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November 2008 - Posts
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Ridiculous, criminal, brutal, ruthless ... all of these words have been used by fans on forum boards to describe the first quarter-plus of the Bucks schedule. ... The Bucks limped into December with a 7-12 record and an all-too familiar spot in the Central Division cellar (not that these NBA divisions mean anything). Only the Charlotte Bobcats and Washington Wizards trailed them in the Eastern Conference standings.
It could've been worse. And despite Michael Redd missing 14 games with a high ankle sprain and Andrew Bogut missing the last three games with bruised knee, it was oh-so-close to being better. The Bucks took the Celtics to overtime with Bogut out of the game on two technicals; they botched a solid home effort against the Toronto Raptors in the final minute; they scrapped hard and pushed team after team into the final minutes only to lose, often times due to turnovers, poor shooting down the stretch, defensive lapses and sheer exhaustion.
Through Saturday night's loss to Cleveland, the only other team in the NBA to have played 19 games was the 5-14 Sacramento Kings. Only the Celtics and the Utah Jazz had played 18 games. All four teams got a well deserved day off Sunday.
Saturday night the Jazz at home were blown out by the Nets, and coach Jerry Sloan accepted part of the blame for the loss because he had canceled the team's usual day-of-the-game light practice. Nothing-but-twine gunner Kyle Korver offered this defense of his coach:
“Our schedule is so bananas, something like this shouldn’t make any difference. It’s all on us. We just didn’t come out and play well tonight,” Korver said.
Bananas? The Jazz had four home games this past week and split them 2-2. Try being a Buck, Korver. 19 games, only seven at home -- none of them consecutively -- and seven back-to-back pairings. Meanwhile, the Lakers played just 14 games through Saturday night, with the 15th scheduled Sunday. I thought the league offices were in NY, not LA.
Making the schedule all the more unforgiving for the Bucks has been that 13 of those 19 games were against 2007-08 playoff teams, hardly a warm welcome for coach Scott Skiles in his efforts to get a 26-win team moving in the right direction. The Bucks lost 11 of those 13 games.
They beat the Washington Wizards who this season became the East's doormat playing again without all-star guard Gilbert Arenas (knee surgery) and center Brendan Haywood (wrist surgery); the Wiz fired coach Eddie Jordan at the beginning of last week. The Bucks also beat a Spurs team playing without star guards Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, both recovering from ankle injuries.
In December, seven of the first ten games games the Bucks play are against non-playoff teams from last year. Although six of those games are on the road ... (which means the Bucks will play 18 of their first 29 games on the road) ... the Bucks should feel like they're catching a break, even when they're in LA playing the Lakers next week. The Bucks have a day off to travel prior to that game.
One small consolation to all this is that the Bucks play most of their home schedule after the Packers season will be done. The down side is that the team may be too wiped out come late January for the team to reap much benefit from it.
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The Bucks will enjoy three days off to start this week, the first of four such breaks they'll enjoy this season, not including the five days they get at the all-star break. Coach Skiles should be able to run a full practice or even two before the game Wednesday against Chicago at the Bradley Center. The Bucks should also have their full roster available for the Bulls game, depending on the progress of Andrew Bogut's bruised knee. If Bogut is able to practice, this week will be the first time the Bucks have been able to practice at full strength since preseason (Luke Ridnour was nursing a bad back at the end of October, before Redd's injury). The Bucks are badly in need of a regrouping, and this is Skiles chance to let the team shut down and reboot.
Through this weekend, Richard Jefferson has played more minutes than any player in the NBA except Sacramento shooting guard John Salmons. They were tied for the league lead with 720 minutes, an average of 37.9 minutes per game. Let's call it 38. Third-highest on the list is rookie O.J. Mayo of the Memphis Grizzlies, 50 minutes behind Jefferson and Salmons.
Others on the top 20 minutes played list may surprise you. New Rocket Ron Artest is fifth in the NBA in minutes through his team's 17 games and, despite the blowouts and 4th quarter leisure time, the Celtics Paul Pierce is right behind Artest in 6th place. Pierce's Celtic teammate Ray Allen is 12th, which sheds some light on how much Celtics coach Doc Rivers relies upon and rides his stars, even in the early going.
True, the Celtics have played more games than any team other than the Bucks, Kings and Jazz but the Bucks Jefferson and the Kings' Salmons are the only two players on those latter three teams in the top 20. At age 33, Ray Allen is playing one minute less per game than Lebron James -- and the trade of Ray still looks like the biggest, most wrong-headed blunder in Bucks history.
That said, and it had to be said, Scott Skiles has leaned heavily on RJ in their first season together with the Bucks.
Speaking of minutes, Bucks coach Skiles said playing time was up for grabs to Bucks who buy into the system and play defense. This came after a dismal defensive game in Detroit in which the Bucks allowed the Pistons 62 points in the first half. Sure, Detroit using Allen Iverson off the bench had something to do with it (the Answer was punished for skipping a Thanksgiving day practice and took it out on the Bucks 2nd unit), but Skiles wasn't looking for excuses Friday night:
"There is playing time (available) on this team," Skiles said. "It's up for grabs. We're trying to make clear to the guys that whoever wants to get with our program, defend, there's playing time to be had. If anybody wants to do that. We're searching."
Playing without Andrew Bogut the following night in Cleveland, Skiles played reserve forward Malik Allen 30+ minutes, opting for little-used Allen over backup centers Dan Gadzuric and Francisco Elson against the much bigger Cavs. Allen was a favorite of Skiles in Chicago and was handpicked by the coach out of the free agent pool this summer.
Bucks rookie forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, after a suprisingly strong start has led the NBA rookies in rebounding in the early going, yet began to tail off this past week. After a solid 11-pt, 8 reb game against Orlando on Monday, Mbah a Moute averaged 5 pts, 5 rebs against Atlanta, Detroit and Cleveland. In the latter two games, Mbah a Moute's minutes dropped to 21 in each game, well off his season avg. of 29.
Mbah a Moute is 4th in the NBA in offensive rebounds (56), behind only Andris Biedrins of Golden State, All-Pro Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard and the Bobcats' Emeka Okafor. Bucks center Bogut is 5th in offensive rebounds (55), despite missing three games.
Bogut, despite those three missed games is 3rd in total rebounds (he had been 2nd) and is 3rd in rebounds per game with 10.9. He trails only Howard and the Warriors Biedrins (whose stats took a hit on the Warriors road swing this week East, where the centers and big men are, well, more like centers and big men than in the West).
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Sportsbubbler's Jim Ganzer reported on our Bucks blog Tuesday that center Andrew Bogut will be out 7-10 days due to the bruised knee he suffered Monday taking a charge against Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard.
Here's the release from the Bucks:
"Milwaukee Bucks General Manager John Hammond announced today that center Andrew Bogut will miss approximately 7-10 days of action with a bone bruise to his left knee. An MRI taken today in Atlanta, GA, revealed the injury.
Here's the NBA.com recap from Orlando (the collision between Howard and Bogut comes in 50 seconds into the video):
Howard, not Bogut left the game after that play, going to the bench with three first half fouls and looking on as Bogut racked up 16 points in the half. Apparently the knee (looks like the right knee) swelled up at halftime and when Bogut returned for the second half, he was ineffective, fouling Howard three times early in the 3rd quarter.
Through 16 games this season, including the Magic game, Bogut has averaged 11.4 points, 10.9 rebounds (4th in NBA), 1.9 assists and 1.0 blocked shot in 31.6 minutes per game. Going into Monday's game, the only NBA player who had grabbed more rebounds than Bogut was the Magic's Howard, widely regarded as the NBA's top center.
Hammond's announcement means Bogut will miss the Bucks games Wednesday in Atlanta, Friday in Detroit and Saturday at home against the Cleveland Cavs and Lebron James and Mo Williams. Essentially, this waves the white flag on the rest of the Bucks schedule this week to close out November.
The Bucks November schedule has been brutal. By month's end, they will have played more games than any team in the league, played seven back-to-back pairings and played 12 of their 19 games on the road. The last week of the month offered no relief: the Bucks went on the road for their toughest 4-game stretch of the season, against Orlando, Atlanta and Detroit before coming home to face the division-leading Cavs. The Bucks are in the middle of that trip now.
There was little chance Bogut could've played tonight in Atlanta, apparently. However, with a bruised knee bone, a player won't do much damage playing on it, despite the pain. The initial swelling, however, can be ugly and a little scary (I'll spare you the "my playing days" homily involving a chipped knee cap).
With Michael Redd dogging the same stretch of the difficult schedule with a high ankle sprain and starting point guard Luke Ridnour also banged up, throwing a hobbled Bogut in there against the Cavs and Pistons would be hubris. It's also interesting that GM Hammond stepped in to make the announcement (he has not done this r.e. Redd) giving the order from the top to give Bogut the weekend off.
So the Bucks look ahead to December.
Bogut and Redd are now likely to return Wed., Dec. 3, a home game against Chicago. That'll be Day 8 of Bogut's recovery.
The Bucks have only two games next week - the Bulls game and against the Charlotte Bobcats Friday at the BC. It's their first break of the season and first chance to regroup. The Bucks are a team that badly needs a chance to reboot. Practice time has been rare. Next week will give the Bucks a chance to practice with Redd and rework him into the lineup, a situation that wouldn't be helped with a limping Bogut fresh off a weekend mauling by the Pistons and Cavs.
After the Charlotte game, the schedule gets tough again in the 2nd week of December as the Bucks hit the road to the west to face the Lakers, Suns and Nellie's Golden State Warriors.
Other than the western swing, the first three weeks of December is relatively light. Of the first ten games in December, beginning with Chicago and ending with the LA Clippers at hom Dec. 20 -- seven are against teams that did not make the playoffs last season.
Let's repeat that: Of the first ten games in December -- beginning with Chicago and ending with the LA Clippers at home Dec. 20 -- seven of the games are against teams that did not make the playoffs last season. This looks almost good for a team that has been playing 2008 playoff teams for a month (Celtics and Cavs twice, the Raptors, Suns, Spurs, Jazz, Nuggets, Magic, Hawks and Pistons). That's 12 of 19 Nov. games vs. playoff teams from last year, 13 counting the Wizards but let's not.
Retreating now and looking ahead to next week could very well backfire. Redd and Bogut could return against Chicago and the Bucks could still fall short in front of their home crowd, which wouldn't convince the fans to come back to the Bradley Center any time soon. Suddenly there is pressure on the Bucks and coach Scott Skiles. Pressure to win. Pressure to prove to the fans that this team can come together. Pressure to prove that the new "commitment to winning" under GM Hammond is more than lip service.
As grueling as the schedule has been -- and as much as the "star" player, Michael Redd, has already set his own course by sitting out most of November -- how the Bucks fare next week at the Bradley Center could go a long way toward deciding how the rest of the season plays out.
Is it do or die? I wouldn't say that.
But John Hammond might.
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 These were long-awaited words to read from the Associated Press recap of the last night's Bucks-Magic game in Orlando, where Andrew Bogut squared off in the paint against the Orlando Magic's, Dwight Howard, the NBA's top center.
"Bogut got the better of a matchup of back-to-back No. 1 overall draft picks early. Bogut [the top pick in the 2005 NBA draft] made a pair of jump hooks over Howard to start the game. He then drew charges for two of the three fouls that sent Howard, the 2004 top pick, to the bench with about seven minutes left in the second quarter.
Bogut had 16 points and three rebounds in the first. Howard had only four points and six boards."
But it wasn't meant to last. Despite Bogut's scoring, the Bucks were down 11 at half. When Bogut and Howard went back to work in the 2nd half, Howard turned the tables, forcing three quick fouls on Bogut in the post and sending him to the bench with four fouls for the game.
It may have been by design: Howard's as terrible a free throw shooter as Bogut, and Bogut was beginning to realize he was done for the night. After leaving the game, Bogut headed to the locker room for x-rays on his knee, according to AP. Bogut said he had bruised the knee in the first half taking a charge, probably one of those against Howard - he didn't specify. Howard finished with 24 pts, 13 rebs to lead the Magic to a 108-101 win. Richard Jefferson led the Bucks with 25. Bogut left the game with 16.
How badly is Bogut hurt? After the game Bogut said he'd "be OK." Journal Sentinel's Tom Enlund reported it as a "knee contusion" in his game blog and also reported that "the extent of the injury is unknown."
A bruised knee is a bruised knee, unless it's mashed so badly that there was damage to the bone or ligaments, which is what the x-rays would reveal.
How much you want to bet that Bogut's out there playing on it Wednesday in Atlanta ... Friday in Detroit the latest.
Point guard Luke Ridnour missed Monday's game to rest his banged up and scraped up knee, suffered in Charlotte Saturday. This left the Bucks without both the starting guards they opened the season with (Michael Redd's sitting out the road trip in Milwaukee with a high ankle sprain). Still the Bucks made it a game on Orlando's home court, pulling to within 95-90 in the 4th quarter, and to 103-100 in the final minute.
Coach Scott Skiles said he expects Ridnour to miss only one game (the Orlando game), which means Ridnour will be expected to play in Atlanta Wednesday.
Redd injury update: "He still has some soreness," coach Skiles said, explaining why Redd stayed behind in Milwaukee this week. Here's an initial report on the injury from Gery Woelfel in Racine. John Hammond had told him the injury wasn't serious and that he didn't expected Redd to miss any games much less 12. Skiles told Journal Sentinel he is assuming Redd won't be back on this road trip, which ends Friday in Detroit. Saturday the Bucks play Cleveland at home.
I wouldn't expect Redd back until the Wednesday, Dec. 3 game at home against the Bulls.
Here's video of the injury, along with the game highlights from the Bucks win over the Knicks Nov. 2.
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 Erstwhile Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Michael Redd is "close" to suiting up and playing this weekend, Bucks coach Scott Skiles reported from Utah Wednesday, where the Bucks lost 104-95 to the Jazz.
"Michael is coming along, there's no question about it," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said before the game, referring to Redd. "He's able to go through shootarounds at speed, and he'll get a good shooting workout here (before the game), so he's close."
Or is he? It sounds to me like Redd could have played against the Jazz and helped his teammates, who blew a ten-point lead in the 4th quarter. So what is Skiles saying? Redd only does the shootarounds at speed but won't play or practice with the team since the injury? Why would you tell the media that the guy shoots "at speed", when we all know that's all Redd has done as a Buck - shoot? Sounds like a slip-up to me, or an intentional knock. What am I saying here?
I think the cracks in the Redd front are showing. Redd's dogging Skiles. And he's dogging his teammates. This is last season, ACT II. UPDATE: Redd out five more games.
The Jazz were playing without All-NBA point guard Deron Williams and Williams' backup, Brevin Knight -- remember him from the Bucks-Pacers playoff series' in 2000 the Cavs in the late 1990's (that was Travis Best with the Pacers). With Bogut getting 16 points and 20 rebs, this is a game that slipped away ... Playing their 2nd game in two nights, the Bucks simply ran out of gas in the 4th quarter.
But Redd didn't suit up and missed his ninth game since suffering a high ankle sprain against the Knicks Dec. 2. So on Thursday the Journal Sentinel reported that Redd could be out for "days" or a week ... or two, using Skiles qoutes from before the Bucks headed out to Denver and Utah. Seems Skiles shouldn't have said what he said to Charles Gardner in Utah about that shooting at speed thing.
Which is it? We go now to Racine and Gery Woelfel, who surmised last week that Redd could be out as long as four weeks.
Nothing. I don't know if anybody hits these links but try the next one, it's good ...
Maybe Supersonicsoul knows something we don't know in Milwaukee. Sure enough, they do. Seems attendance is down all throughout the land of Stern which suggests that maybe, just maybe, Stern was wrongfully picking on Seattle when those lyin' Cowboys were allowed to wrangle the Sonics to Oklahoma City. Supersonicsoul reveals that the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL are knockin' the 76ers teeth out at the ol' Philly Spectrum gate this season.
But nothing on Michael Redd.
Coach Skiles isn't too worried about it, though, and doesn't think there will be a problem working Redd back into the mix. This from the latest story at JSOnline:
“I don’t know how much longer its going to be,” said Skiles earlier this week. “If it’s another two weeks, then maybe…but I’m not real concerned about it. He obviously a very, very good player, a veteran player, he knows everything we’re trying to do so I don’t think it’ll be too much of a problem.”
And from the same story, a hint that Skiles may bring him off the bench.
Last season, Redd missed four games due to a thigh bruise, and later missed six games because of a knee strain. After missing the four games, he came off the bench in one game before returning to the starting lineup. After missing the six games, he returned right away to the starting lineup.
It remains to be seen how the Bucks will handle this one.
“The high ankle sprain is a tricky injury,” said Skiles. “So we want to be smart about it.”
No coach. There's nothing really tricky about ankle sprains, high or low, the most common and routine of basketball injuries. Redd's $91 million contract, however, was tricky and it's too late for the organization to be smart about it. The trick is how Skiles is going to keep point guards Luke Ridnour and Ramon Session on the floor together with max contract Redd back expecting his 37 minutes per game and looking to play the way he always has? Something has to give.
The question is, what will it be? At 29-years-old Redd's not the player he was at his peak in 2004. Maybe it's time he accept a reduced, more specialized role on the team and find his next life as an NBA player. This remains to be seen.
The reality here is that the Bucks are in no position to try the patience of the fans they have left, which makes these mixed signals about Redd's injury strange. The good in all this is that the team has been competitive without Redd against some of the best the league has to offer; Redd's absence has allowed fans to see the young players, the new players and the new coaches in action at the BC for next to nothing. (Nearly all upper level tickets are $10, kids, for the rest of this month and next.)
One thing is almost certain: Charlie Villanueva, who's been out with a strained left hamstring for four games hopes the Jazz loss was the last game he'll miss and will probably play against the Knicks tonight (Friday). They'll need him -- big forward Zach Randolph is too powerful for rookies Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Joe Alexander. The Knicks play PF David Lee on the front line as well, another tough matchup for the Bucks rookies. Lee's had a lot of success against the Bucks in the past, though not so much in the last game, the Bucks easiest win of the season. That's the game where Redd left with his ankle injury as the Bucks ran up a 16-point lead on the Knicks in the 3rd quarter.
The Knicks are 6-5 but have played a soft schedule. The Bucks are 5-8 and have played a brutal schedule. This is a good early season test for the Bucks, Redd or no Redd (I'd bet no Redd).
UPDATE: Redd out five more games.
The Knicks are in Milwaukee for a 7:30PM tip-off at the BC. Upper level tix are just $10. Bucks then head to Charlotte for a 6:00PM CST tip. It's the Bucks third of four straight Friday-Saturday back-to-backs on this ridiculously frontloaded schedule. The Bucks will play their 20th game to open December, with 4-and-a-half months left to play the final 62.
 I just noticed that I have the basketball-reference stat page for Dan Gadzuric open on my desktop and I can't remember why I pulled it up. I can tell you this: Gadz was picked 5th in the 2nd round of the 2002 NBA draft (33rd taken overall) by the Bucks, thank you George Karl and Ernie Grunfeld. I can also tell you that you can sponsor the Dan Gadzuric page for just $10 a year to help basketball-reference pay for its service.
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So what should we call this incident between Andrew Bogut and Kevin Garnett that led to technical fouls, Bogut's ejection from Saturday's game and now a one-game suspension for Garnett and a fine for Bogut?
Can't call it a fight. Can't call it a shoving match (like that mess last week between the Suns and the Rockets) or a confrontation (they never confronted each other over it, and Kendrick Perkins, who was standing right there didn't think it warranted intervention or anything resembling a reaction). Was it a flare up? Hardly. A dust up? No dust on the Bradley Center hardwood. You can't even call what Garnett did a bitchslap. What do you call it? - a whaddyacallit? You be the judge:
I don't think the refs over-reacted or were unfair. It isn't pretty watching big men flail around during a whaddyacallit. T-ing them both up works for me. They should both serve some sort of punishment simply for looking like fools. No suspensions needed: Garnett should have to observe Ray Allen's superstitions for a week; Bogut should have to toil in obscurity while Michael Redd hogs the ball for a week (wait, that's every week when Redd's not hurt). No punishment for Bogut - he's suffered enough in the NBA.
Unfortunately Bogut had already picked up a technical for a previous non-incident with Leon Powe and had to leave the game. Garnett very soon after the whaddyacallit fouled out of the game and the Bucks were able to push it into overtime without Bogut; it's not as though this waddyacallit gave the Celtics much of an advantage.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers thinks Garnett's suspension is "a joke." Garnett did take a bit of a swing at Bogut, if you can call it that, a cut-and-dried suspension. Beyond that, the NBA's case by case approach to these nonfights can be confusing - Steve Nash was suspended for a game last week for being shoved to the ground while Shaquille O'Neal paid only a fine for shoving two players to the floor in a very Shaq-ish interpretation of the concept of keeping peace.
Tom Enlund has comments from Bogut and Skiles about the whaddyacallit in his report. Skiles has more of a problem with the double T's given to Bogut and Leon Powe earlier than he did with how the whaddyacallit was handled. Skiles is on the mark as usual here. Watching the game, you might've missed that anything happened between Bogut and Powe at all. "We just got stuck," Bogut said.
Enlund also reports that Michael Redd probably won't play again tonight due to a high ankle sprain, and Charlie Villanueva will be out for a second game with a hamstring injury. The Denver game would make eight games missed for Redd if he doesn't play. (He missed it). It's unlikely Redd'll play Wednesday night in Utah, making it nine.
Meanwhile Charlie Bell is banged up but will play, and Luke Ridnour and Ramon Sessions have had two days to rest. They looked exhausted by overtime Saturday against Boston. Redd needs to lace up his Nike's and lend a hand. Who says Redd has to play 37 minutes? Just get in there with a run or two off the bench so that Sessions and Ridnour don't wipe themselves out.
What, you say he's injured? He's got a high ankle sprain. Tape it up and start working on it to build strength. No cortisone of course, just keep it loose. Redd would be good for at least one run per half off the bench. His teammates need the help.
On the other hand, Skiles doesn't seem to be in a big hurry about running Redd out there. He may be happy to work with the young players and see if Redd can fit his way into the mix as more of a role player when he comes back. It sure looks that way. Or maybe that's wishful thinking.
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