Box Score

MILWAUKEE -- All is well that ends well.

Destined for an anticlimactic finish to the home schedule, the Bucks appeared ready to take anticlimacticism (yes) to a new level with a dreary start that saw them trail by double-digits early in the second quarter against a team that suited up eight players. A team that started one regular starter. A team that had five road wins in more than five months. It seemed that the Bucks, who spent the season shocking us with new lows, had saved their worst for the last game at the Bradley Center: Brandon Jennings threw a shot that hit the top of the backboard for a classic 24-second violation. The PA announcer proclaimed, "Alexis Ajinca for three." Chris Douglas-Roberts fell over. Multiple Raptors flew in for the same alley-oop.

Thankfully, it was the Infamous Milwaukee Bucks who held the Raptors down for an exciting 15-0 run late in the last game at the BC this season, instead of the other, usual way around. The defense was stout, Jennings was the gamebreaker, and the fans most certainly appreciated the comeback on Fan Appreciation Night.

But after the game, there were unusual multiple-second pauses between questions asked by reporters at the final home presser with Scott Skiles. The reporters were quiet, but it was not because there were no questions. Rather, because we all knew -- Skiles, the players, the media -- there were still no new answers.

Because -- no matter this win, no matter what goes down in OKC on Wednesday -- this season?

All is not well that ends well.

Continue reading this post »

Box Score / Highlights

MILWAUKEE -- At the same time Derrick Rose bursted the Bradley Center with style points, the Bucks did not have any points at all.

And while it took longer than expected, Rose winning the game for Chicago while Milwaukee's offense lost the game for the Bucks was the most logical, most obvious conclusion long before the game started.

Before the Bulls ended the game on a 12-0 run, things were pretty peachy. Facing the top-ranked defensive team in the NBA, the Bucks improbably scored 25, 23, and 26 points in the first three quarters. Carlos Delfino had the hot hand early, John Salmons carried the middle of the game, and the fourth quarter started with what was a wire-to-wire lead and five-point advantage. But Milwaukee saved its worst for last, missing its final seven field goals over the final five minutes of the game. That stretch coincided with a mesmerizing display of point guard perfection by Rose, who scored (10 points) or assisted (2 assists) on every single Chicago basket in those decisive final five minutes.

Five minutes away from a win, less than four weeks left in the season, three more home games, two games out of the playoffs, one basketball team short on hope...

Continue reading this post »

Box Score

MILWAUKEE -- Unbelievable.

With the new, old starting five back in place, the Bucks had just won two games in a row. They scored in triple digits both times. The fourth worst team in the NBA was in town. And their best player was unavailable. This was not only a game that Milwaukee had to win, but a game they very oddly seemed sure to win.

Scott Skiles, before the game:

We've got to play our game. It's obviously another game we have to win, we can't have a setback. Nothing against Sacramento, but a team with their record we can't have a setback against, especially at home. We've got to come out and win this game.

Instead, the Bucks came out and won the first quarter. And lost the rest of the quarters, and lost the game, in a lost season. A high-energy start led by Carlos Delfino and Luc Mbah a Moute gave way to a progressively and criminally lame final couple hours of basketball.

The culmination was watching the adored starting five shoot, pass, and bump its way out of the game. Delfino drained a three with 3:58 remaining to draw within two points at 89-87. After that, the team only scored three more -- another Delfino hit with 1:10 to go. Other than that? Brandon Jennings was invisible other than missing a three-pointer. Luc Mbah a Moute was not an option. John Salmons missed a jumper and a three. And Andrew Bogut committed two offensive fouls -- the first one a moving screen for Jennings with the Bucks down 92-90 -- within the final 43 seconds.

If you are still watching, this was all too believable.

Continue reading this post »

Box Score

MILWAUKEE -- "One of our default things offensively is to go into dribblemania." -Scott Skiles, post-game.

Milwaukee strikes the keyboard looking for "O" but just keeps hitting "0" after "0" after "0." The keys could not lie any closer together, you can see, but they are so far away. Maybe the Bucks do lead the league in shots that have rimmed out. But ultimately that is just a dressed up way of saying the team misses more than anyone else. And that they do.

Zero offense for five minutes and thirteen seconds. This is not to focus on an anecdote to try to explain an entire game. These spells of ineptitude are so commonplace and so sustained that they will deservedly stand as not only the lasting impression of this game, but of this season, this edition of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Injuries have been awful all season. In this game, Andrew Bogut (strained left intercostal muscle/rib cage), Drew Gooden (plantar fasciitis), Ersan Ilyasova (concussion), and Luc Mbah a Moute (stomach virus) were out, and just look at the absurdity of those ailments. There is no way this was going to work. But the Bucks have compounded the problem. Because when one player goes down, no one steps up. And when three or four players go down, three or four players don't step up.

Brandon Jennings, John Salmons, and Carlos Delfino -- the only players left from last year's outfit -- shot a combined 8-33 (.242) from the field. Along with everyone else on the team, they neglected to score during a five minute and thirteen second stretch that went from a 53-45 lead to a 64-53 deficit.

During the scoreless span, the Bucks missed seven shots. The Suns made seven. A 19-0 run. And the Bucks are not quite built for comebacks.

The team has now officially lost more games (37) than they did last season (36). And what could be more fitting in a week that started with Brandon Jennings telling me: "It ain't like last year."

Continue reading this post »

Box Score

MILWAUKEE -- Short story long, the Pistons were worse than the Bucks. That is not to discount the win, because Milwaukee has spent a good portion of the season not only losing to superior teams, but often simply playing worse than its opponent, and all of those many losses count.

So, twentieth time is the charm? Probably not. But with Luc Mbah a Moute (flu) joining Andrew Bogut, Ersan Ilyasova, and Drew Gooden (remember him?) on the injury list, Scott Skiles trotted out a twentieth different starting lineup: Jennings/Salmons/Delfino/Sanders/Brockman. Sanders started less than a week removed from playing his first NBDL game, and Brockman started for the first time since November, coincidentally in a loss to the Pistons. Both started in good form, particularly Brockman.

But this was also about who finished in addition to who started. Particularly after comments by Brandon Jennings after the Bulls game and then pre-Pistons-game words from Scott Skiles in reference to Brandon's aforelinked  comments. This game ended with Jennings on the court, all over the court, in the fourth quarter:

Jennings: I knew tonight he (Skiles) was going to challenge me tonight and see what I had.

Jennings played the final 6:39 of the game, scored six of the team's final eight points, made the game-sealing block, the game-sealing free throws, led the team in points, and gave us all a nice reminder of what he has.

Continue reading this post »

Box Score

MILWAUKEE -- The Nuggets have scored the most points in the NBA this season. And the Bucks have scored the fewest. So Denver scoring more than Milwaukee is not such a perplexing matter.

But the truth is, the Bucks are playing against themselves as much as against any other team. And they are not winning. If all they needed to do was suit up and score a mere 90 points, the 2010-2011 Milwaukee Bucks would have a 29-26 record. Forget outscoring the opponent, just reach 90 and we'll give you the win, team. And you would give us a middling record that currently would not qualify for the playoffs in the West. This marked the 26th game of the season in which the Bucks could not crack 90.

And 90, really, is not asking for all that much. Not when every team in the NBA (even last-place-you, though barely) averages more than that. And 90 (try 95 even, this eve) is certainly not asking all that much when you already have 86 points and get to play for 4:21 more.

But this is where we are. That time, almost that paragraph, to explain that the Bucks melted again in the fourth quarter. It is a tiresome practice and I am tired. Not tired of this team in any apathetic way, just tired. I walk in through that tunnel at the BC photographed at the top of the story for each game, and tonight I saw the Bucks credited with a 24-0 advantage on the scoreboard a couple hours before the game, and I recalled what the Bucks did to the Nuggets last season at this very place:

Brandon Jennings. This was supposed to be Young Buck's first real (like, for real, for real) point guard test. And judging by the result, it won't be long before we are talking about young Buck opponents having their first real test against Jennings.

In his first career matchup against Mr. Big Shot, it was the the 20 year-old who wasn't supposed to be able to shoot who made the biggest shots of the game. Jennings poured in 14 points in a scintillating fourth quarter performance. And the fashion with which he stole the show reminded of Billups at his best: Jennings stuck two straight three-pointers with under five minutes to play and sunk six straight no-sweat free throws to close out another win.

Jennings played his best game against the best team and best point guard he has ever played against. He was the scoring point guard (32 points), the distributor extraordinaire (9 assists), and even the shooting specialist (11-19 from the field, 2-2 from outside, 8-8 from the line). In short, he was everything. Again.

So this was the opposite of that.

Continue reading this post »

Box Score

MILWAUKEE -- This season, you want to think about something, anything, in the past or in the future. But tonight was just tonight.

Whether or not this was a matchup of teams battling for the 21st best record in the NBA (it was) this was one satisfying evening. In the very first quarter on seperate plays, the Clippers aggressively closed out on Luc Mbah a Moute on the perimeter and left Carlos Delfino wide open for a corner three. And though that may sound like it, these are not the same old Clippers. But they were the same Clippers as the ones we saw run and jump over and over and over the Bucks in Los Angeles a few weeks back. The difference, was the Bucks.

And what a difference a couple weeks, a couple nights make. After hitting the lowest of 13-games-under lows against Indiana over the weekend, Milwaukee gave some reason to believe that the Pacers game actually was the lowest they will go. A win against what is now a 4-21 road team and which was without its leading scorer (Eric Gordon) might not turn out to be a turning point, but a performance so evenly worthwhile both offensively and defensively gives hope that the team is at least past its low point.

Continue reading this post »

Box Score

MILWAUKEE -- They say it's better to be lucky than good. Not so.

Because while the Bucks were lucky enough to play a meaningful game with playoff implications in spite of a 20-32 record, they were not good enough to make it matter.

At one point in the second quarter, Jon Brockman went in for a tomahawk jam (this is a non-fiction website) but was fouled by Roy Hibbert. He missed both free throws. It was that kind of night. It is that kind of season.

Cutting right to the point (or lack thereof), the fourth quarter was a wreck. All of the energy in the building at the start of the game -- and there was quite a lot, for whatever reason -- evaporated as the fourth quarter wound excruciatingly down. The Bucks actually scored six of the first eight points of the quarter, but failed to score for a full five minute and fifty-five second span thereafter. As such, a 78-77 lead turned into a 91-78 deficit. The Bucks poured in 17 points in the final 1:49 of the game, but it was desperate stuff, and the game was over.

Coach Skiles, after the game, on the recent fourth quarter troubles:

Honestly I have never seen anything quite like this. We are trying to get through it. We are trying to let the guys know they have plenty of freedom to go out there and take their shots in rhythm, their threes, their twos. We want to share the ball. Simple concepts like that. For the most part, the guys do that. Having some tough luck right now.

It began with a jolt, as Frank Vogel's Pacers played to an entertaining 32-29 lead after one quarter. Points slowed a bit from there, Corey Maggette had left with lower back pain in the first quarter, and the Pacers led by a couple points at the half. Jennings scored six straight to finish the third quarter, first sinking a jumper and then floating in an and-one (though he missed the free throw) and then getting momentum toward the rim, again drawing a foul (making both free throws). I would detail the first three quarters a bit more, but to focus on the good (or merely okay) in these situations is diverting from the real result.

Ultimately, Jennings (10/6/2) was again outplayed by the opposing starting point guard, this time Darren Collison (22/3/3). Since returning to the starting lineup against the Suns on Feb. 2, Jennings has been outplayed by all of the opposing starting point guards (Steve Nash, Stephen Curry, Ben Gordon/Tracy McGrady, John Wall, Mike Conley, Darren Collison) except one (Jose Calderon). Not coincidentally, the Bucks have only won one of those games, against Calderon and the Raptors. And even before this February sample size, so went Jennings, so went the Bucks.

The Bucks are not going anywhere, and that is not just on Brandon. Everyone is culpable -- no one (really, no one) has met expectations.

Through misfortune and good conditions alike, the Bucks have consistently underperformed. But it's hard to still say that they are underperforming, or unlucky, or underachieving. At some point, maybe after 53 games, this is just who they are.

Continue reading this post »