Bucks Survive Late Rally by Cleveland to Win Third Straight Game

The Bucks hadn’t won a game in Cleveland Cavaliers since 2003, but Milwaukee snapped that streak Tuesday night by defeating the Cavs 111-107. In doing so, the Bucks won their third straight game in the process of climbing into sole possession of second place in the Central Division, just a half game behind the pace of the Detroit Pistons.

Milwaukee trailed early on in the game by as many as 14 points, but closed the gap to four by halftime. The third quarter then became the Michael Redd show, scoring 13 straight points through one stretch, including a rare four-point play by getting fouled during a three-pointer. Redd finished with 34 points, seven rebounds, and six assists. He also reached the foul line an incredible 20 times in the game, making 15 of them.

Charlie Villanueva came of the bench to give the Bucks a much needed lift by scoring 17 points and grabbing nine boards. Villanueva seems to have found his way recently by no longer jacking up a ton of jump shots but instead taking it hard to the hole and it appears that coach Larry Krystkowiak seems to be taking notice. For the second straight game Coach K has played Villanueva in the fourth quarter instead of rookie Yi Jianlian. However, it’s not a knock on Yi as Villanueva is simply playing to his ability that convince General Manager Larry Harris to trade T.J. Ford for him two summers ago.

Andrew Bogut also is starting to establish himself as a defensive presence by blocking four shots in the game. He also had 12 points and five rebounds in the game. The game was Bogut’s third straight game with four blocks while still keeping his ability to take the charge that he has shown in his first two seasons.

The big surprise in the game, however, was point guard Royal Ivey, who scored 15 points off the bench on 6-of-7 shooting. Ivey was signed in the off-season for defensive purposes, but he could be a major boost to the Bucks if he can become a consistent scorer.

The Bucks seemingly had the game won, leading 107-98 with only 75 seconds left in the game, but Cleveland ran off six straight points to bring to score to 107-104 with nine seconds left but free throws down the stretch put the game away for Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Overcome Late Defensive Lapses to Defeat Memphis

Even though the Grizzlies were given a wide-open three-pointer to tie the game with 34 seconds left, the Bucks were able to hold on for victory 102-99.

Desmond Mason countered the three by making a clutch mid-range jump-shot 21 seconds later to give the Bucks a two-point advantage. Memphis’s where then denied on the following possession by an outstanding defensive play by Mo Williams, who was able to strip the ball of the penetrating play and simply took the ball away from him.

After making both free throws, the Bucks seemed to be out of the woods, leading 102-98 with only seven seconds left, but Andrew Bogut fouled Mike Miller with two seconds remaining. After making the first free throw, Miller intentionally missed his second and the ball bounced perfectly to the baseline as two Memphis players raced to corner the loose ball. Pau Gasol quickly got a hold of it and launched what would have been a game-tying three-pointer only to have the ball bounce of the left of the rim, improving Milwaukee’s record to 3-4 while Memphis fell to 2-5.

Andrew Bogut had an outstanding game, going 9-of-14 from the field for 23 points, along with 12 rebounds and four blocks. Heading into his third season, it’s put up or shut up time for Bogut who needs to play up to the abilities he shown in being made the first overall pick in the 2005 draft. Despite his obvious upper strength, Bogut mostly needs to work on finishing his dunks to over-power opponents. Most of the time he will get fouled when going in for the dunk and just loses the ball. To compound this problem, he is not very good at the free throw line, making only 50% from the charity stripe. So instead of finishing the dunk with the chance at the three-point play, Bogut’s missing the dunk and only making one of the free throws, leaving multiple points of the scoreboard all throughout the game.

Mo Williams also had a fine game in handing out 12 dimes and scoring ten points for a tough double double. He also showed well on defensive in registering three steals, including the mentioned one that should have sealed the game.

His backcourt teammate Michael Redd had a good game, statistically wise, but forced too many shots and turned the ball over a few times just on traveling with the ball in trying to get by his guy, instead of just passing the ball. He did however play a huge role in the Bucks victory by finally finding his three-point stroke in making 5-of-7 threes, finishing with 31 points, six rebounds, and five assists. It seems, however, that Redd makes up his mind before he even gets the ball as to whether he’ll pass or shoot, instead of taking what the defense gives him. He seems capable of making the great pass, but hardly every passes once he starts his drive, instead of drawing the defensive in and kicking to an open teammate. Fortunately, he is excellent at finishing around the hoop, and does a great job of drawing the foul, often resulting in the Bucks easiest way to score points.

Charlie Villanueva gave the Bucks a lift in the second quarter in having the hot hand in making back-to-back three-pointers, followed by an array of mid range jumpers and a powerful dunk along the baseline where he finished despite getting fouled on the shot. He seems to have high potential, but Villanueva is far to inconsistent and is not as good of a defender as Yi Jianlian, struggled with his shot for most of the game, but made up for it by playing good defense and grabbing a season-high 13 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. Yi played over twice as many minutes in the game (34) as Villanueva (14).

On a side note, Bucks Forward Michael Ruffin suffered a broken wrist in the blowout loss against the Spurs and will be out from 4 to 6 weeks. He broke it after falling hard onto the court after getting his legs taken out from under him. Despite only averaging 0.8 points and 1.0 rebounds in seven minutes per game, Ruffin played good defense and fought hard for a couple of loose balls. The only silver lining is that once he does come back from the injury, his game should already be at 100% since he doesn’t need to shoot the ball to be effective and rarely shoots as it is unless he has a wide open dunk.

Yi Shows He's the Real Deal Against Yao and the Houston Rockets

Yi Jianlian finished the game with 19 points and nine rebounds, including two of two from beyond the arc. Yi also had a blocked shot and two steals in the game.

Yi seemed a bit nervous at the start of the game, perhaps the result of knowing the game was being view by over 200 million people in his homeland of China, by settled down eventually with the help of his sure jumpshot.

Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets got the better of Yi however, in scoring 28 points to go with ten rebounds. Yao also went perfect from the free throw line in making all 14 attempts from the charity stripe. Yi did however score the same number of baskets as Yao in making seven shots despite taking four less attempts (12) than Yao (16).

The unbelievable part to Yi’s game is that he is already getting better in just his fifth game and his ceiling is as high as he wants it wants to be. Yi has perfect technique on his jumpshot where it seems as if the only misses he has had on it are when they are too long but never to the left or the right, and shows the will to hustle hard on every possession. There were multiple times were he was a factor in the transition game, often outrunning the entire team to the basket on a fastbreak and hustling back to defend after a turnover, which is almost unheard of from a seven footer.

His only weaknesses are his first step when he drives to the basket that he seems to telegraph before he makes his move and his inability to finish around the basket because of his lack of strength. Both, however, are fixable with good coaching on his drive move and hard work in the weight room to improve his strength that will come with time.

As it is right now though, he should have plenty of open shots that he’s capable of knocking down if defenses decided to double Michael Redd. A lot has also been made of a rumor that Yi was promised to average 20 minutes per game on the season, but if the first five games has taught us anything, it’s that Yi should be on the court for as long as possible.

Michael Redd played well again in scoring 26 points, along with seven rebounds and four assists. Redd talked about trying to improve his entire game in the off-season and its showing up in the boxscore by averaging 23.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game in the first five games so far, doubling his career assist average of 2.1, improving his career rebounds average by two boards a game, and raising his steals average by .4 per game.

Mo Williams also had a good game after a horrific start to the season. He finished a rebound and an assist shy of a triple double in registering 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. He also knocked down a couple of nice open jumpshots, which is fine with Bucks fans as long as its going in and he’s not forcing fadeaway runners with three guys on him. However, somewhat concerning is that Williams has yet to reach the foul line in any of the five games so far.

The rest of the Bucks roster didn’t do much against the Rockets defense, with the exception of Desmond Mason who scored on five of the seven shots he took. Andrew Bogut was especially ineffective against the 7’6” Ming. He took it multiple times at Yao early in the game only to get rejected each time before picking up two quick fouls. He played good defense while he was in the game but was largely ineffective on offense. Bogut has drawn by far the worst match ups of any of the Bucks starters to begin the season in having to face Orlando’s Dwight Howard, Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor, Chicago’s Ben Wallace, and Houston’s Yao Ming in four of the five games so far.

The Bucks played close for most of the game closing the gap to two points at 82-84 on one of Yi’s three-pointers with 6:16 remaining in the game, but that was as close as Milwaukee would get as Houston went on to score the next 14 points to give Houston a 16 point lead with 2:45 left.

Desmond Mason Goes Perfect From the Field in Milwaukee Bucks' Victory

The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Toronto Raptors 112-85 tuesday night at the Bradley Center.

Leading the way was Desmond Mason, who made all ten of his shots attempted on his way to scoring 21 points.

The majority of the shots he took actually happened to be jump hooks from up to 16 feet away, which he surprisingly swished just about everytime he took the shot.

Mason was resigned by the Bucks in the offseason after being traded away before the 2005-06 season. Before he was traded, Mason was one of my favorite players and he seemed to have at least one or two huge dunks a game that would ignite the crowd. So far this season he has done everything asked of him and seems to have developed a somewhat reliable shot, albeit irregular.

Michael Redd also had a very good game in scoring 17 points, along with seven rebounds and six assists, including three of six on three-point shots. Mo Williams also finally found his stroke, making six of his seven shots from the field. Most of the shots he took were on designed plays it seemed but he still isn't penetrating the defense very often, and when he does penetrate, he seems to force a shot himself rather than pass the ball.

Both Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian scored 12 points each for the Bucks along with providing a defensive presence in limiting all-star forward Chris Bosh to only one point, while Yi also blocked three shots.

Milwaukee led for almost the entire game, and shot 47 of 78 (60.3%) on their way towards winning their second game of the season. Bucks Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak was also not in attendence as he was with his wife who was in labor.

Up next for the Bucks is the much inticipated game against the Houston Rockets this Friday that will mark Yi's first NBA game against Yao Ming.