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January 2009 - Posts
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 Bucks 96 @ Toronto Raptors 85
Bucks vs. Atlanta Hawks, 7:30pm Saturday @ Bradley Center, FSN
Can the Michael Redd injury be part of the Jinx if the Bucks are fine without him? The Bucks played their second straight encouraging game this week and their center is back, though in limited minutes.
Andrew Bogut just finished up his second blow in the first half Friday, and so far so good. Coach Scott Skiles just subbed Francisco Elson in for him at the four minute mark in the 2nd quarter as Bogut picked up his second foul against Chris Bosh, who is getting on a roll here. First thing Elson did after entering the game was foul Bosh as the Toronto All-Star tied the game at 43.
Skiles has vowed to limit Bogut to stints of five minutes or less, and that's what he's done so far. Bogut has 9 points and 3 boards in almost 8 mins, a good start. He's got the two fouls and three turnovers, one of them's an offensive foul that seemed to kill the Bucks momentum, but they're in at the half with a 49-47 lead. Some potential foul trouble brewing: Luc Mbah a Moute, Ramon Sessions, Elson and Charlie Villanueva have two fouls apiece.
I like this eight man rotation that has logged all the PT the first half: Sessions and Luke Ridnour with Charlie Bell at guard off the bench; Richard Jefferson and Charlie V at the forwards, with Mbah a Moute off the bench; Elson started for Bogut. It's the Bucks most defensive-minded 8-man rotation, and it's the group I think Skiles will win some games with if he sticks to it (assuming of course a healthy Bogut and healthy Bell playing well.)
Tonight, the Bucks have done the most damage with Sessions, Charlie V, Mbah a Moute and Bell in the game with Elson.
3rd quarter: Skiles breaks the Bogut 5-minute rule but only by half a minute. The Bucks have held the Raptors to ten points in the 3rd so far ... when's the last time we've seen that kind of defense by the Bucks?
Nice win on the road, and much more convincing than the 107-97 win against the Raptors at the BC Jan. 5. In that one, Michael Redd scored 35 through three quarters but the Bucks were losing the game until the final 5 minutes when the defense showed up and the Bucks closed with a 13-0 run. Bogut didn't play but neither did Raptors starting point guard Jose Calderon and center Jermaine O'Neal.
Charlie V led all scorers with 26 as Skiles stayed with the 8-man rotation throughout - 0 minutes for Joe Alexander, Malik Allen, Dan Gadzuric, Tyronn Lue or Damon Jones.
Atlanta is next at the BC Saturday night -- it'll be the first time Bogut has faced the Hawks this seaon, and the first Bucks-Hawks game at the BC. The Bucks are 0-2 vs. the Hawks in Atlanta, including a disaster last Friday that cast a lot of doubt on whether keeping Redd around made any real difference in helping the Bucks maintain competetiveness in the East. Twenty-four hours later, Redd was out for the season and Skiles had no choice but to go with the Sessions-Ridnour-Bell backcourt suggested here (thinking Redd trade).
After the win against the Raptors, Skiles was looking forward to the rematch with the Hawks.
“It’s a big win, but it’s only a big win if we come out and do something again (Saturday) night. Then you win another one and another one and you look back and say ‘Boy that win against so-and-so was a big.’ We’re glad to have it, of course, but it’s time to start stringing some wins together.”
The Bucks D got rave reviews from Toronto coach Jay Triano:
“I give them credit because they outworked us. We told our guys we can’t be outworked and we were. They’re a good defensive team, they locked our guys up. Jose Calderon couldn’t shake their defense and (Bosh) couldn’t shake their defense. We got behind and that was it.”
Jermaine O'Neal on what he said to Charlie V that got him tossed out of the game after Charlie confronted him for a dirty foul on RJ in the 4th quarter:
“You can be tough when the camera is on and the ref controls the game but at the end of the day he just doesn’t weigh enough to speak to me any kind of way.”
Oooh ... "Trainer's Table" O'Neal wants to play tough guy. Who's he kidding? He can't stay healthy enough to fight anybody.
Rewind to the Pacers game Wednesday. Behind the Box Score included the Bucks-Pacers and Kelly Dwyer had some good insight as usual. Sharing the ball and defensive intensity did bring the Bucks back into the game but Frodo and Sam (Ridnour and Sessions) really had a tough night defensively against T.J. Ford. "Stinks on ice" Dwyer put it. They weren't good, in other words.
But the reason for bringing this up is to point you to the Bulls write-up, which again talks about the Skiles era Bulls and the 2008-09 Bulls team's inability to get back to "ball movement and badass D" night in and night out. This has been the Bucks problem too -- the inability since playing without Redd in November -- to keep the ball moving and keep the defensive intensity up. Bogut being out for eight games and Charlie Bell missing some time too hasn't helped, and both the perimeter and interior defense went into the toilet. The ball movement wasn't so hot at times either, the Redd and Charlie V at times were.
 The Ray Allen All-Star snub They're crying "shamockery!" in Cleveland that Mo Williams didn't make the East All-Star squad but if you watched last year's NBA Finals or any Celtics and Cavs basketball this year, you realize that leaving Ray Allen off the team is almost unconscionable. It's the biggest shamockery out there, Cavs fans.
The voting of Allen Iverson in as a starter by the fans probably ensured that a snub was coming for someone. But given that there was one less available guard spot in the East because of Iverson, shouldn't the snub have gone to Jameer Nelson?
Sending three Orlando Magic (Dwight Howard of course, then point guard Nelson and Rashard Lewis) doesn't make much sense when the Celtics, not the Magic, are the NBA champs and the Cavs have a better record (Cleveland coach Mike Brown will coach the East).
And while it was great to see Devin Harris recognized, has anybody noticed that the Bucks recent woes and injuries haven't resulted in the Nets moving ahead of the Bucks in the East? In fact, they're 20-27 and tied for 11th place with the Bulls, behind the 76ers, Bucks, Knicks, four teams that didn't rate an All-Star selection this year.
Meanwhile, Celtics GM Danny Ainge points out that Ray is the most efficient scorer in the NBA this season. He's the 2nd-leading scorer (17.9 ppg) on the team with the league's best record (39-9) and is leading NBA guards in 3-pointers made (114). His effective field goal % is sick - 59.1 percent, unheard of for a guard. He's been among the league leaders in minutes played all year as well, and in a few other categories, such as win shares, offensive rating and other statistical freakishness is among the league leaders. This should have been a no brainer for the East coaches.
Plus, he lit up last year's game (5 threes) to the lead the East to the win.
It was heartbreaking news in Los Angeles, of course, where they had the gall to pimp Andrew Bynum as an All-Star (not yet guys, and that half-hearted performance against Tim Duncan on Sunday afternoon didn't help).
Ray's not too upset about it. He's been in eight of the last nine All-Star games. His coach, Doc Rivers, kinda thinks his colleagues are hypocrites.
“Why I was disappointed is that it’s the coaches that vote for that, and every time I see a coach they say, ‘Man, I love how you have your guys sacrificing for the team.’ That’s what we want all our players to do, and then when it’s time to vote they go by numbers. So that was disappointing.”
On Bleacher Report, Ray is the number 2 biggest snub behind, ulp, Knicks power forward David Lee, who is putting up big numbers playing center in Mike D'Antoni's run-and-gun show. The East coaches chose Chris Bosh to backup Dwight Howard and took an extra guard instead of another big, which is fine considering that the top two centers to back Howard up in the East have been hurt: Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas probably would've got the All-Star nod had he not missed most of January with an fractured ankle and Andrew Bogut's back is still a big question mark for the Bucks going into the break. But Lee? To select him would have been an indulgance for Knicks fans. He's not even a real center, and the West is bringing Yao Ming, Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan.
I'm thinking Bogut will have to lead the Bucks to the playoffs this year and keep up the pace next year for him to really test the league's biases next season.
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 The word curse has been thrown around quite a bit in the Milwaukee Bucks universe since the injury of Michael Redd Saturday. This is my department, I know. My friends, readers and mulitidunous others, including the girl that stole my hat tonight (honey, I want my hat back, and I'm holding yours hostage until I do get it back) have asked how the Michael Redd injury fits in with the Bob Boozer JInx.
My initial reaction was that NO, the Michael Redd situation is and always has been a thing on its own. However, I have been working on the problem, and, as it turns out, Michale Redd's injury can, in fact, in all the ridiculousness of recognizing facts as mutable things on this website, be connected to the Bob Boozer Jinx. It's pretty convuluted, though, and it's gonna take more than a "blog" effort to get the words together (in other words, it does require some real writing and some other effort, and, for those of you who don't go about writing and other bullshit, it's gonna take some mojo).
So, be a little patient with me this week. I got it, and I'm working on it. And it's gonna be good. For now, and for the time being, I beseech thee to just hope for Andrew Bogut's better health.
And, i want my hat back.
PS -- Please stop using the word curse. What ails the Milwaukee Bucks is not to the level of a curse. It's a jinx, not a curse. Just trust me on this. The Bucks are not cursed. They are jinxed. Not cursed. This is an important distinction, and there's a lot of weirdness involved... Picture in your mind, "Samarai boardsman" Danny Fortson.
You're just gonna have to trust me on this.
And I want my hat back.
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Michael Redd is down for the season with a career-threatening knee injury and Redd has said it's "God's plan" for him.
So much for trading Redd before the Feb. 19 trading deadline. The "what now" question is being asked a lot in the Bucks universe, as everybody pretty much understands that the holy plan for Michael Redd never had a helluva lot to do with the Bucks as a team, nor should references to heaven and hell be construed as haphazard or random at this point.
Pro basketball isn't like high school ball or even college ball, where if you lose a 20-point-per game scorer you're in trouble. Nearly everybody in the pro game can put the ball in the hoop. A guy like Bruce Bowen of the Spurs -- a player who plays nasty defense, can guard the 2 and 3 positions, can shoot the three and is a coach on the floor -- has proven to be a far more valuable commodity in the league than a guy like Redd, who basically just scores points and is no good at all of those things that Bruce Bowen is extremely good at.
But this is no time to harp about Redd. He's hurt, and that's no good. If there was an inkling by Bucks GM John Hammond to trade Redd by the deadline (yes, there was more than an inkling to do so) that's all but dead.
A Hawks fan on RealGM today said the Bucks have their very own Gilbert Arenas now. That's true. But it's also true that the Bucks have three guards who can ball -- Luke Ridnour, Charlie Bell and Ramon Sessions. With Redd, there wasn't playing time for Bell and Sessions. Now there is, of course, and the strength -- the advantage -- this Bucks team has over most opponents is in the frontcourt, anyway. So now the frontcourt of Richard Jefferson, Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, Luc Mbah a Moute, Joe Alexander and Francisco Elson will have to take and make a few more shots. I don't really see a big big problem here, unless improved perimeter defense in Redd's absence is something that will keep Bucks fans away from the Bradley Center. I see an opportunity for guys to step up, and for Bogut to solidify himself as Dwight Howard's permanent All-Star back-up in the East.
I also see an opportunity to go to Free Darko to steal religious images, because, well, that's a good place to find them and they're big, which means I don't have to write as much. Also, Bucks GM Hammond, when he was in Detroit, had some role, even if it was minor, in drafting Darko Milisic over Carmelo in 1983. Or, to paraphrase Milwaukee's own Terry Porter complaining to Mike Dunleavy about the Bucks drafting Jerry "Ice" Reynolds over Porter in 1985... "If you didn't like what was happening in the draft, you didn't say it loud enough.."
The other images up today at Free Darko aren't making a helluva lotta sense to me right now, although, if you read the Free Darko post, a nice discovery realization is made about the value of the unpredictable point guard in the NBA over the control point guard... This should cheer Bucks fans up because we do have the unpredictable point guard thing down in spades with Crazy Luke and Ramon Sessions... now if Luke and Ramon can only keep their coaches (control point guards all except for the rookie coach, Joe Wolf) out of the loony bin.... Who is Skiles trying to kid? He was a nutcase point guard himself until Shaq came along to give him purpose in NBA life...
And because God spelled backward is ...
Free Darko is beginning to make sense, even though it is a Pistons blog and, well, what was posted today there being a good fit for what I wanted to do here is really kind of scary... (Yeah, the copy ed's out back smoking with Josh Howard and Mark Cuban, sorry). So why didn't the Answer get on the court tonight (Sunday) in the final minute against Houston? Rookie coach Michael Curry isn't managing that situation in Detroit very well, it seems to me. ...
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 Bucks (21-24) @ Atlanta Hawks (25-16), 6:30pm Friday, FSN
Bucks vs. Sacramento Kings (10-33), 7:30pm Saturday @ Bradley Center
The Memphis Grizzlies, 11-30 and losers of 15 out of 17 games, fired coach Mark Iavaroni Thursday. As a result, the Bucks could well lose assistant Lionel Hollins, who sources say will take over for Memphis sometime this weekend.
Until last summer, Hollins had coached the Grizzlies in one capacity or another since the team's 1995-96 inaugural season under Bucks great Brian Winters. Hollins was Iavaroni's lead assistant, but left to join Scott Skiles' staff in Milwaukee as Grizzlies management was deciding whether or not Iavaroni would be back this year.
One might wonder why Memphis didn't just hire Hollins as head coach last spring instead of giving Iavaroni another chance; or whether giving Iavaroni another chance led to Hollins' departure. I did at the time, and thought it was a lucky break for Skiles and the Bucks that Hollins was ready to leave the Grizzlies after 13 years. In most any other offseason, Hollins wouldn't have been available.
Hollins has twice served as head coach of the Grizzlies, once as interim coach in 2000 and for four games in the 2004-05 season after Hubie Brown resigned.
Word of Hollins' hiring is being reported by Memphis Edge, the daily Commercial Appeal's website. For the past couple of weeks, the Edge has been trying to figure out why the Bucks aren't interested in trading Ramon Sessions and Joe Alexander to the Grizzlies for reserve point guard Mike Conley, the disappointing #4 pick in the 2007 draft. (Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out why so many Bucks fans assumed the Bucks were interested just because folks in Memphis thought it would be a great deal for the Grizzlies).
The Edge/Commercial Appeal wasn't so good at making trades, but Hollins returning to Memphis does make a lot of sense. According to the "team insider" cited by the Edge, Hollins "plans to bring with him as assistants former Philadelphia head coach Maurice Cheeks and former Los Angeles Clippers coach Barry Hecker." ... Griz assistant coach Johnny Davis will take over temporarily until Hollins can join the team next week.
Just hearing the names Hollins and Cheeks together again brings back painful memories of the classic seven-game East semifinals series between the Bucks-Sixers in 1981. And the six-game series in 1982. Cheeks and Hollins were the starting backcourt on those Philly teams. Having Iavaroni in this stroy invokes 1983 all over again and Fo-Fo-Fo Sixers, though Hollins wasn't on that Philly team the Bucks couldn't beat.
Will we be hearing soon that Chocalate Thunder (Darryl Dawkins) is getting a job in Memphis?
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No Bogut this weekend: There's nothing new on whether Andrew Bogut has recovered from his back problems, so the last report about him missing this entire weekend still stands. That's too bad because he dominated Al Horford and ex-Buck Zaza Pachulia last season in four games.
Bogut's 2007-08 vs. Hawks: 21.8 ppg on 61% shooting; 10 rpg - 4 offensive boards per; 3.8 blocks/g; 1.8 apg; 1.3 steals/g and 2.5 turnovers/g in 35.5 mins/g ...
 That's a lot of damage. The Bucks and Hawks split those games. The Hawks slipped into the 8th playoff spot in the East with just 34 wins on the season.
This season, the Bucks lost in Atlanta without Bogut, who missed the game after mashing his knee taking a charge against Dwight Howard in Orlando. They were also without Redd but nearly pulled out a win, as Ramon Sessions led a late rally that had the Bucks within three in the final minutes. Sessions had 21 pts and 8 assists; Richard Jefferson 25 in 43 minutes, and Charlie Villanueva contributed 19. Joe Alexander had one of his better outings with 8 points. The Bucks lost 102-96.
In Bogut's absence, Al Horford went off for 21 points on 9-12 shooting.
Horford is questionable to play Friday with a bone bruise in his right knee. Also, Marvin Williams, the Hawks starting small forward (and #2 pick behind Bogut in the 2005 draft) suffered a concussion earlier this week, may sit out. The Hawks beat the Bulls in Chicago Wednesday 105-102 without either player.
This should be interesting. The Hawks got out to an 8-0 start but then lost PF Josh Smith for 12 games, and one of those was the Bucks game. They were struggling without Smith's defense and inside scoring, and had lost 5 straight before beating the Bucks. Also, the Bucks perimeter defense was a lot better than it is now that Redd is back and Charlie Bell limited due to injuries. Point guard Mike Bibby and All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson had subpar shooting nights the first meeting - I wouldn't expect a repeat performance tonight from the Hawks guards.
The Hawks are 19-10 with Smith and very tough at home. They are 6-6 without Smith. And the Bucks? After scorching the nets versus Dallas, who's to say which Bucks team will show up. Scott Skiles would do well to remember how well Sessions played against Bibby back in November. It might make the difference, just as it did against Dallas.
Pissing off Bucks fans everywhere: It's Peter Vecsey of the New York Post in a column today, featuring rising NBA center Andrew Bynum (wrong AB, Peter) and suggesting that the Bucks with Michael Redd are a team entrenched with vultures circling above looking for an easy trade. Appreciate the sentiment, Pete, but I don't think making fun of John Hammond and your "deep dish" inside source is really all that helpful. Make yourself youseful, will ya, and go outside and look for the Cash Cab or something.
For an inside view of the Bucks bunkered down, entrenched mentality, check out this weekend's Gery Woelfel column. It was kinda funny until the Atlanta debacle, which wasn't funny at all.
 "We didn't show up -- in any facet of the game," Skiles said after the 117-87 loss. That's troubling. The Bucks simply could not defend and had nothing going offensively outside of Charlie Villanueva, who had 27 points.
One conclusion that can be drawn here is that the Bucks could well be a more competitive team with Charlie Bell and Ramon Sessions splitting minutes that are now going to Michael Redd. I'm going to qualify that by saying this may not be true every night, every game, depending on the opponent. But against the Atlanta Hawks, what the Bucks bring as a starting guard tandem -- Luke Ridnour and Michael Redd -- is not good enough. They don't play enough defense to have an effect on Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson, a likely All-Star this season, and they don't produce enough offense most nights to make up for. The Bucks were better off playing Bell and Sessions in the first meeting.
Bell didn't show up in Atlanta either but he was excused, staying in Milwaukee with Bogut to get more treatment on his bum ankle. Bell and Bogut will also miss tonight's game against the Kings.
The Atlanta debacle should tell John Hammond that his team's chances of making the playoffs aren't necessarily improved by keeping Redd. Trading him by the Feb. 19 deadline is not the white flag (that's the entrenched mentality Vecsey was referring to) that some in the Bucks organization believe it would be -- If Charlie can get healthy enough to go 30 minutes or more per game.
With the up and down Bucks, conclusions have been difficult to come by, but this one's going to stick. Bookend the Hawks game with the Pistons game at home after X-mas (the game Skiles benched the starters) and I see a 7-9 team that doesn't play Scott Skiles basketball and will not be able to pay a 15-man roster under the luxury tax next season unless some serious cap space is cleared.
Bucks vs. Kings tonight: Tip-off's in a couple of hours, and this game is now a must-win for the 21-25 Bucks against a Western Conference doormat, as is Monday's game at the BC against the T-Wolves. A win won't make up for the pathetic showing in Atlanta or save this Bucks weekend, especially if it's a repeat of the game in Sacramento last weekend. In that game, the Redd-ites got into a shootout with the lowly Kings and nearly blew a 15-point fourth quarter lead. Let's see if the Scott Skiles Bucks show up tonight instead.
Bogut to return Monday? It looks Bogut may be ready to suit up Monday, but don't expect him in the starting lineup. It's acknowledged now that the Bucks brought their center back too fast last time by taking him on a Minneapolis-Washington D.C. road trip and giving him 30+ minutes right away.
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 No word yet on whether or not Andrew Bogut will lace 'em up tonight against Dirk and the Jasons at the BC (7pm gametime), and no new updates on the injury from Bogut on his website. Bogut had an MRI last week before the Bucks headed west for their 3-game trip, and no structural damage was revealed -- "just back spasms," Bucks training staff says.
Obviously, the 20-24 Bucks need their center back. They were killed on the boards during the west coast trip, capped by a 58-30 trashing by Greg Oden and the Portland Trailblazers Monday.
UPDATE: Bogut won't play tonight and it's "unlikely he could return until next week," JSOnline is reporting. This is good policy by the Bucks, letting Bogut fully heal before committing him to play with a team that isn't playing Scott Skiles basketball anyway.
Bucks blow out Mavs, 133-99: Just when it looks like some quit gets into the Bucks, they bounce back. In prior seasons, quitting time might have come by now, but then Ramon Sessions, Richard Jefferson, Luke Ridnour, Francisco Elson, Malik Allen, Luc Mbah a Moute and Scott Skiles weren't around.  Skiles decision to give Sessions extended minutes against Jason Kidd proved to be key for the Bucks in the 1st half. Michael Redd (27 pts), recovered from a bad start and was on fire in the 3rd quarter. The up and down Charlie Villanueva was up after a tough time in the West over the weekend - Charlie led all scorers with 32 points and hauled down 10 boards.
Sessions added 21 pts and 7 assists in one of his most productive games since Redd came back from injury. Skiles stuck with Sessions despite the mistakes (5 turnovers) and that's the highlight to make on this game, along with the overall solid play by the Bucks frontcourt. R.J. flirted with a triple double (15 pts, 7 rebs, 8 assists) and harassed Josh Howard into a lousy night. After the 1st quarter, the Dallas small forward contributed little but poor shooting (7-18, no assists and just 3 boards), which allowed the Bucks to concentrate on slowing Dirk down.
With the Bucks win at the BC and New Jersey's loss in New Orleans, the Bucks are back to 8th in the East standings.
Detroit goes big: Amir Johnson started alongside 'Sheed and Rip Hamilton came off the bench for the Pistons. This allowed Tayshaun Prince to return to his natural position, small forward, and, lo and behold, Prince scored 25 and the Pistons won. Coach Michael Curry would look a lot smarter about the situation if anybody who cared to notice hadn't been telling him to make the change games ago. It was Detroit's most lopsided win of the season.
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A couple of weeks ago, I sent Bogut a question via his web site "q&a" about the medical treatment he received over the summer playing for Basketball Australia. What I wanted to get to the bottom of is how and why Bogut played in an exhibition game vs. Argentina on an ankle later described by Aussie coach Bob Goorjian as "rolled pretty good". After playing one half vs. Argentina (exhibition remember - the game didn't count) the ankle reportedly swelled up and Bogut was relegated to the bench, which is where he stayed until the first Olympic match vs. Croatia.
Against Croatia, he appeared tenderfooted, and wasn't much better in game 2 vs. Argentina. The thinking is ... if basketball Australia had let the ankle heal rather than rushing Bogut out there, maybe the Bucks center's back wouldn't be screwed up. I'm no doctor but a bum wheel can certainly knock a person's rack out of whack. Things are connected one way or another, and Bogut can't pinpoint why his back started hurting, only when -- Dec. 17 in Philly.
So how and why did Bogut play so soon after rolling his ankle, and what sort of medical treatment did he receive? Here's what Bogut told me:
"As far as the injury I played through it. Got it taped extra tight, had around the clock treatment: Ultrasound/Bio Stem, Ice and plenty of massage and stretching. Playing through injuries is never fun, but sitting and watching is worse."
The upshot seems to be that pointing the finger at Basketball Australia, questioning how their team trainers handled injuries (which is what I've done) kinda misses the point in Bogut's case. Bogut was going to do whatever it took to play for his country ... "sitting and watching is worse." A sprained ankle is just a sprained ankle, an all-too-common injury, even if sprains incurred at the Olympics could have contributed to his back problems down the line.
 Defense "totally gone south": The Bucks now rank 18th in defensive field goal percentage after ranking 10th a week-and-a-half ago, JSOnline's Tom Enlund notes. Coach Scott Skiles doesn't like what he's seeing:
"Our defense has totally gone south on us. We're not good enough to go out and outscore people every night. Nobody in the league is. That's been proven. We've had a lot of slippage and we have to get our defensive intensity back."
The Bucks are still a Michael Redd team, coach, and his running mate in the backcourt, Luke Ridnour, is no defensive stalwart, either. When on the court together, Redd and Lucky Luke are not containing anybody or challenging on the perimeter.
The NBA junkies of the world are noticing. Shouldn't this Bucks team be Skilesier? wonders Kelly Dwyer in this week's Ball don't Lie power rankings. "The defense has fallen," KD notes in ranking the Bucks 17th.
Dwyer, remember, had gotten all misty-eyed over the weekend watching the Bulls beat the Cavs in Chicago, and wrote,
[The Bulls] got back to playing defense, running, and generally making life one big aberration for their opponents. A throwback to the Scott Skiles days, the early days, of forcing teams into giving up when things aren't going their way.
It seemed like the Bucks were almost there before X-mas and before Bogut was injured, but they have not really been consistent since Redd returned from injury in early December, and it starts with the perimeter defense. Only a trade can fix this, and it looks like the Bucks will be unable to man a 15-player roster next season unless they do something with Redd and his contract (or Dan Gadzuric or R.J.'s), but GM John Hammond seems unable, or unwilling to pull the trigger.
The trading deadline is four weeks away.
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