After venturing outdoors this morning and watching the game tonight, I know these two things to be true: Milwaukee left the bitter cold behind in Wisconsin and beat the Heat in Miami 98-83.

After a blowout-turned-nervous win over the Pacers, we pleaded for another win, but oh pretty-please, one sans drama. Our wish was the Bucks' command. Milwaukee didn't truly coast tonight, stumbling a bit late in the third and fourth quarters. But the Bucks held at least a nine point lead for the final 35 minutes of the game. Even with a couple mildly tense moments, this was a comprehensive win against a solid foe on the road. The victory marked Milwaukee's first win away from the BC in more than three weeks.

So, how did they do the good deed?

Andrew Bogut thankfully punished Joel Anthony (sidenote: Joel Anthony starts for the Heat) on the inside, and Michael Redd and Charlie Villanueva swished shots early. Most of all, everyone teamed up to play defense; they held Dwyane Wade (15 points on 5-16) in check while coach Erik Spoelstra held designated Buck-killer Chris Quinn (nine minutes, three points) off the court mostly. 

Three Bucks

• Andrew Bogut. A couple nights after demanding headlines with a 20-20 game, Bogut blended in with a somewhat quiet but supremely effective 20/11 on 10-12 shooting from the field. Anthony (two points in 39 minutes) proved no match for the Aussie.
  
• Michael Redd. His opposing shooting guard might be more popular in some parts of Milwaukee, but Michael Redd outplayed Dwyane Wade tonight. It was three-point basketball for Michael, who hit 4-6 from outside in the first quarter. Redd played Miami pretty evenly all by his lonesome in the opening period, blitzing the Heat for 16 points as Milwaukee went up 27-18. While Wade fumbled his way to three quick turnovers, Redd didn't turn the ball even once while dishing out a team-high five assists. He notched all of his 21 points in the first half.
  
• Charlie Villanueva. The mystery was more mystical (iced the game with a fake around-the-back and floating and-one) than mystifying (attempted seven more shots than any other Buck). Along with Redd, he delivered early offensive punch that pretty much knocked the Heat out of the game by halftime. CV totaled 20/6/5 in yet another strong game off the bench.
  

Three Numbers

• 18. The Heat scored just 18 points in each of the first, second, and fourth quarters.
• 5. Michael Redd and Charlie Villanueva tied for the team-lead in assists with five.
• 0. The Heat didn't attempt a single free throw in the free-flowing, Milwaukee-dominated first quarter. And that stat is a big deal, especially when you consider the Bucks entered the game allowing the most free throws per game in the NBA. Also working against the Bucks was the fact Wade was first in the league in free throws made.
  

Three Good

• Miami sees red. Miami saw a steady red glow from the opening tip: road red Milwaukee uniforms, empty red seats, and a fair share of Michael Redd. A good home team coming into the fixture, the Heat were frustrated by a sizzling shooting and defensively determined Milwaukee club.
  
• The Prince and the stopper. We know Luc Richard plays the role of Milwaukee royalty. But his rapidly developed reputation as a versatile defensive stopper is twice as nice. The numbers don't show he's necessarily a stopper, but in a league where most rookies aren't ready defensively, Mbah a Moute keeps a starting spot precisely because he d's up. Tonight, he set the tone of the game in the first period by smothering the ball away from Wade on a fast break and then drawing a charge. The former Marquette star went to the locker room at halftime with 4 turnovers, 3 fouls, and a technical. Wade's problems weren't all Mbah a Moute's doing; the forward wasn't even matched up with him often. But as Wade goes, so go the Heat, and the first-year forward absolutely flustered the MVP-candidate.
  
• It's a new season/year. The Bucks lost with unimaginable regularity from time to time last season.  And a couple of the lowest of the low points came against Miami in the span of less than a week in mid-March. The Bucks atoned for the worst we saw in 2008, just in time for the upcoming new year.
  

Three Bad

• Sort-of-super Mario. The rookie point guard hit for 20/7/8 and a team-best -2 differential while Luke Ridnour and Ramon Sessions played supporting roles in the win. But Chalmers had game-highs of five turnovers and five fouls.
• Updates? Yeah, 10-12 from the field is excellent, and I'm sure 40 points and 31 rebounds in the last couple games is just great. But, Andrew, is it asking too much to get an in-game blog update about your favorite ways to lead the Bucks to a win? Too busy scoring efficiently or amassing bunches of rebounds, or something else superfluous, let me guess.
• No way, Joe-A. Joe Alexander has only scored two points in the last week. I guess I'd prefer if he had maybe just a couple more. Okay. The Bucks won by 15 points on the road, party people.

As linked to in Wednesday's Notes, Henry Abbott wrote a terrific piece about the future of Team USA. If you think it's too early to consider such things, well, it's quite simply not. The 2010 World Championships are just around the corner, and building a team, as we've learned, takes time.

The thought, competition, and scrutiny that goes into creating national soccer teams is incredible. Basketball is following that path.

There are plentiful questions, like whether the LeBron/Kobe/Wade troika will sign on again. James already said he'll only play if Kidd does, and Kidd should not and will not. Kobe, while not old, might want to save energy to win the NBA title without Shaq he wants so badly. Wade's all-out style also might not agree with four more years of intense summer ball.

Plus, they already accomplished the mission of restoring order in the basketball world with the gold in Beijing. There is a lot to lose in the next two tournaments, and only a little to gain.

That said, here are my roster thoughts going forward.

Return, pretty please

LeBron James: Some are holding off on anointing him the greatest player in the world. Not I. In 2010 and 2012, he'll absolutely be the most dominant basketball force, and the most important player to Team USA success.

Kobe Bryant: Recruited to save USA Basketball, and did just that against Spain in the fourth quarter of the gold medal match.

Chris Paul: Best point guard on the planet will be 25 and 27 years old in the next two major competitions.

Dwyane Wade: Leaped back into the forefront of stardom. Wade played pressure defense and ignited transition offense, the places where Team USA differentiated itself in Biejing.

Deron Williams: Formed a dynamite two-headed point guard attack off the bench with Paul, and showed nice chemistry on the court with CP3 as well. Only will improve in next four years.

Chris Bosh: A relative unknown among superstars, Bosh established himself as the team's best post player on both ends of the court in Beijing. His 77.4 % field goal percentage was absurd, but his 86.2 % free-throw percentage was perhaps even more comforting.

Dwight Howard: Mobility makes him a nice fit on team that plays at breakneck speed. Strength separates him from competition.

Continue reading this post »

Redd, with a golden tint. (FIBA.com)

Team USA is golden again after toppling Spain 118-107 (recap/quotes) in the early hours this morning.

Five thoughts after the win:

• Despite the up-and-down performance, Team USA won each quarter, if ever so narrowly. It went 38-31, 31-30, 22-21, and 27-25 for the Americans, who never could create a commanding lead against the same team they knocked around by 37 points the week prior. Spain played wonderfully in the gold medal match, but let's not suddenly delude ourselves and pretend Team USA didn't thoroughly dominate this tournament. They finished 8-0, and won every game by double-digits. Against the top contenders? A 23-point win over Greece, 20-point victory over Argentina, and two wins against Spain by an average of 24 points. Not at all bad showings against the last team to beat Team USA, the defending Olympic champs, and the defending World champs.
• Kobe's four-point play and ensuing "shhh" easily overtook Wade's falling-out-of-bounds lob to Bryant as the signature play of the tournament. The entire game was classic Bryant, who just wrote another thick chapter in his legacy, and went a long way to redeeming (redeeming!) himself following the NBA Finals disaster.
• Speaking of memorable moments, Rudy Fernandez, oh my. The dunk on Howard, the showy step-back three-pointers, everything he touched turned into shiny gold silver. Dude was on, he just couldn't stay on the court. He fouled out (on Kobe's four-pointer) in 18 minutes, but packed 22 points and a lot of highlights in his brief time on court.
  
• If Dwyane Wade was the perfect sixth man (and he most certainly was) then Tayshaun Prince was also the ideal tenth man, something missing from previous versions of Team USA. You just felt at ease whenever Prince was on the court throughout the tournament. And his 3-3 effort in eight minutes against Spain sure didn't hurt in the 11-point win, right? Let's just say I wouldn't mind seeing him, at 32, in London in 2012.
• Michael Redd didn't play in the final game, marking his first DNP of the Olympics. only got the final minute on the floor against Spain, his briefest appearance in the Olympics. That's fine with me, and it's cool with the birthday boy too, apparently. Happy 29th, Mike, and congrats. From the quotes:

  You want to cry, you want to laugh, you want to smile. It was amazing to see our flag raised and to know that you are the best team in the world.

Five observations after Team USA's positively easy, 92-69 (recap/quotes) thumping of Greece:

• Team USA won each quarter against the Greeks. That might not seem like a huge deal, but it's indicative of frighteningly consistent play and a truly thorough win over a strong opponent. And accomplishing the feet is unusual. It marked one of just five games out of 18 in the Olympics so far that a team has won each quarter. The others? Germany over Angola 95-66. USA over China 101-70. Australia over Iran 106-68. Argentina over Croatia 77-53. Angola or Iran can suffer such a fate, sure, but it's just not something that happens to elite teams like Greece. For more perspective, consider that the Bucks outscored its opponent in all four quarters once in 82 games last season.
• Dwyane Wade is both a sixth man and the best player in the tournament thus far, though I won't bother arguing with someone who picks LeBron James, and Chris Bosh has been nothing short of brilliant. The Marquette product is leading the world averaging 18.3 points, and he's doing it efficiently, as his scalding-hot 76 % field goal percentage attests to. He burned Greece's vaunted defense for 17 points and five assists in just 20 minutes. Unreal per-minute production to be sure. And guess what? His defensive performance may have been even better. He finished the game with six steals, two more than the entire Greece team had. Next time someone talks about Americans not being able to defend, well... It's not that one Team USA guy off the bench is better at defense than the best defensive national team all put together, but yeah. Might want to hush that talk for a bit. And when I say a bit, I mean until further notice.
  
• So, is there anything wrong with this team after such a swanky performance? Yes. The team's starting point guard not only hasn't scored (or attempted a shot for that matter), but has more turnovers (5) and fouls (5) than assists (4). Fortunately, Chris Paul and Deron Williams are equally adept and are both getting almost twice as many minutes as Kidd. The more unforeseen problem is free-throw shooting. Team USA rank 11th out of 12 teams at 64.4 % at the line. Remember Wade's silly field goal percentage? Well, it's better than his 66.7 % mark from the stripe. That type of strange split is supposed to be reserved for guys like Shaq, not someone who won a Finals MVP at the free throw line (he made 58-71 in the Heat's four wins). James is an even more egregious culprit so far, converting on only 4-10. They are better shooters typically, so the numbers will improve. And more good news is Team USA ranks second in free throws attempted, even if it doesn't seem like they are getting to the line a ton. Thus, free throw shooting isn't a big worry, though I sure hope not to see Dwight Howard in at the end of a close game with the way Chris Bosh is playing, and can shoot from the line.
• Speaking of a hypothetical (because that's all we have right now) close game late in the fourth quarter, will Michael Redd be on the floor, as many assumed before tournament began? Despite ranking 10th in minutes played with just 33, his four three-pointers are the most on Team USA. But his role has been sharply reduced since last summer's FIBA Americas tournament, when he was fourth on Team USA in scoring with 14.4 points.
• The Redd question is even more salient because similar to the free throw issues, Team USA has shot a woeful 29.2 % from beyond the arc, good enough only for last. This is particularly baffling not only because of the short line and collection of excellent shooters, but because of the team's hot outside shooting in the FIBA's a year ago, when Team USA hit 47.0 %. For that reason, I'm not really buying that Kobe and company are having problems adjusting to the short line. The teams are far better defensively at the Olympics than the FIBA's, so that certainly plays a part in the decline, but mostly, it's an aberration based on a small sample size. As such, the numbers are only going to go up, just like with the free throw shooting. That's good news for Team USA and bad news for the rest of the world.

Team USA take Australia down, under some pressure.

• The Bucks released its 2008-09 regular season schedule today. They open on October 28 on the road against the Bulls, coach Scott Skiles' former team. The second game of the season is listed as at Seattle, but let's hope the Bucks don't make that trip. That's the home opener for Oklahoma City. (Update: the schedule is now updated/correct) The Bucks' home opener is Saturday, November 1 against the Raptors, who notably dealt former Buck T.J. Ford for Jermaine O'Neal.
  
• Getting off to a fast start won't be easy: the Bucks play 10 of 17 in November on the road, and 13 of 17 November opponents made the playoffs last season. They play the Celtics twice, and have road contests against the Pistons, Jazz, Cavaliers, and Magic. The Spurs and Suns are a couple teams that will visit Milwaukee. However, the schedule softens some at the end, as they finish the year with 13 of 21 at the Bradley Center, so they'll need to remain in contention through February. 
  
• Fortunately, the Bucks travel to Boston only once with two more games in Milwaukee.  Other East teams the Bucks face only thrice: Philadelphia (one home), Miami (one home), and Washington (two home, sorry Gilbert).  Aside from those 12 games, the Bucks play four times against the remaining ten Eastern Conference teams (40 total), and twice against each of the Western teams (30 total).
• Charles Gardner offers Bucks' schedule observations. Here's just one: the Bucks have one nationally televised game: February 27 against the Hornets. 
• ESPN.com's Marc Stein unveils schedule highlights from around the league. Along with mentioning the Bucks will be the first team to visit Oklahoma City this season, the Bucks/Nets game on February 3 is highlighted as RJ's homecoming.
• Jim Paschke offers more insight into the schedule, too.

  Due to NBA team re-location and league realignment in recent years, 7 of the 15 teams in the Western Conference are currently in the Central Time Zone. The Bucks will play just 5 of 82 games in the Pacific Time Zone, which is an advantage for our television viewers.

• Team USA completed its pre-Olympic schedule a spotless 5-0 with an 87-76 (recap/quotes) win over Australia on Monday morning in Shanghai. Despite playing without top player Andrew Bogut, the Aussies hung tough and even outscored Team USA in the second half, ignited by St. Mary's point guard Patrick Mills, who netted 13 points in 21 minutes off the bench. Dwyane Wade continued his stellar play, leading Team USA with 22 points. The Americans shot an ice-cold 3-18 on three-pointers, with Michael Redd contributing an 0-3 effort from outside. Playing the percentages, it's only a good thing to get a bad shooting night out of the way in a tuneup game, but the narrow victory showed Team USA's fragility nonetheless. They begin their road to gold on Sunday at 9:15 a.m. against China on NBC.
• Kelly Dwyer looks Behind the box score at Team USA/Australia.

  This team (and I'm looking at you, Carmelo) just turns its head too much. These guys aren't used to watching for back-picks and defending cuts to the front of the hoop. Back-door screens still kill Team USA, and though the men still have the athleticism to recover and sometimes make up for it, Coach K's crew is still getting beat way too much by teams using Team USA's pressure against itself.

• Chris Sheridan also finds problems with Team USA.

  Remember last summer when Mexico scored 100 against Team USA in the Tournament of the Americas and the players shrugged it off as nothing? Well, it wasn't nothing. It was a sign that too often they are beaten for open looks, and they should have taken it as a warning sign.

• Randy Hill of FoxSports.com takes a closer look at Team USA's offense and defense.
• Charles Gardner reports Andrew Bogut expects to play in Australia's Olympic opener against Croatia on Sunday.
• The Bob Boozer Jinx adds that Bogut is available to play in Australia's opener against Croatia according to coach Brian Goorjian. J.D. Mo also wonders how Team USA would've fared with Bogut on the court.
• Dime reflects on USA/Australia.
• Dime also poses the question: who is the best player on Team USA? There is some debate in the comments about the difference between the most valuable player to the team as its comprised versus best player overall. Going forward, I vote LeBron James to hold both titles.
• NBA.com's John Schuhmann writes Michael Redd helps Team USA shoot for success off the bench.
• Check out NBA.com's photo gallery from a recent Team USA visit to Shanghai Children's Medical Center.
• Hardwood Paroxysm notes that one-time Buck and permanently 5'5" Earl Boykins signed with Virtus Bologna in Italy for $3.5 million, making him the highest-paid (basketball) player in the country.

Even Mike Redd was getting into the dunkathon (and didn't hurt himself).

• Mike Redd helped Team USA throttle Lithuania yesterday 120-84 (recap / photos). Redd scored 16 points (6/10 fg, 4/8 3fg) in just over 14 minutes, as the Americans also got 19 from Dwyane Wade and 17 from Dwight Howard. Team USA plays Russia on Sunday at 2 am CT on ESPN2.
  
• Australia led most of the game but couldn't fend off defending Olympic champion Argentina in the final of the FIBA Diamond Ball tournament, losing 95-91 (recap / photos). A day after his 32-point performance against Angola, Andrew Bogut saw fairly limited action and was icing down an apparent ankle injury near the end of the game.  Bogut was mostly invisible in the 20 minutes he did play, taking just three shots en route to four points (1/3 fg, 2/2 ft) and two rebounds.  Australia will face Team USA in a pre-Olympic exhibition game at 7 am CT on Tuesday, also on ESPN2.
• Watch the final two minutes of Australia's 81-78 win on Thursday.
• The Bob Boozer Jinx has more on the Australia and USA games.
• Green Bandwagon has a comprehensive look at the Australian roster.
• Ridiculous Upside is thinking long and hard about the Bucks' uncertain D-League situation.
• The inimitable Elie Seckbach of Fanhouse has a video interview with Redd. Among the topics: how Redd balances religion and basketball as well as his close friendship with Kobe Bryant.
  

Uh, Canada? Team USA hung a 55-point beating on them last night.

• Team USA opened its exhibition schedule with a 120-65 thumping of Canada last night (video above). Mike Redd picked up where he left off last summer with 20 points in 18 minutes, tying Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade for the Team USA lead.  Redd's apparently taking his specialist role to heart, as he made 6/8 from the field--all from three point range. 
• Alex asks: Olympic gold or NBA title?
• Kelly Dwyer opens up his DVD collection and takes his magnifying glass to game five of the Bucks/Pacers first round series from 2000 (part I, part II).

  Cassell hits another jumper, this time it's banked in. Both teams are trading buckets, and I'm absolutely convinced that these were the best two teams in the East that year. The Knicks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2000, and we all saw a lot of that team (thanks to Turner and NBC, we had no choice), but this Bucks team is much better.
  
  These are two deep, potent teams. By the time I finished typing that last paragraph, Jalen Rose and Ray Allen just traded jumpers.

• Watch Andrew Bogut talk Olympic hoops.
• Truth About It breaks down the Gilbert-fueled Milwaukee/DC feud.  I think at the end of the day no one would be going out of their way to rip Milwaukee if the Bucks were winning games; funny how that can make up for all the other problems a city has (see Detroit as exhibit A).  But until the Bucks become relevant on the court, the combination of small market + cold winter + losing = no respect.  That's just how it's going to be.  
• Dave Berri looks at rookie summer league performances.  As you might guess, the number's aren't great for Joe Alexander, but they were actually worse for O.J. Mayo.  Something else you might not have expected?  Luc Richard Mbah a Moute ranked fifth out of 32 rookies in per-minute production, tying Vegas MVP Jerryd Bayless
  
• Royal Ivey is now a Sixer. Ivey's hard work and penchant for floor burn were appreciated, but he's below average in essentially every phase of the game.  I wish I could say he's a hard-nosed defender or something, but the fact was that opposing guards had their way with him most of the year.  As the Bratwurst pointed out, getting in a defensive stance and fouling a lot doesn't equal good defense.
  
• Bucks Diary crunches numbers on the Lue and Allen signings.
• Ted Bauer at ESPN the Mag chronicles Sam Cassell's greatest hits.

• Bob Wolfley at the JS comes through with some quotes from a John Hammond interview with Fox Sports Radio this afternoon. Yesterday we broke down the Randolph vs. Alexander debate, and with everyone predicting the Bucks will choose Alexander, Hammond is saying all kinds of nice things about Randolph.

  "We like him very much. He's a tough one because some people have said, and it's really kind of hard to argue, if they say the top tier of this draft is (Derrick) Rose-(Michael) Beasley 1-2. . .Some people say, and time will tell, maybe three or four years down the line from now, maybe the next best player could be a guy like Anthony Randolph. He's 6-10, handles the ball, passes it. Very, very skilled guy, just extremely thin right now. But, boy, in time he could be a special player. That would be a tough decision if he's looking you in the eye with the eighth pick."

  The good news is that you can interpret it pretty much anyway you want. If you like Randolph, then clearly this is Hammond glowing about a guy that he likes--and perhaps trying to butter up Bucks fans for what could be an unpopular pick. If you like Joe Alexander, then you can say Hammond is simply talking up the guy he doesn't want so as to throw other teams off the scent.
• The Bucks had eleven prospects at the Cousins Center on Tuesday for another day of workouts, with Alabama PF (and Bratwurst favorite) Richard Hendrix probably the most notable name in the group. Plenty of Wisconsin connections as well, as Mike Taylor, Brian Butch and Draelon Burns were also in the house.
  
• If you're looking to emotionally prepare yourself for a Joe Alexander pick, check out video from his ESPN appearance, where he's asked about the Bucks and says pleasant things about Milwaukee. TrueHoop also has an interesting read by Todd Gallagher on Alexander's development into a lotto pick. Having watched Alexander since his days as a freshman scrub, Gallagher points to Alexander's Big East Tourney performance as indicative of the stunning progress he's made:
  

  Because of Hasheem Thabeet and UConn's massive frontline, which congested the lane and led the NCAA in blocks once again, Alexander broke out a series of latter year MJ moves. Jab step, one dribble, jump shot. Post up, square up, elevate.

  This is a very mature way of playing the game and there aren't many college players who have the physical ability and are refined enough to do it. It's certainly a departure from when Alexander was a stringbean newbie who had no concept of how he was being defended and wanted to beat everyone off of the dribble through a series of hideous And-1 moves.

  And he's a killer. When he talked trash about Duke after beating them in the NCAA tournament, that was the Joe Alexander WVU fans saw the entire second half of last year. Maybe that's from Huggins, maybe that's inborn, but the guy is not going to be intimidated.

• The Sonics, Grizzlies, Knicks, Blazers and Suns probably head the list of teams that could affect the Bucks' draft strategies should they keep the 8th pick. Seattle has long been assumed to be taking one of the guards, but now they're also being connected with Brook Lopez (for some reason).  That would push one of the guards or Kevin Love down to the Bucks, something that no one seems to be talking much about. Would the Bucks really pick Alexander or Randolph ahead of Love, Jerry Bayless, Russell Westbrook, or Eric Gordon?
  
  In the absence of any trades, Memphis is still the most likely destination for Love, though Gordon and Danilo Gallinari have also gotten mentions.  New York has been touted as a possible destination for pretty much everyone, including Alexander. That's probably more of a longshot, though it'd be more likely if the Knicks could swing a deal for Memphis' pick.
  
  And though they both pick behind the Bucks, the Suns (15th) and Blazers (13th) both reportedly like Alexander and may be willing to trade up to get him. The Suns could take Alexander ahead of the Bucks' pick if they were to pull off a rumored trade for the Clippers' 7th pick. Or maybe not.
  
• Then again, maybe the Bucks won't be picking anyone in the first round on Thursday. If you follow RealGM then you've probably noticed the discussion about a supposed deal that could go down on draft night; for a good recap, start here. The basics are that it wouldn't include Bogut or Yi, probably can't involve Mo because he's BYC, and would likely involve dealing the 8th pick as part of a package for a veteran player.  Wichmae is the poster who started it all with a trail of hints, his every word spurring Greenspan-ian levels of scrutiny. I won't pretend to know if there's anything to it but I've met Wichmae, so I can attest to him being a real person and a good dude. He certainly doesn't have a reputation for rumor-mongering, but who knows what's really going on with the Bucks right now.
• Charles Gardner blogs that Dwyane Wade likes O.J. Mayo and alludes to the possibility of the Bucks using Charlie Villanueva or even (gasp!) Yi Jianlian to swap picks with Minnesota for the purpose of drafting Mayo. What about Sessions as bait?  I'm kinda surprised this got its own blog entry, as the Bucks were rumored to be interested in Mayo last week but couldn't get into a private workout with him. In general this seems like something of a longshot,  but maybe Gardner has an inkling that something could still go down and wants to cover his bases?  I'm Ron Burgundy?
• Ty serves up his list of mixed-bag prospects, which includes Alexander.

  He only had 3 positive Win Contribution performances out of the 10 and those all happened to come against the lowest ranked among the "10 Best" -- Oklahoma (32nd ranked), Winthrop (27th ranked), and Notre Dame (42nd ranked). If you look at his performances against the highest ranked -- Georgetown and Louisville -- both are very poor. Thus, Alexander scares the hell out of me.

• Yi Jianlian scored 26 points (8/15 fg, 10/11 ft) along with five boards  and two blocks in 26 minutes as China once again defeated Lithuania's B team 110-92
• Truman Reed at Bucks.com opens up his history book and wonders: will number eight be great?
• The Bucks had their annual "media appreciation game," unfortunately our invite got lost in the mail.