Recap/Box Score

Even if it was a game later than Bucks fans would like, the REAL Los Angeles Clippers showed up in Milwaukee on Tuesday night.  You know, the team that doesn’t (can’t?) defend, that takes bad shots and appears to go without an offensive strategy for significant portions of the game.  That’s the Clippers we’ve all come to know and love, that’s the Clippers that opposing teams love to see, that’s the Clippers Milwaukee got on Tuesday.  The results were predictable.

Using runs of 10-0 in the first quarter and 18-8 in the second, the Bucks never lost their double digit lead in the second half.  And that was before a dust-up renewed the Bucks interest in a game that they had been keeping at arms length.

That seemed to pique the interest of the Bucks and more importantly, drew the interest of a crowd that had been in and out of the game beforehand.  I’ve carried with me the vague memory of the Bradley Center crowd’s airline hangar noise level from the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals, but it’s hard to recall that.  That was nearly 10 years ago and rarely has there been much to get all that excited about since then.  So when a moment crops up that get the crowd more than just “involved” in the game, those are the best.  After the miniature dust-up, Squad Six began an “An-drew Bo-gut” chant.  Soon the whole crowd joined in.  Bogut noticed.

“That was pretty cool.  I haven’t seen the place rockin’ like that for a while, where the whole crowd got involved.  Hopefully we can encourage the rest of our fans out there to feel free to join in when Squad Six is chanting, it brings a great atmosphere.”

That atmosphere Bogut has been looking to recapture?  That’s called a playoff atmosphere.  It helped that Bogut’s Squad Six has been at it game in and game out, but Milwaukee has a history of stepping up in the moment.

And its basketball team is looking like they can play that game too. (more…)