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

Shooting Guard
John Salmons vs. Manu Ginobili

Ginobili’s brilliance and awkward offensive style was on full display when Milwaukee traveled to San Antonio last month.  You see what I did there?  Before his disputed last basket, Milwaukee was able to muster little resistance to his knifing style of play, allowing him 24 points mainly on drives and tough looking shots.  It was just all in a days work for Ginobili, who has made a career of getting in the paint, but making it look difficult.  As I noted yesterday, Salmons seems forward bound, rounding into shape, though slower than anyone would have liked.  Better late than never.

Advantage: Spurs

Small Forward
Luc Mbah a Moute vs. Richard Jefferson

Much was made of Jefferson working with Coach Popovich this summer, learning the Spur way of life and trying to bounce back from a rough season last year.  The results have remained steady for RJ.  He’s not as crucial to the Spurs offense as he was in the past to his Nets teams or in his one season in Milwaukee, but he’s filling his role well.  He’s made a career high 43% of his threes and isn’t turning the ball over much.  That’s pretty much all the Spurs are asking of him and he’s done both things consistently throughout the season.

Advantage: Spurs

Power Forward
Ersan Ilyasova vs. DeJuan Blair

Blair has struggled a bit over his past four games, failing to score in double figures and finishing just six of 22 shots.  But don’t underestimate the burly Blair, he can be a monster inside.  Ilyasova will enjoy a big height advantage over Blair, as most power forwards do, but Blair is very capable of bullying Ilyasova out of the way on the offensive glass and finishing.  For once Ilyasova won’t have to worry about diving out to stop the opposing power forward’s mid-range jumper though as Blair’s game is limited mainly to scoring around the rim.

Advantage: Spurs

Center
Andrew Bogut vs. Tim Duncan

Duncan is less involved in the uptempo San Antonio offense than he’s ever been, but is more sleeping giant than incapable of great things.  One gets the idea that the Spurs are simply saving him for the post season, as he’s playing a career low 29 minutes per game.  He is getting older though and certainly won’t impact the game the way he did as a younger player.  It’s possible he’ll force Bogut into another rough game, but it’s just as likely Bogut will force himself into another poor offensive outing.  Milwaukee could use Bogut the strong finisher around the hoop, and not the version that made just four of 17 shots against the Heat.  Points will likely be difficult to come by against San Antonio and Bogut could be a difference maker.

Advantage: Spurs

Bench
Corey Maggette, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Earl Boykins, Drew Gooden, Jon Brockman and Larry Sanders

vs.

Matt Bonner, Gary Neal, George Hill, Antonio McDyess and Tiago Splitter

The suddenly capable offensively Bucks bench will have their hands full with a talented Spurs group.  Bonner is as much a specialist as any player in the league, hitting nearly half of his 3-point shots and Hill has come into his own as one of the best backups in the NBA.  McDyess can step out and hit long twos as a big man and Splitter provides energy and fouls as a big.  One of these groups could easily swing the game, both have the talent necessary.

Advantage: Spurs

Prediction: Spurs 93 – Bucks 88

Milwaukee nearly pulled out a victory against the Spurs in San Antonio, but they’ll be hard pressed to repeat that performance.  For all the good work the Bucks have done on the road this season, they still haven’t won many big games at home.  This could be the biggest one, but the Spurs have lost just six games this season for a reason.  They bring the second best offense in the league to Milwaukee and that just may be too much for even the stout Bucks defense to handle.

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

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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.

Defense

As long as this isn’t the first recap of mine you’ve ever read, you’ll notice that I’m for the very first time placing defense ahead of offense.  Well when a player makes the kind of impact down the stretch defensively that Andrew Bogut did, this is the kind of thing that happens.  I won’t even try and use one word to describe the work Milwaukee’s foundation did when the game was on the line, just know that if the people who show highlights ever wanted to see what clutch defense looks like, they would be wise to watch the tape of this game.

After a Tony Parker run out for a layup off at turnover with 4:48 to go, the Spurs would not again score in the paint.  Bogut blocked their next three of their next four layup attempts and was the victim of a 50/50 call gone the way of the Spurs when he attempted to take a charge on a driving Ginobili.  He was everywhere on the block late in the game.  On the night, Bogut blocked seven shots, but was only able to grab seven rebounds as the Spurs shot an above average 52.2% from the field.

• As good as Bogut was defensively, Corey Maggette was bad.  Okay, he wasn’t quite that bad, but he sure didn’t help his case for more minutes.  In just four minutes of playing time, Maggette was ravaged on a back door cut and allowed Richard Jefferson an easy lay-in off a post up.  Jefferson was kind enough to miss the bunny, but was rewarded with two free throws on a week Maggette foul.  Believe it or not, he didn’t return after one stint on the floor.

Offense

Gooden came on late, but CD-R took advantage of his opportunity to start from the get-go.  He is sure looking like he’ll be a great complement at the small forward position to Salmons (or in Wednesday’s case Dooling) at the two.  10 of his 21 points (8-15 FG 2-3 3FG 3-3 FT) came in the first quarter and he’s looking more and more like a player capable of making any shot on the court.  Even if they are a bit unorthodox.  If Stacey Augmon was the Plastic Man, then CD-R looks like something of a Rubber Man.  He bends and contorts his body in all sorts of different ways around the rim to make up for a lack of off the charts athleticism, but often finds a way to get the ball through the hoop.

• Milwaukee’s best offense still runs through Bogut though.  The big man made seven of his 11 shots, dropping in hooks with either hands over a number of Spurs defenders, Tim Duncan included.  Better yet, Bogut’s back to making the right decisions quickly on passes inside too.  He found Ilyasova inside with one particularly nice assist early in the second half and finished the game with four total.

• Having played so well offensively in the second half, it was almost criminal how poorly Milwaukee’s final offensive possession went.  Milwaukee wanted to go inside to Bogut, but he was being very aggressively played by the Spurs.  Jennings was forced to dribble around, seemingly out of other ideas, until he made the mistake of picking up his dribble without a plan in mind.  He had to dump it off to Luc Richard Mbah a Moute with the shot-clock winding down and Mbah a Moute missed a prayer of a shot from the short corner with a defender draped all over him.  It was an unfortunately indecisive finish to an otherwise crisp half.

Final Thoughts

This early in the season, a loss like this can still go down as a learning experience.  Milwaukee’s rotation players are finally appearing to understand how they can best function on the court together for long stretches at a time, but there are still breakdowns now and again.  Unfortunately, the Bucks have now had breakdowns in the final minute of back-to-back games.  They got away with one in Dallas, as Jennings missed 20-foot jumper didn’t cost them the game with the lead, but were less fortunate in San Antonio.  That’s something they’ll all think about on the way back to Milwaukee now.  The question for the team becomes, what must be done to close out games successfully and play more consistent throughout a game?  And that’s a much more fun question than the one they were asking a week or two ago:  is the the worst offensive team of all time?

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

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

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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

Shooting Guard

Michael Redd vs. Keith Bogans

So we’ve seen flashes of the scorer Michael Redd, first in the Laker game and most recently against Washington.  Now the question is, can he do that on a night where either Jennings or Bogut have it going?  Getting points has never been an issue for the healthy version of Michael Redd, but killing the rest of the offense at the expense of his scoring has been.  Bogans continues to play defense and shoot at a decent enough level to make himself relevant.

Advantage: Bucks

Small Forward

Carlos Delfino vs. Richard Jefferson

Jefferson’s role with San Antonio couldn’t be any different from any role he’s ever had before.  He’s much more of a spot-up shooter these days and isn’t given the same leeway with regard to driving he was last season with Milwaukee.  Any time a player has to make such a shift in his game it’s going to take some time for him to get acclimated.  I’m sure San Antonio has little to no interest in Jefferson’s regular season numbers, he’s there to help them in the playoffs.  This season is about getting used to playing with Parker/Duncan/Ginobili as much as it’s about winning games.  San Antonio knows where they’ll be come April and May, it’s simply about preparing before then.

Advantage: Spurs

Power Forward

Ersan Ilyasova vs. Antonio McDyess

Ersan needed a day off as much as anyone when Christmas arrived.  In his last two, Ersan shot 2-17 and collected a mere eight rebounds.  Not his typical self for sure.  The Bucks will need his shooting to come around against the powerful front court San Antonio features.  McDyess has some Kurt Thomas in him: he’ll hit the open shots he’s given, he plays defense and acts like a veteran.  The perfect compliment to Tim Duncan.

Advantage: Bucks

Center

Andrew Bogut vs. Tim Duncan

Bogut missed the first meeting between these teams and Duncan capitalized to the tune of 24-12.  Of all the players I’d love for Bogut to emulate, Duncan would be number one on the list.  Duncan doesn’t get the easy dunks that a Dwight Howard might anymore, but still gets his with a wonderful array of moves and shoots better than 40 percent from anywhere inside 23 feet.  That’s absurd.  Bogut would have no business even attempting some of the 15 foot shots Duncan hits at a 50 percent clip.  At the point they’re two finesse big men, only one can extend his range out and the other can’t.  That has a lot to do with Bogut’s inability to get going some nights and general lack of scoring prowess.  He really has a fairly limited repertoire on most nights and leaves himself easy to defend.  That’s something that never could be said about Tim Duncan.

Advantage: Spurs

Bench

Charlie Bell, Luke Ridnour, Hakim Warrick, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Kurt Thomas

vs.

Dejuan Blair, Manu Ginobili, George Hill and Roger Mason

No Matt Bonner!!  He’s out with a broken hand, possibly from punching Bucks fans in the stomach after hitting six three’s in the last meeting between these teams.  That doesn’t make the Spurs bench much less dangerous though.  We all know what Ginobili can do and the Mason/Hill tandem is dangerous defensively and offensively on the perimeter.  Whether Blair or McDyess starts is irrelevant, because Blair will probably get the lion’s share of the minutes and rebounds.  Blair protects rebounds like a female bear protecting her cubs.  He’s that strong too.

Advantage: Spurs

Prediction: Spurs 98 – Bucks 96

The Bucks traditionally have had a bizarre amount of success against San Antonio, but that’s not all that important.  What is important, is that the Bucks seem to lose every home game against good teams by a small margin.  I’m not blind to this trend and wholeheartedly expect the Bucks to stick around and play this one tough … only to falter in the end in some heartbreaking fashion.  But that sure beats getting worked by the Wizards, right?

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A lot of negative things can be taken out of this one.

Virtually every weakness the Andrew Bogut-less Bucks have was exposed in their 112-98 loss to the San Antonio Spurs Monday night.  Without Bogut, the Bucks had few answers for Tim Duncan inside and had to resort to double teams on him more often than not.  In turn, the Spurs were able to work the ball around, find the open man and hit open three after open three.  Sans Bogut, the Bucks struggled to keep the Spurs off the boards.   Coming into this one, the Bucks were out-rebounding the Spurs 45.8-42.8.  Sure, Bogut was gone, but the Bucks have still looked sharp on the boards even without the center.  The Spurs absolutely crushed the Bucks on the boards (more on this later).

The Bucks certainly haven’t seen a team like the Spurs.

The Bucks have faced a pillow soft schedule thus far, fattening up on the dregs of the NBA.  Bobcats, Grizzlies, Nets and Knicks are all no Spurs.  They offer little in the ways of crisp ball movement.  None of the teams the Bucks have been able to knock off has had a go-to guy like Tim Duncan.  So a logical question to be raised after this particularly brutal defeat is, are the Bucks close to being as good as their record indicates?

Well, probably not.  But I don’t think they’re as bad as this game would indicate either.  They fall somewhere in the middle.  It’s easy to panic now that they’ve lost a game on the road to a good team.  It’s easy to look back and say the first 11 games were a mirage and the Bucks are as bad as everyone thought coming into the year.  And it’s even easier to say Michael Redd is killing the Bucks and needs to be shipped out on the next flight out of Milwaukee.  But those are all very reactionary responses.  We knew this road trip would be difficult with Bogut and even moreso without him.  Realistically, the Bucks ending this trip 1-3 is no disaster.  2-2 is terrific and 3-1 would be special.  I just urge Bucks fans (and Brandon Jennings fans who’ve begun watching the Bucks) to remain calm and recognize this is only one game and the Bucks can learn from it.  Not every team has Tim Duncan.

Offense

• Jennings is going to have games like this, like it or not.  Everyone has bad games, rookies, veterans, all-stars and role players alike.  No one is immune to a night where shots aren’t falling.  And that’s what tonight was for Brandon, a 12 point, seven assist, five turnover, 6-21 effort.  When a guy like Brandon has an off night like this one, it’s interesting to take a look at why he struggled.  Was he shooting bad shots and forcing the action?  Not really.  He was 1-8 inside the paint.  Coming into this one he was a 58 percent shooter on shots inside ten feet and while that may be a little high of a number to carry on, he’s certainly not going to go 1-8 in the paint on most night.  Very little that he did looked forced, a positive sign.

• I can already hear the cries for Michael Redd’s head.  In his 11 minutes Monday he was able to very effectively do one of the things the Bucks have been struggling with this year, get to the free throw line.  The problem though was his accuracy once he got there.  1-6 on the evening, a very atypical result for a career 84 percent free throw shooter.  This may have just been a case of him needing to knock the rust off and get his legs back under him, I didn’t even anticipate he’d be ready until Wednesday.  I encourage everyone to give Redd some more time before you jump on the “trade Redd for expiring contracts” bandwagon.

• When the Bucks were hanging around in this one, it was largely because of Ersan Ilyasova. 8-13 for 20 points with four steals to boot.  He grabbed a sub-par four rebounds on the evening, but it seemed like whenever he had position a long rebound went sailing over his head.  Ersan’s strung together a few nice scoring games together now and is looking like he’s grabbing a more permanent hold on that starting power forward position with each game.

Defense

• Sometimes pictures illustrate points so much better than words can do.  So with that in mind, I give you the third quarter:

• Some of them pile up on each other, but that’s 11 shots made inside the paint for the Spurs in the third quarter alone.  It’s easy to see why the Spurs turned a 50-49 deficit into a 86-74 lead entering the fourth quarter.  The Bucks had nothing for Duncan most of the game, but especially had trouble with him in the third when he had 15 points.

• The final rebounding numbers? 46-29 in the Spurs favor.  That’s even more gruesome than the 26-14 edge the Spurs had on free throw attempts and the 48-40 edge the Spurs had on points in the paint.  All of these numbers indicate largely the same thing: the Bucks had no answer for the Spurs muscle and aggressiveness inside.

• And when the Spurs weren’t getting to the line or scoring in the paint?  10-21 on three’s, led by Matt Bonner (that guy?) and his 6-8 effort from behind the arc off the bench.  Time and time again the Spurs found him wide open on the perimeter after a double team and good ball swings.  The Spurs put on a ball movement clinic and brutalized the Bucks when they attempted a zone to cut off the Spurs work inside.

This was the Bucks low point defensively this year.  Without Bogut it takes a heck of an effort all the way around for the Bucks to compete with teams that can score inside and they didn’t have that tonight.  Too often the Spurs were able to find open shooters after poor or lazy rotations by the Bucks.  It usually wasn’t the first pass, but that doesn’t completely excuse the Bucks.

I know this one was bad, but again, I urge patience.  Let’s see if the Bucks are able to compose themselves and either pull one of the next two out or at the very least drop in a couple respectable performances.  I don’t necessarily have problems with losses at this stage in the season, but 10-20 point losses aren’t a good sign.  A tip shot here or a tip shot there can decide a close game, but the Bucks were pretty thoroughly out-played for large portions of this one.  They’ll have to right the ship by Wednesday night defensively, or they could be in for another long one.

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(Likely) Inactives: Michael Redd, Joe Alexander and Andrew Bogut

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San Antonio Spurs (Gregg Popovich) 5-6

(Likely) Inactives: Manu Ginobili

Game time: 7:30 (CST)

TV: FS Wisconsin

Match-ups

Point Guard

Brandon Jennings vs. Tony Parker

Parker returned on Saturday after missing two games with a left ankle sprain.  Tony Parker on a sprained left ankle is more dangerous than most guards on two healthy ones, so it’s not like he’ll be an easy guard just because he’s had some injuries this year.  His numbers are down a little from a year ago when he had what was likely his best season ever.  The fact that the question can seriously be posed as to whether he’s taken the reins on this team from Tim Duncan says a lot about his talent.  Jennings has faced some talented point guards thus far, but hasn’t faced one with Parker’s scorer mentality.  He gets in the paint and scores more than most.  The back-and-forth battle between these two should be worth the price of admission, Jennings has been nearly unconscious all season long.  It’s very safe to say he’s outperformed Parker even.  In fact, this seems like the very type of game Jennings will bring just a little bit extra for.

Advantage: Bucks

Shooting Guard

Charlie Bell vs. Keith Bogans

Ahh, our old friend Keith Bogans.  Bogans is another guy brought on by the Spurs to shoot corner threes when Duncan gets doubled teamed down low.  The Bruce Bowen role if you will.  Bogans isn’t great in this role though.  He’s not as good a three point shooter as he’s often credited and is more of a guard than Bowen was.  He likes to try and do some dribbling, attempts at creation, usually without success.  Bogans is not a bad defender, but seems more wary of getting physical than Bowen did.  He’s also not dirty.  Anyway, Bogans is not the great role player Bowen once was, but is serviceable off the bench when the Spurs get healthy.  Actually, that’s a pretty good description of Charlie Bell too.

Advantage: Bucks

Small Forward

Carlos Delfino vs. Richard Jefferson

I do and I don’t get the Richard Jefferson thing.  On one hand, the Spurs got a guy who can give them 20 points a night, slash and hit threes.  Plus his deal expires in two years, giving them flexibility down the road and they gave up virtually nothing.  On the other, does he really fit in that well with this team?  Jefferson’s biggest strength is putting his head down and going to the hoop.  He doesn’t have Ginobili’s awareness and operates in the same general area (albeit in a different way) as Tim Duncan.  Is it that big of a surprise that he hasn’t played as well as usual so far?  If they tell RJ to hang out in the corner and hit open threes when Duncan’s in, doesn’t that belittle his value?  He can probably be more effective with Duncan out of the game.

Advantage: Spurs

Power Forward

Ersan Ilyasova vs. Tim Duncan

Happy as we’ve all been with Ilyasova’s rebounding, he still doesn’t measure up to Tim Duncan.  In an off year.  Ilyasova’s advantages over Duncan and the other Spurs he’ll be matched-up with are going to be his unresting hands in their faces and his three-point shooting.  Much like Jennings, Ersan continues to out-perform whatever expectations I have for him, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him have a big game Monday night, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him struggle against a very smart Spurs team.

Advantage: Spurs

Center

Kuran Gadzuromas vs. Antonio McDyess

I’d almost expect Kurt Thomas to get the start in this one after how well he played on Saturday.  Thomas and Gadzuric seem likely to exchange starting roles based on who the Bucks are playing in Andrew Bogut’s absence.  Thomas knows the Spurs well, having spent the last year and a half in San Antonio.  I’d go as far as to suspect he’ll be spending the majority of the evening as the Bucks primary defender on Tim Duncan.  His veteran know-how and strong base are a better fit on Duncan than Ilyasova’s annoyance.

Advantage: Spurs

Bench

Luke Ridnour, Jodie Meeks, Kurt Thomas and Hakim Warrick

vs.

Dejuan Blair, Roger Mason, George Hill, Matt Bonner and Michael Finley

Bench success has been a staple in the Bucks attack this year.  Warrick, Ridnour, Meeks and Thomas have all had their moments, with Ridnour being the star so far.  They blend seemlessly with the starters and work together to perfection.  Their ball movement has been the thing that’s set them apart from the Bucks of years past.  They aren’t the most talented bunch, but they offer different things.  In fact, they sound very similar to the Spurs.  The Spurs each and every year find reliable performers to come in and give them valuable minutes.  Blair has been the exact rebounder everyone suspected he’d be.  Naturally he fell to the Spurs in the second round.  Finley, Mason and Bonner all hit threes with reliability and Hill is a terrific defender.  The Spurs and Bucks can both throw a lot of different looks at teams, but the Spurs looks are a little more intimidating.

Advantage: Spurs

Prediction: Spurs 93 – Bucks 84

The Bucks and Spurs both rank in the top ten in three-point shots attempted and three-point percentage.  Something’s going to have to give though, because they’re both top three in allowing the three-point shot.  A lot of that has to do with effort, running out on shooters and pushing them off the line.  Two teams that want to be great defensively and occasionally succeed.  And while we know the Bucks allow a lot of free throws, the Spurs aren’t any better.  Through 11 games, the Spurs have allowed 308 free throws compared to 302 for the Bucks.  Perhaps this free throws allowed thing IS a sign of good defense.  The Spurs are rarely bad company to keep on that end of the ball.

This will the the Bucks biggest test of the young season, a road game against a long time Western Conference powerhouse.  If they can pull this one out, without Bogut, without Michael Redd and possibly without Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, it will be a blow to the argument that the Bucks aren’t good and can only beat bad teams.

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