Monday Bucks Notes

by Alex Boeder on Nov 12, 2007 11:00 AM CST in Daily Notes

Bucks-Spurs: My recap here and Frank's here.
JS Online's Tom Enlund notes that Michael Redd isn't thrilled after the Texas road trip. There is nothing wrong with the team leader trying to keep the standards high.

"I hate it," Redd said after a game in which the Bucks trailed by as many as 40 points in the third quarter. "I'm not happy at all. This is not good. I'm not going to settle for 30-point loss against San Antonio. And we lost against Houston. I'm not happy.
Enlund also recaps the game in the JS Online blog. There really isn't a lot to add. Pretty simply, the Bucks went into San Antonio without their A-game and got trounced. Just like after the first couple losses to start the year, they can bounce back, although playing catchup with .500 is going to make for a stressful year around these parts.

The Spurs led by 40 late in the third quarter as fans amused themselves by trying to get the wave started. San Antonio led after three quarters, 91-61.
Okay, just a little more on the (hopefully) forgettable game. ESPN.com's daily player rankings list the 144 guys who played Monday and Desmond Mason (137) and Michael Ruffin (140) aren't exactly up there.
Marty Burns of SI.com writes that former Buck Earl Boykins is still looking for work.

Boykins might look like just another guy who blew it in free agency, but there's more to the situation than meets the eye. For one, he did not want to return to Milwaukee and its crowded backcourt. For another, Boykins truly feels he is worth the money.
Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports writes about the 1-2 punch of Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian that China will rely on as they host the 2008 Olympics. I'll take Howard/Stoudemire in what should be a great tournament.

"There's no better combination of four and five men in the world than those two," Del Harris said. "Nobody has a better four and five in the world, including the U.S. Olympic team."

Amare Stoudemire and Dwight Howard might have something to say about Harris' breathless assessment. Regardless, Yao and Yi have given Chinese officials reason to be optimistic heading into the Olympics.
PhDribble reports on the Yi/Yao clash from a cultural standpoint, drawing on coverage by the People's Daily. It's a good read and not that long, so worth checking out.

As I began to discuss earlier this week, the coverage of Yao and Yi allows us to examine not just international basketball, but nuances in contemporary Chinese culture. We must view Yao and Yi not necessarily as agents of change, but as representative of shifts in Chinese culture. The following iPeoples_daily_logos an analysis of this week's coverage of the Yao-Yi match-up from the online English edition of the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's authoritative newspaper (PD.)
The Bucks are ranked 20th in ESPN.com's latest power rankings, up one spot from last week.

The Bucks can probably live with their 0-4 start on the road when the last two losses were in Houston and San Antonio and when there are only two rookies out there scoring in double figures: Durant and a guy named Yi.