For the second consecutive game the Bucks melted in the fourth quarter, and for the second consecutive game they lost at home to a last-place team, falling 96-89 to the Clippers on Monday night.
Three Bucks
- Mo Williams. While many have been itching to crown Bogut as the new number one offensive option, Mo continues to stack up 30+ point games. The two assist/four turnover performance won't win many over, but he scored big again, and he needed to on a night when Villanueva left the game and Redd struggled to find his shooting rhythm.
- Michael Redd. Kind of a strange game for Redd, as he flirted with a triple-double but couldn't shoot, converting on just 3-13 from the field and 5-8 from the line.
- Desmond Mason. Mason played well on the offensive end again, attacking the rim for a couple early dunks. He finished with 14 points on 7-10 shooting along with seven rebounds and three assists.
Three Numbers
- 15. The Bucks played the Clippers very evenly for the first three quarters of the game, but managed just 15 points in a seriously lacking fourth quarter.
- 18. The Bucks turned the ball over 18 times, twice as many as the Clippers. Guards Sam Cassell, Quinton Ross, Cuttino Mobley, Brevin Knight, and Dan Dickau combined for just two turnovers.
- 90.9 %. The Clippers made 20-22 (90.9 %) free throws. The Bucks made 15-23 (65.2 %).
Three Good
- Reddy To Pass. A mid-February game at the Bradley Center against the sinking Clippers probably wasn’t the platform for Michael Redd to show his disbelievers how much the Bucks need him to score. This wasn’t Kobe Bryant in the second half of Game 7 against the Suns after all though. Redd didn’t attempt a field goal in playing the entire first quarter, and had just one point at halftime. Unlike Kobe’s half of deference, Redd actually helped his team by racking up five rebounds and six assists in the first half. Redd continued to dish late in the game, but excellent back-to-back passes to Jake Voskuhl went unrewarded in one particularly maddening stretch of play.
- Cowboy. With the season quickly getting away from the Bucks, Desmond Mason at least appears interested in giving reasons for fans to come to the stadium by hustling and throwing down some nice dunks.
- Powerful Forwards, Maybe. If this keeps up, we might have some friendly competition at the power forward position. Yi Jianlian made Coach Krystkowiak look good after the prized rookie outplayed Charlie Villanueva early this season. In just a matter of a few games, Villanueva won the starting spot back when Yi was sidelined for the first time in his young NBA career. With Villanueva off tonight, turning the ball over four times in the first quarter, the new backup power forward produced more than he had recently as a starter. Yi made his first five shots from the field, aided by an in-form jumper but also by remembering that he stands 7'0", using that size advantage to post up smaller defenders on multiple occasions. Both power forwards are prone to frustrate at times, but also continue to show enough that management will be weary not to hold tightly onto both. Tonight reaffirmed both sides of that, because after it seemed both were ready to play well at the same time, Villanueva went down with a sprained ankle, and Yi had a quiet final three quarters.
Three Bad
- Not Our Night/Season? Just three games out of the playoffs, at full-strength for the first time in months, and playing at home against the Clippers, the Bucks appeared primed to gain momentum heading into a rough stretch of the schedule starting Wednesday against the Hornets. And guess what? Bogut swatted shots. Redd made pretty passes. Yi hit jumpers. Mo pushed the ball when necessary and stayed hot from outside. Mason flew in for dunks. And yet the Bucks walked off the court having lost for the seventh time in eight games, with the past two coming at home against teams with worse records.
- The 4th. Mo Williams scored seven points in the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter. No one else scored in the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter for the Bucks. This annoyance is exacerbated by the fact that the Clippers aren't exactly defensive geniuses.
- The Rook. In recent weeks the Bucks have faced off against some of the top league's top rookies, such as Juan Carlos Navarro, Luis Scola, Thaddeus Young, and Sean Williams. Scola and Young impressed, but Al Thornton proved to be the toughest first-year player for the Bucks to stop. Aside from a a couple huge Bogut blocks (how cool that those are typical now?) the Bucks had few answers against the Florida St. alum, who finished with a team-high 25 points. You can't let a rookie come into your building and steal the show in a game you need so badly.