Heat 78 Bucks 73: Recap

Heat in March against the Bucks: 2-0.

Heat in March against everyone else: 0-11.

As the losses pile up, it becomes increasingly evident that the Bucks aren't simply playing down to their competition. At some point, and four and a half months into the season is probably about the time, it becomes painfully obvious that they just aren't ever clearly better than their opposition. The Bucks had superior talent on the floor in Miami tonight, but for the second time in a week, they were unable to prove they were a superior team, falling 78-73.

Three Bucks

• Andrew Bogut. The Bucks opened the game by wisely feeding the ball to Bogut, who scored the game's first six points in less than two and a half minutes. As has often been the case this year however, he rarely got the ball in position to score after his initial success. He only scored three points in the second and third quarter combined, when the Bucks really fell apart. Overall though, he was team's best player, totaling 16 points and 17 rebounds.
• Michael Redd. Redd didn't get the foul call the Bucks needed when down by three points with half a minute left in the game. Still, the Bucks couldn't have tied it at the line anyway, and Chris Quinn wasn't about to blow the game on the other end.
• Mo Williams. Williams' pull-up jumper is often the only consistent way the Bucks can score. He finished with 15 points and hit a couple to start the fourth quarter but didn't find the bottom of the net in the final ten minutes. He also turned the ball over seven times, but pickings are slim here tonight.

Three Numbers

• 11/19. The Bucks' assists/turnovers, a startling bad ratio. The starting backcourt of Williams and Redd turned the ball over 12 times, one more than the entire Heat team.
• 25. The Bucks opened the game scoring a respectable 25 first-quarter points, seemingly recovering from their meltdown their previous game against the Heat. Not so much. They followed that period by scoring a combined 25 points in the second and third quarters.
• 37.7 %. The Heat shot 37.7 % from the field tonight, which is to say, the Bucks lost to the worst team in the NBA that also happened to be missing seven of their top players, and they didn't even shoot well from the field. It doesn't take much, clearly.

Three Good

• No More Heat. The Bucks are officially done losing to the worst team in the NBA this season. Officially! Maybe not mission accomplished, but certainly mission over on that front. And we're only thinking that it can't get any worse, but definitely not willing to write it.
• Sessions. After not playing Sunday against the Cavaliers, Ramon Sessions heard his number called early in Miami, starting the second quarter and getting in the game before Royal Ivey. Sessions should have felt pretty comfortable too; the rookie and NBDL star watched the Heat fill the court with players you’d sooner expect to see playing in Iowa than Miami. He looked a little hesitant, but got to the line and made a couple free throws, and with one assist fell only one short of tying Andrew Bogut for second on the team in that department. Unfortunately, even with Charlie Bell out, Royal Ivey barely playing, and the starting backcourt unable to hold onto the ball or shoot, Sessions saw only six minutes of court time.
• Boards. The Bucks had a lot of chances for rebounds, since both teams missed so many shots. We'll give some credit though, mostly to Andrew Bogut, who had seven himself, for the 19 offensive rebounds.

Three Bad

• Lasme, and Kasib and Barron, Oh My. Take Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut, Mo Williams, Charlie Villanueva, Desmond Mason, Yi Jianlian, and Charlie Bell off the Bucks, and they would be missing roughly the equivalent of what the Heat were tonight. The Heat didn't have Dwyane Wade, Shawn Marion, Udonis Haslem, Alonzo Mourning, Jason Williams, Dorell Wright, and Marcus Banks, leaving them with one of the worst looking rosters in modern NBA history; but also a lineup that beat the Bucks three out of four quarters on this night.
• 15-12. This was Bucks/Heat in late March. Knowing that, we weren’t expecting the entertainment of a Suns/Lakers, Hornets/Jazz, or even Vanderbilt/Siena game. Still, the play in the second quarter went too far. We could just use this space to print the score, 15-12, but that wouldn’t tell the entire story of just how bad those 12 minutes of basketball were. The Bucks started the quarter with four points in nearly seven minutes. We don’t have anything against Ricky Davis, Blake Ahearn, Mark Blount, and Kasib Powell. Well, maybe something against Davis and Blount. In any event, it shouldn’t take much convincing that these players weren’t so much stopping the Bucks as the Bucks were tripping on their own feet. They didn’t redeem themselves to close the half either. In the final minute, the Bucks had three possessions, and each outdid the previous... with respect to incompetence. Michael Redd first turned the ball over. Then Mo Williams drove and passed the ball off Andrew Bogut’s forehead. Finally, with 25 seconds to go before halftime, the Bucks sort of forgot to shoot the ball, resulting in a shotclock violation. This left less than two seconds on the clock, which the Heat used to make a wide open layup, luckily for the Bucks a fraction of a second after the buzzer sounded.
• CQ11. Chris Paul Quinn continued to light up the Bucks tonight, after burning them for 17 points on 6-6 shooting when the Heat won in Milwaukee last week. Tonight, Quinn went for a season-high 24 points and the 87.5 % free throw shooter predictably and coolly iced the game at the line.