surprise now.

For whatever reason though, be it a failure to understand the scouting report, arrogance about defending him or maybe just all that skill Bonner possesses, Milwaukee couldn’t stop Matt Bonner in the second half of Wednesday night’s loss to the Spurs.  The 3-point specialist scored 17 points while only hitting three long range shots in the second half.  The mere threat he poses from deep was enough to keep Milwaukee off balance though.

Time after time, Bucks defenders were left standing and watching after closing out too hard to prevent a long range shot from Bonner.  If Milwaukee closed hard enough to make him uncomfortable shooting a three, he’d just fake and drive right.  Post game, Scott Skiles talked about his team’s struggles with Bonner, noting that every time he got the ball, he pump faked and went to his right.

Despite apparently preaching about this to his team in preparation for Wednesday’s game, the Bucks seemed clueless about how to defend Bonner’s moves.  I should say move as he only used one.  To his credit though, that move worked over and over and he knew when it was time to shoot and when it was time to fake.  That’s a lesson Milwaukee could certainly stand to learn.

Bonner’s simple game, 3-point shots and drives to the hoop, illustrated why the Spurs offense operated so much more effectively than the Bucks in the second half.  While the Bucks launched long twos or difficult shots in the paint, the Spurs filled it up from outside.  San Antonio hit six threes in the second half while the Bucks managed to connect on just one.  That 15 point difference in outside shooting success goes a long way towards explaining how the Spurs turned an eight point halftime deficit into a seven point margin of victory at the final buzzer.

This time though, it wasn’t only the Bucks shoddy second half offense that deserved the blame.  A lack of attention to detail will derail virtually any team against a squad as talented as the Spurs.  When the Bucks traveled to San Antonio earlier this season, Manu Ginobili was allowed left on his final shot, a game winner that was well defended, but too comfortable for him.  Wednesday night Matt Bonner, not unlike Ginobili before him, was given access to lanes using his strong hand over and over.  He’d make the Bucks pay by the end of the night for their lack of attention to detail.

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com.  Follow him on Twitter.  Then become a fan on Facebook (in the sidebar).

Enemy: 48 Minutes of Hell

Point Guard
Keyon Dooling vs. Tony Parker

It seems like none of the Spurs ever slow down.  Parker is again hitting better than 50% of his shots from the field this season, an incredible number for the average point guard, but typical for Parker, who once led the league in points in the paint.  And he does his work all without the benefit of a 3-point shot, as he’s only eight of 28 from deep this season.  He’ll cause problems all night if Dooling can’t keep him out of the paint, as he’s a very good passer and knows when to drop it off inside and when to keep it himself for a floater or layup.  Bogut will have his hands full with both Parker and Ginobili penetrating.

Advantage: Spurs Read more…

Box Score/Recap/Enemy

Was it or wasn’t it?

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.  Okay, it probably was.  The reality is though, that’s not a call most officials are willing to make.  They want players to play the game and decide their own fate.  Fate may not have been on the Bucks side on the final play, but once again, Milwaukee played like a team that wasn’t worried about fate, or anything else, for most of the second half.  Confident teams don’t have to worry.

So while Manu Ginobili‘s jumper sunk the Bucks at the buzzer in San Antonio 92-90, Milwaukee can hold their heads high as they return home.  When heading out to Texas, this was a group that looked like they may have been on the verge of something.  Coming back to Milwaukee is a team that knows they can compete with the best.  Their record may read one win and one loss this week, but this is no .500 team.

At least the team that dominated the second half is not.  As they did in Dallas, the Bucks dug themselves quite a hole against a formidable opponent.  Lacking ball movement and acceptable shooting, the Bucks stumbled into halftime down 16 points and staring at a box score that showed they made just 35.7% of their shots.  This was certainly not the group that had snapped the Mavericks 12-game winning streak on Monday, despite some familiar faces.  Chris Douglas-Roberts, Ersan Ilyasova and Keyon Dooling, all Monday heroes, were inserted into the starting lineup Wednesday, CD-R and Ilyasova due to performance and Dooling due to a John Salmons injury.  Given Milwaukee’s rough first half performance, it didn’t begin as smooth as they had hoped.

Patience would prove virtuous though.  Ilyasova’s jump shot was on active duty, keeping the Spurs honest and CD-R provided the offensive boost he was acquired to provide.  Each scored nine in the third, including threes that cut the lead from a too big a mountain to climb 18 to a more manageable 12.  Their presence around the perimeter opened up Milwaukee’s offense for Brandon Jennings to operate in the fourth quarter.  Three of his seven assists came in the final quarter, as he and Drew Gooden alternated picking and rolling with picking and popping to get one open look after the next.  Gooden thrived in this role with Jennings, playing his best ball since the pre-season in the fourth quarter.  Gooden scored 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and almost did enough to get the Bucks over the edge against the team with the league’s best winning percentage.

But it was not to be.  Milwaukee botched their final possession and saw the Spurs execute on theirs.  Fate may not have been on their side on that final shot, but at least the Bucks gave fate a run for its money. Read more…

San Antonio Spurs (Greg Popovich) 15-11

(Probable) Inactives: Matt Bonner, Michael Finley and Marcus Haislip

at

Milwaukee Bucks (Scott Skiles) 12-15

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

Date: 12/26/2009

Time: 7:30 (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin

Match-Ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Tony Parker

Parker has made a career out of blowing by defenders and finishing at the rim or in the paint.  Jennings has shown the ability to do the first part of that, but hasn’t quite mastered the second half.  Jennings is finishing on only 46 percent of his shots at the rim, whereas Parker has consistently finished between 64 and 65 percent of his over the past four years.  But it wasn’t always so easy for Parker.  He never approached 50 percent on overall shooting until his fourth season and, while I don’t have the numbers, it’s unlikely he was as successful at the rim early in his career either.  The NBA paint is a tough place for smaller players, especially younger ones.  But with development and smarts they can evolve, as Parker has.

Advantage: Spurs Read more…