| 2009/2010 NBA Season | ||
|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
| 15-29 (8-14 road) |
vs. |
18-25 (13-7 home) |
| January 27, 2010 | ||
| Bradley Center |
||
| 7:00 PM | ||
|
Radio: WTMJ AM 620 TV: FSN-Wisconsin |
||
| Probable starters: | ||
|
Jrue Holiday |
PG |
Brandon Jennings |
|
Allen Iverson |
SG |
Charlie Bell |
|
Andre Iguodala |
SF |
Carlos Delfino |
|
Elton Brand |
PF |
Luc Mbah a Moute |
|
Samuel Dalembert |
C |
Andrew Bogut |
| (18th) 106.4 - OFFENSE - 103.9 (24th) |
||
| (22th) 109.4 - DEFENSE - 104.5 (8th) |
||
| (23rd) 91.4 - PACE - 93.6 (10th) |
||
Linkage
Liberty Ballers / Sixers4Guidos / Depressed Fan
Rookie Points. We all know about Brandon Jennings, but it's easy to forget that the Bucks nearly drafted UCLA freshman Jrue Holiday instead. As you can probably guess, Holiday's NBA development has been a bit slower than Jennings', but he has started the past three games for Eddie Jordan's crew--next to Sixer legend, undeserving all-star, and one-time Jennings idol Allen Iverson. Ironically, Holiday's minutes as a starter have actually gone down, as he's averaging 17 mpg for the season but hasn't played more than 16 minutes in any of his starts. Like Jennings his shooting has been, uh, a work in progress (38%) though he's upped his accuracy to 45% in January including 50% from deep.
As for the old man, Iverson is averaging an un-All-Star-like 14.6 ppg and 4.3 apg in 31 minutes per contest. Meanwhile, Jennings will not surprisingly be joining AI at all-star weekend as a participant in the rookies/sophomores game.
Sammy and Drew. Aside from the 20 point, 24 rebound effort he dropped on Dalembert a couple seasons ago, Andrew Bogut has often struggled against the Sixers--though it seems like that's been a theme for a number of Bucks over the past few years. Bogut's career scoring average against Philly is just 8.8 ppg, with only Dwight Howard and the Magic holding him to a lower figure. Also of concern is the fact that Bogut is playing his second game in as many days, as his season splits have been dramatically better with more rest: 13.1 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 42.7% shooting with zero days rest vs. 21.2/10.3/61.6% with two days rest and 20.3/12.3/52.0% with more than two days rest.
But will Sammy and a lack of rest be able to slow Bogut when he's playing as well as he ever has? Following his career-high 32 points last night, Bogut's January averages are up to 17.8 ppg, 11.2 rpg, and 2.7 bpg on 57.5%/72.7% shooting. Bogut deservedly got at least a little bit of all-star buzz in John Hollinger's latest column, and for more on Drew's night in Dallas check out NBA Playbook's excellent breakdown.
Though his PT seem a bit modest (25 mpg), Dalembert is third in the league in rebound rate (gathering 21.7% of all misses) and blocks as many shots as Bogut in seven fewer mpg. Offensively he has almost no post game but doesn't force anything, shooting 52% from the field and over 82% from the line. And like Bogut he's playing his best ball this month, averaging a beastly 12.4 rpg while shooting 62.2% from the field.
Road Sweet Road. We've often bemoaned the Bucks' inability to win on the road, but Sixers fans have the opposite problem. Like Dallas, Philly has performed slightly better on the road (8-14) than at home (7-15), and fittingly split their home and home with the Pacers by winning at Conseco and then losing on Monday at home 109-98.