Recap/Box Score/Enemy

Before Saturday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Bucks coach Scott Skiles discussed how Memphis big man Zach Randolph could alter a game.

“He’s one of those rare guys who can do it in different ways,” Skiles said.  “He can get the ball in the low post with his back to the basket, he’s got multiple moves and put fouls on you and he can score.  You take that away and he’ll pop out, shoot spot-up shots from even college three type distance.  He can put it on the floor and shoot off the dribble.”

With all that in mind, Skiles said Randolph wasn’t an ideal matchup for the Bucks best defender Andrew Bogut.

“That’s not Bogues’ (Bogut’s) strength.  People tend to just drive right by him when he’s out there.”

So, while Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders spent the majority of the night guarding Radolph with mixed results, Bogut stuck with Grizzlies center Marc Gasol.  And Gasol, as if he had heard what Skiles said earlier in the evening, went to work on Bogut.

With Milwaukee trailing by just three points heading into halftime, Gasol came out in the third quarter with a purpose.  He caught the ball at the free throw line on a number of occasions, faced up and attacked Bogut off the dribble.  When he wasn’t attacking, he was crashing the offensive glass to putback misses by teammates when Bogut would attempt to block their shots at the rim.  He led the Grizzlies in scoring in Memphis’s crucial third quarter run, scoring 11 of their 29 points and was key to their points in the paint advantage in the quarter (22-12) and the entire game (56-42).

On a night when Milwaukee’s offense struggled again (37.8% shooting), it was the defensive breakdowns throughout that third quarter that allowed Memphis to pad their lead.  The Bucks would spend the fourth quarter battling back, but failed to both get stops and make shots when they most needed to.

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Recap/Box Score

A few weeks ago in his pregame Q&A session, Scott Skiles commented on how coming out of September he thought he had a real good shooting team on his hands.  Then the season started and the Bucks struggled out of the gate.  Guys were shooting less than their career norms and the offense was a possible cause for panic.  Skiles said he expected things to turn around and he wasn’t going to worry about it so early into the season.

Well, it looks like he had cause not to panic.

The Bucks hit nine threes Saturday night, five out of Charlie Bell and overcame a 24-point deficit in points in the paint to ease by Memphis Saturday night, 103-98.  With Andrew Bogut out of the line-up it was obvious that protecting the paint was going to become increasingly difficult, but scoring in the paint has been as tall of a challenge.  The Bucks have very few players with slasher skill sets who can get in the paint and finish.  So it has become all the more important for Brandon Jennings to operate as a drive-and-kick point guard, hitting open shooters for three’s.  Both he and Luke Ridnour have excelled at this since Bogut’s been out.

The Bucks hot three point shooting kept them in it when they fell behind early AGAIN and helped put it away for them late.  Without Bogut they’ll have to find other ways to score and this is a terrific sign.  You’d think things can only get better from outside when Michael Redd gets back then, right?  I sure hope so. Read more…