Thoughts While Wishing Jim Chones Was the Backup Center

-No Andrew Bogut AND no Johnny Mac tonight, I'm bummed.
-I'd say I was surprised that Yi and Bobby Simmons both weren't playing tonight but then I remembered who they were.
-There were more people at the Super Bowl party I was at on Sunday than there are at tonight's game in New Jersey.
-A whole lot of missing going on early including airballs from The Zombie and RJ.
-Speaking of the Zombie, he fell for the first time today with 6:36 left in the first quarter.
-Active hands early for the Bucks. If they were the Louisville Cardinals the announcers would be screaming about them charting deflections right now after Charlie V. and then Ridnour each poke the ball. Doesn't every team chart deflections now? Why did Dickie V. keep pounding that point home about the Cardinals yesterday? Is that really that big of a deal? When Dwyane Wade played at Marquette the same things were said.
-RJ is looking ultra aggressive today. Too bad he isn't finishing. You can tell this game means a little more to him by the way he's playing. End of the first: 23-16 Bad Guys.

-Sessions blows a breakaway layup and Gadz gets called on offensive interference. Jim Chones says to win on the road, "you have to make shots". Great insight.
-Gadzuric hits an elbow jumper, this is as far out as I've seen him make a shot this year.
-Josh Boone responds with a tip slam. The Nets are doing a terrific job on the offensive board it seems like. My suspicions are correct: 6 offensive boards early for the Nets with 9:30 minutes left in the first half.
-With Bogut out we've now seen Gadzuric and Alexander already in the game with 7:00 minutes to go in the first half after not playing in the last two games.
-It's funny listening to Chones. He clearly hasn't watched a Bucks game all year and it gives him a very "fresh" perspective.
-Keyon Dooling is on fire. He's hit three treys thus far. He's been in the league nine years? I remember when the Clippers got him as part of that ultra athletic group of swingmen they were assembling. He was the missing piece brought in to play point guard. That all didn't work out so well.
-I can't believe how many layups just haven't fallen for Milwaukee tonight. Sessions gets fouled and justmisses the layup. He's getting to the line though, 5-6.
-The Bucks D is looking SCRAPPY. Already a 7-1 edge in the steal department. The Bucks need to be active on the perimeter to have a shot without Bogut. Active hands we always call it in NBA 2K9. If you like basketball and have XBOX or Playstation you should really have that game. I can't stress enough how fun it is.
-Jim Chones really likes what he sees from Luke Rindour thus far. Ridnour certainly does a good job of limiting his mistakes.

-45-37 Bad Guys at half.
-A lot of talk at half time about how the Bucks sink in to defend the lane and give up the three because of it. That is all due to Bogut not being in. If Bogut is in that makes it easier for everyone else to stay on the perimeter and let him handle guys one on one. There is no way Brook Lopez would have eleven points and six rebounds if Bogut was in.

-Ryan Anderson and Richard Jefferson are trading threes. RJ looks like he is going to make a play at taking over this game. That would be a treat. When he is shooting threes he in theory should be very difficult to stop, given his hellbent on getting to the line mentality when driving.
-Wow there is no help on the screen and Elson can't ever recover in time to stop Brook Lopez from dunking. Lopez is looking so solid right now. I wish his uniform were red and not white.
-The rare four point play by Keyon Dooling. That was daggerific.
-The Bucks cannot string more than a basket or two together. Every time they seem on the edge of making a run the Nets have an answer. Usually the answer is Ryan Anderson.
-If someone told me earlier today that Devin Harris would have fifteen and Vince Carter would have ten, I would have been doing backflips.
-Sessions and Ridnour make for an okay back court, but have an obvious weakness, Sessions doesn't spread the court. Everyone knows that Sessions won't be shooting when he catches off a Ridnour drive and it makes it that much easier for the defense to stay in and pack the lane. That, more than anywhere else, is where Michael Redd is missed.
-Keyon Dooling is a great example of that last point I made. He can stay out and shoot the three and that opens it up or gives them great outside looks.
-Luc Mbah a Moute getting mere garbage minutes this evening. Skiles must be afraid of some rookie wall action going on.
-This is the second time I've done this and the second time the Bucks have gotten lit up. This wasn't as bad as the Hawks game, but they still had no answer inside without Andrew Bogut. Fortunately the Bucks have three days off before Detroit comes in on Saturday, hopefully Bogut will return for that one.

The Week Ahead (January 4th-10th)

January 4th-10th
4 Games (3 Home 1 Road)

January 5th vs. Toronto (13-20)
The Raptors of Toronto have been labeled one of the great disappointments of this season so far. After tooling up in the off season by acquiring faded star Jermaine O’neal and handing the keys over to Jose Calderon the Raptors expected to take another step forward in the Eastern Conference this year. Unfortunately for them they have taken a huge flying leaping step back. After firing Sam Mitchell on December 3rd Toronto currently sits 13-20, virtually eliminated from contention in the Boston division. Now to be fair they did not expect to really push the Celtics for the division this year, but surely they expected to at least put up a fight. While Jermaine O’neal has shown he is no longer the JO of years past, the real trouble in Toronto has been their wing men. This is a team that at times this year has started Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono, Andrea Barginani, and Jamario Moon. Using the Player Efficiency Rating used by statistical guru John Hollinger of ESPN.com, the only one of those four who even comes off as average is Moon. All the blame in the world can be laid at the feet of the leader of the team, but a coach can only use the players he has...and the Raptors just don’t have much. The Raps have been booed at home and welcomed with open arms on the road, so this appears to be a winnable game for the Bucks. Calderon will need to be contained however as he went off for 25 in these teams first meeting this year.

January 7th vs. Philadelphia (13-20)
Competing with the Raptors for most disappointing team in the Atlantic division is the Bucks next opponent, the Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers have been struggling to implement Elton Brand into their offense and coach/nice guy Maurice Cheeks was relieved of his duties on December 13th. Brand was brought in ideally to open up space for guys like 'Dre Iguodala and Thad Young to operate, but they continue to have trouble working together. Last year the Sixers did their best work using their atheltic skills by running and getting up and down the court. Brand was thought to be the kind of player to change a system around, but hasn't been as good as he was in past years. Collapsing on Brand has been working like a charm for opposing defenses also as the Sixers are shooting a paltry 29% from behind the arc. Things have not gotten any better with Brand out the past 8 games as the Sixers have stumbled to a 2-6 record.

January 9th vs. New Jersey (16-18)
Hometown hero Devin Harris leads a surprising Nets team into Milwaukee on Friday. With all these Atlantic teams struggling to blend together the Nets took advantage of early struggles and have surged to second place in the division. As it stands right now they are battling with Milwaukee and Chicago for the 8th and final seed in the playoff race. More importantly for them though they have a young team that is working well together. Devin Harris has been one of the top point guards in the Eastern Conference this year and is averaging over 22 points a game. Vince Carter continues to show up and do Vince Carter things, which means some lazy defense, some dunks, more threes than necessary, and game winners in Toronto. This also marks the meaningless return to Milwaukee for Yi Jianlian and Richard Jefferson’s first game against his former mates. This is likely to be the best game of the week and like almost every other Nets game could go down to the wire.

January 10th @ Minnesota (8-25)
Our neighbors to the west continue to struggle mightily. Like most teams they fired their coach this year, and like most of those teams, the Timberwolves are still crappy. At least the Timberwolves had the sense of humor to put the guy who made the mess in charge handling the players first hand, as Kevin McHale has struggled just as bad as Randy Wittman since taking over. Al Jefferson continues to be a walking double double and Kevin Love has been solid of late, averaging 12 points and 9 rebounds over his last 5 games, but bright spots are few and far between after those two. Rashad Mccants seems to be trying for the record of most shots taken in least amount of time every time he enters a game putting up almost 4 threes per game in only 20 minutes of action. In comparison, Michael Redd averages about 5 threes attempted per game in 35 minutes of action. Yikes.

Lots of opportunity for the Bucks to put a little distance between some of their lower level Eastern Conference cohorts this week. Knowledgeable basketball minds like the previously referenced John Hollinger have mentioned that the Bucks schedule early this year was about as tough as it could get, and they merely needed to hang tough until things evened out for them, well this is the evening out. 4 games in one week is difficult but three of them being at home helps out a lot and this week should show fans what the Bucks really are all about. To be successful is to take care of bad teams at home like they have done earlier with the Clippers and Bobcats, hopefully we’ll see more of the same this week.