Recap/Box Score/Enemy

Another disappointing loss in a disappointing season.

I guess finding the words to describe Milwaukee’s 100-85 drubbing at the hands of the Washington Wizards wasn’t that difficult.

As Coach Scott Skiles put it after the game, the Bucks were “pretty much dominated all over the floor.”  After the game the Wizards were talking about which Nick Young dunk was their favorite.  They had fun during the game and looked like a confident group.

They were everything the Bucks weren’t.

Milwaukee’s offense wasn’t as bad as it’s been sometimes this season, but was still terrible.  Shots clanged all over the place, wide-open threes were missed and players continued to pump-fake and hesitate instead of making strong moves.  As they often have this season, Milwaukee just looked old.  Especially when compared to the bouncy Wizards, looking to get out and run constantly.

Milwaukee occasionally looks to outlet and do something, but aside from Brandon Jennings and Corey Maggette, the Bucks have few players who seem to thrive getting up and down the court.  Rarely do you see Milwaukee get good looks after missed shots by the opponent the way the Wizards often did on Wednesday.

And lately, rarely do you see the Bucks win.

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(The folks at Stubhub were kind enough to offer up some tickets for Saturday night’s Bucks-Pacers game in Milwaukee.  Head on over to the Bucksketball Facebook page and see what you have to do to win.

PS. It’s Kareem Bobblehead Night.

- JS)

Enemy: Truth About It

Point Guard
Brandon Jennings vs. John Wall

Expect big assist numbers and a few turnovers from Wall.  Expect neither from Jennings.  Whereas Wall runs and guns in an offense ranked 11 in the NBA in pace, Jennings is the captain of a cruise ship, rather than a speed boat.  Jennings low assist totals have something to do with his team’s lower than average shooting percentage, but they also have to do with the Bucks offense in the half court.  A lot of times Milwaukee has other players handling the ball aside from Jennings, whose drives through the lane are rarely accompanied by a cutting teammate.  There aren’t a lot of half court offense assist opportunities for the Bucks young point guard.  In Washington’s offense, Wall certainly is creating more and finding teammates on the go.

Advantage: Wizards

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Recap/Box Score/Enemy

The roar of the crowd late in the fourth quarter of Milwaukee’s 100-87 win over the Washington Wizards Wednesday night seemed a little out place.  Milwaukee had been up virtually the entire period and had long put away the hapless, 0-20 on the road, Wizards.

But the crowd went wild after two Larry Sanders free throws with :12 seconds remaining.  There would be snack wraps.  For just the third time this season, the Bucks surpassed the always challenging 100-point plateau in a home victory.  Certainly not something anyone would have expected after Milwaukee’s rough first quarter.

The Bucks made just five of 18 shots in the first (27.8%) and trailed a hot-shooting Wizards team by eight after one.  But as Milwaukee’s been doing for much of the season, they spent the second quarter crawling back into the game.  Getting back into games hasn’t been much of a problem for the Bucks.  For all of their losses this season to powerhouse competitors and bottom-feeders alike, not very often have the Bucks been blown out.  It’s been getting past a tie that’s been a challenge for them.

That’s where playing the league’s worst teams comes into play.  On a night where the Bucks were by no means at their sharpest, they still were able to blow past the Wizards in a third quarter in which Milwaukee shot 68.8% and limited the Wizards to 25% shooting.  The Bucks grabbed the lead for good halfway through the third quarter and never looked back, eventually winning by 13.  It wasn’t always easy for Milwaukee though.  Coach Scott Skiles said before the game that as much as he wanted a win against Washington, he wanted to see a strong performance out of his team.

” No,” Skiles said when asked after the game if he got the game he wanted from his team.  “I don’t want to take anything away from them, but we can’t be satisfied.  If we were playing Orlando tonight, or the Celtics tonight, we gotta play better than that.  The guys know that.  We can’t be in celebration mode right now, there’s still a lot of things we need to do better.” Read more…

Enemy: Truth About It .net

Point Guard
Keyon Dooling vs. John Wall

The dynamic Wall has been all but forgotten about as a rookie of the year candidate with Blake Griffin putting up a rookie season for the ages and his own injury problems, but he’s still a sight to see.  Wall’s creativity was on full display against the Jazz in the Wizard’s Monday win over Utah, as he dished out 15 assists while turning the ball over seven times.  He’s prone to mistakes, but he’s even more prone to do great things.  His speed could be an issue all night for Dooling and, gulp, Boykins.

Advantage: Wizards Read more…

Box Score/Recap

“Generally if anybody’s guarding someone I stick with them.”

-         Scott Skiles (Late 2009)

I don’t think Scott Skiles benched Brandon Jennings for the fourth quarter and overtime of the Hawks game to teach him a lesson, or because his defense was bad or for any other reason than Luke Ridnour was playing better.  It’s too late in the season for Skiles to be sending messages or do anything other than try to get wins.

But Wednesday night, Brandon Jennings looked like he took something out of it.

Jennings spent much of the first two quarters playing an aggressive pressure defense that he has rarely shown off this year.  Jennings is remarkably quick, his change of direction reminds me of a number of nimble insects, but that hasn’t resulted in much when he’s decided to pick up full court.  Wednesday Jennings was jabbing at the ball handler the way a boxer would when feeling out an opponent.  The Wizards point guards were taking them like body blows, staggering but never falling down as they committed just one turnover in the first half, despite losing their respective grips on a few occasions.

But in the third quarter, the Wizards point guards and the rest of the team for that matter, they went down.  Hard.  Looking tired from the hounding Jennings had been placing on them, Randy Foye, Shaun Livingston and Earl Boykins combined for six third quarter turnovers, including the ever so rare eight second call.  The Wizards themselves turned the ball over 11 times in the third and saw an eight point halftime deficit turn into a 17 point mountain that they would be unable to climb.

This was not one of Jennings finer offensive performances, in fact it ranks right up there with any as his worst when you factor his six turnovers into his 2-12 shooting performance.  Jennings ability to limit turnovers has been his saving grace as his shots have continued to fly towards everything but the bottom of the hoop.  Jennings seemed down trodden in the locker room, even when I mentioned the rarity of a forced eight second call in the league.

“Yeah, I mean, my offense wasn’t going so I had to fall back on something else and just went to the defensive end,” said Jennings.  “I didn’t have a good offensive evening and I was just trying to put pressure on the defensive end tonight.”

Skiles, who was visibly upset with his team’s performance (he referred to the game as “a step back”) stuck with Jennings in this one.

“We’re trying to win a game; that’s what we’re trying to do,” Skiles said after the game.  “Obviously he hasn’t had much luck finding the basket, but he was trying to apply pressure, he had good active hands.  He has his moments like that, he’s trying to find other ways to help and he did a pretty good job tonight.” Read more…