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By now we're used to watching the Bucks suffer soul-crushing home losses to the Pistons, but losing at the doughy hands of none other than Charlie Villanueva? Now that is rough.
Villanueva's three with 10 seconds remaining broke a 100-100 tie, and with no timeouts left Brandon Jennings responded with an off-balance 30-foot airball that bounced harmlessly out of bounds with a full three seconds left. We can only assume Jennings was anticipating contact as he cruised past a defender, but why Jennings of all people would expect a call in that situation...well, I don't know.
In short, I'm not even going to act like I'm in a good head space right now; this was kind of like watching Mo Williams dagger the Bucks at the buzzer in Cleveland a couple years ago. More specifically:
Charlie V. hitting that shot is like your ex-girlfriend that you dumped getting fat and then setting fire to your Corvette.
— Frank Madden (@brewhoop) February 10, 2013
Jennings' miss capped another wayward shooting night for the Bucks' point guard (8/27 fg, 4/10 threes, 26 pts, 7 ast), who had up until that point played quite well down the stretch. He twice found Sam Dalembert for alley-oops inside the final five minutes, hit two free throws after a drive shortly thereafter, and buried a tough step back to give the Bucks a 100-98 lead inside of a minute. But Jose Calderon capped a terrific night (23 points on 13 shots, 10 ast) with a driving layup to tie it, and Jennings followed with a difficult (sigh) long two that clanged off the rim with 33 seconds remaining. Will Bynum subsequently drove and kicked to Villanueva (18 points and 13 rebs), who pump faked Ersan Ilyasova into the air and then fired a line drive up and in to clinch it.
Rodney Stuckey added 19 and Bynum 12 off the bench for Detroit, which also got a relatively quiet 14 points and 13 boards from Bucks killer Greg Monroe. Starting in place of the injured Larry Sanders, Sam Dalembert matched Monroe with 14 points, 12 boards and five blocks while Ilyasova scored an efficient 15 (5/8 fg, 2/3 threes) and added 10 boards.
Detroit led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter thanks to an early 16-0 edge in fast break points, but the Bucks worked their way back into the game and took their own 10-point lead midway through the third. It's the fifth loss in six games for Milwaukee, which was well rested and facing a Detroit team playing for the fifth time in seven games.