Box Score

[For nights that I report at the game on media row, like tonight, a photo.]

MILWAUKEE - The New York Knicks tonight continued their six-month national tour benefitting a positive cause: bringing cheer to dozens of cities across the country. The benefactor on this evening was the Milwaukee Bucks organization and the 15,486 strong at the Bradley Center. So, thanks for that.

In just the type of game that the Bucks need to win if they are to be taken at all seriously, the Bucks won. And they won big. At least as big as the final scoreline; probably bigger. Milwaukee led by 30 at halftime, and while New York shaved that lead in half by the end, they never really were in the game after the first quarter.

The Bucks were positively tyrannical to the Knicks in the first quarter, owning every bit and every facet of the game to stake a 40-22 lead. Really powerful stuff, and it continued that way for a while. Active, aware, team defense and criminally good shooting. A lot to be happy about, even if the second half usually felt more about waiting to win than anything else.

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Let's not do this tonight, cool?

2009/2010 NBA Season
	@
1-5 (0-2 road)		2-2 (1-0 home)
November 7th, 2009
Bradley Center
7:30 PM
Radio: 620 WTMJ TV: None
Probable starters:
Chris Duhon	PG	Brandon Jennings
Larry Hughes	SG	Charlie Bell
Danilo Gallinari	SF	Carlos Delfino
Wilson Chandler	PF	Hakim Warrick
David Lee	C	Andrew Bogut
(22nd) 101.7 - OFFENSE - 94.2 (29th)
(24th) 110.5 - DEFENSE - 91.3 (1st)
(4th) 96.1 - PACE - 92.8 (15th)

Three Points

• New York, meet Brandon Jennings. Jennings wanted to play for the Knicks. And why not? For a point guard, in that system, in that city: the world is yours. Instead the New York Knickerbockers opted to take Jordan Hill two spots ahead of the Bucks on draft night. Coincidentally, once upon a time, Jennings and Hill were destined to play together at the University of Arizona. But Jennings went to Italy, where his draft stock certainly didn't rise, while Hill's certainly did at 'Zona. Now their paths will cross. And now the Knicks start a point guard who, well, he didn't exactly score in 39 minutes last night. [Full disclosure: Chris Duhon did drop eight dimes with just a single turnover in their loss to the Cavs.] Hill? Scored his first six NBA points last night. Jennings? Not a Knicks fan.
• This land is my land, this land is your Landry. He's only played a minute this year, but Milwaukee native and University of Wisconsin hooper Marcus Landry returns home tonight with the Knicks. Welcome.
• The Knicks, they are-a-struggling. Not a beautiful struggle sort of struggling either. Falling to what is most likely a rather angry Cavs team last night isn't much of an indictment, but getting worked by the Pacers the game prior is. Yes... 'twas that bad. This is a prime, prime I tell you, opportunity for the Bucks to gain a winning record and momentum for this nice little home swing. I don't even really want to comtemplate the notion of dropping this game. Hopefully Bogut will continue to assert himself offensively against David Lee, a capable defender but just 6-9, 240; the Knicks have only used Darko Milicic sparingly this year, but he'll probably find the court tonight.
  

Coverage

Posting and Toasting / Knickerblogger / New York Times

Box Score

The Bucks ever-so-narrowly missed the chance to win in Chicago for the first time in eight tries. And they did so by missing by a lot. Twice.

With 14 second to go in the fourth and the Bulls up 83-81, Brandon Jennings pulled up for a jumper just past the free throw line, but Derrick Rose blocked the attempt with ease. For Rose, the play provided a bit of sweet redemption because Jennings had forced him into a turnover and then floated a jumper over him just two possessions earlier.

Still, the block gave the ball back to Chicago with little time and less hope. But Joakim Noah (he of the absurd free throw form) spun consecutive free throws off the rim to give Milwaukee hope with 12 seconds to spare.

Unfortunately, the final try proved just as futile as the previous one. Jennings found an all-too-hesitant Ersan Ilyasova beyond the arc who fired a shot that hardly got closer to the rim than when Rose stuffed Jennings. Airball, out of bounds, game over.

The under-one-minute sequences underscored Milwaukee's thin late-game offensive options. Jennings was again very good, but after taking the previous three shots the Bucks had to figure the defense would cave around him. So they tried to spring free Ilysasova, who with the game on the line came up just as his final line (0-3 for 0 points and 3 fouls.) indicates: empty.

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Bucks vs Bulls coverage

No más. Insert sad face.

	vs.
1-1 (0-1 road)		1-2 (1-0 home)
November 3, 2009 - 7:30 PM CT
United Center
Radio: 620 WTMJ TV: FS Wisconsin HD
Probable starters:
Brandon Jennings	PG	Derrick Rose
Charlie Bell	SG	John Salmons
Carlos Delfino	SF	Luol Deng
Kurt Thomas	PF	Taj Gibson
Andrew Bogut	C	Joakim Noah
97.6 (28th)	Off	99.0 (27th)
98.7 (6th)	Def	109.7 (19th)
93.2 (15th)	Pace	90.6 (25th)

Three Points

• City of win. Chicago opened the season in high fashion by knocking out the Spurs 92-85. And they did so while misfiring into a 3-16 night from deep; the result was not a fluke. But the Bulls have since lost two games in a row, first in Boston (beating San Antonio and Boston is too much for most) and then Miami on Sunday. Off to a 1-0 start at the United Center, where Chicago went 28-13 last season, they are happy to be home.
  
• Redd: shoot. Maybe he didn't show it in his first 62 minutes (8 for 25 from the field), and maybe he can't quite like he used to. But shooting guard Michael Redd can shoot. I don't know if anyone else can. Maybe Carlos Delfino or Ersan Ilyasova? That's an optimistic outlook. Maybe they can shoot for players who are under 40.0 % from the field in their NBA careers. Maybe Jodie Meeks, if he actually plays?  I like Charlie Bell, but he is starting at shooting guard, team. Two games in, the Bucks are second to last in the league shooting the ball, at 40.5 %. And now, Redd exits. Still in spite of all this unfortunate-ness, I:
• Can't help but smiling. About this Brandon Jennings era. A real kick. Usually, flirting with a triple-double in your first NBA game would seem a mighty difficult act to follow. This is unusual. Twenty year-old rookie point guards are supposed to be threshold tests for pain. Though you might recall watching another nifty 20 year-old point guard take to an NBA court for the first time. Last year, right around this time, in the same place, Derrick Rose debuted and started in a win over the Bucks. While he's not off to an overwhelming start this season, Rose is already an elite player, as evidenced by many in last season's playoff series against Boston. These teams faced off a couple times in the preseason, but Rose didn't play. So this is it. Rose is quick like Jennings, but he's also very strong, so this will be quite a task. Here's to the first meeting of many between these Central Division point guards. Let the curtains open on Number 3, Act 3. And I can't help but smiling.
  

Coverage

Blog a Bull / By The Horns / Chicago Tribune

Fresh Prince: In West Philadelphia, neither born nor raised.

Three Points

• The Point. When news arrived that Jennings would start (gracias, Scott Skiles -- I like Skiles pronounced in Spanish), my eternal point-guard-state-of-mind inevitably turned to a charming little opening night matchup: Louis Williams vs Brandon Jennings. Williams (6-1, 175) is one of the few starting points in the NBA who is both as slight as Jennings (6-1, 170) and as potentially electric.

  So while Jennings won't be physically overmatched, make no mistake: He will face a steep challenge defending the Sixer point guard. Sure, Williams made a nice 3.8 free throws per game last year; more illustrative is that he drew 174 fouls and attempted 1018 field goals, for a DrawFoul% (yes, DrawFoul%, it's almost 2010, party people) of 17.1. For perspective, Ramon Sessions led Milwaukee at 15.7 last year. Translation: It ain't easy staying in front of Williams. Then again, Williams shot a career-low 39.8 % from the field last year, so questionable outside shooting is another facet the starting point guards might share. However, Williams started Philly's opener in fine form, converting 6-9 from the field (and 2-3 from outside) for 18 points, 4 assists, and no turnovers in a 120-106 loss in Orlando on Wednesday.

• Marreese's Pieces in Sam's Club. While the Sixers were the NBA's worst three-point shooting team last season, they are liable to inflict much harm in the paint. We know Williams is able to get into the lane at his leisure. And Philadelphia has a trio of very capable big men in Samuel Dalembert, Elton Brand, and Marreese Speights.

  The Haitian Sensation in particular has scored much historical success against Bogut -- especially in the last three head-to-head matchups, all Philly wins. In those three contests, Dalembert averaged 12.7 points, compared to Bogut's 4.7. That will not work. And don't overlook Speights, who made 10-11 from the field for 26 points off the bench in the team's opener. Meanwhile, defensive ace Mbah a Moute will shadow (among others) the fast-rising Thaddeus Young, whom the Sixers settled for on draft night a couple years ago, writes Bob Cooney at Philly.com, oh dear...

• Little did they know that then-general manager Billy King was working the phone lines feverishly. So busy was King looking for a deal that he did not come out to address the media about his draft night (which also included getting current backup Jason Smith) until just after midnight.

  "Our main thing that night was to move up to get Yi," King said recently. "We were trying to get up in the top where the proven players were, which was clearly in the top seven or eight. As it turns out in this case, maybe some of the best moves you make are the ones you don't make."

  And maybe fighting for a playoff spot and landing late in the lottery isn't always so precarious. Let's remember to cheer for wins, only settle for a high draft pick, and not the other way around. Speaking of which...
  
• Game Prediction? Personally: Bucks 88 Sixers 86 (not Frank-co-signed). Surely the Sixers will look sharp -- they'll don an updated, classic uniform this year. But it's late-October and thus, Milwaukoptimism doesn't spoil for easily one, two weeks. What say you?
  

Philadelphia Coverage

Sixers 4 Guidos / Liberty Ballers / Philadunkia / Philly

Box Score / Recap

Yes, preseason. Yes, Bucks/Bulls preseason again. No Derrick Rose. No Andrew Bogut. No real meaning.

Yes, a nice start. Yes, final-minute dramatics. Yes... a Dan Gadzuric fadeaway last-second shot.

No, not kidding. 

I caught an online stream of the game, and I make observations with slightly more varied sentence structure after the jump.

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Bucks season at the Bradley Center commences.

We're talkin' about practice, man.

So keep that in mind. Though this time we're talking about a game (or at least a scrimmage) too.

The Bradley Center hosted an open practice to unveil the 2009-10 Milwaukee Bucks this afternoon. A nice public service, because it's nigh time to reacquaint yourself with the team: There's quite a bit of turnover from the last time we saw the them.

Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut have returned. Even Ersan Ilyasova came back. And we caught first glimpses of new-Bucks, including Brandon Jennings, Hakim Warrick, Carlos Delfino, Jodie Meeks,  Kurt Thomas, and Roko Ukic.

Twenty-eight minutes of purely Bucks basketball today. Plenty of time to learn. Though it's also plenty early, and remember that. It's plenty early in two months. We're just dealing with perhapses today: It's only October 3.

But it is October. And today felt like it.

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Greetings, earthlings. It's good to be here, it's so good to be here. So, when you type "Brandon" in Google Search, the top recommended entry is the star in the above Under Armour video: Brandon Jennings. He's already rather ubiquitous, particularly for a 19 year-old who didn't play college ball and has yet to play pro ball stateside. A good fit for a team with both visibility and profitability issues, it would seem. How high can this apparent budding star take Milwaukee? Well, the Bucks made an international splash in the draft a couple years ago. That recent bit of history shows this much is equally obvious and true: for the Jennings Effect to truly take hold, it must happen on the court. Regardless, nice vid. And for the record, all of these thousands of years later, I'm still playing a hopeless game of catch-up to Alexander the Great in the Google Search for "Alex."

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More photos » by Paul Sancya - AP

Lawson lifts net.

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You might prefer DeJuan Blair, Stephen Curry, or Ty Lawson, though there is a fair share of contention. And there are also no locks at  #10 based on these 20 mocks:

• Ball Don't Lie: Ty Lawson
  
• Chad Ford: Jonny Flynn
• CollegeHoops.net: DeMar DeRozan
  
• Dime: Tyreke Evans
  
• Draft Express: Jonny Flynn
  
• Hoops Addict: Tyreke Evans
  
• Hoops Analyst: DeJuan Blair
  
• Hoops Hype: DeJuan Blair
• Hoops World: Earl Clark
• Inside Hoops: Jonny Flynn
• Knickerblogger: DeJuan Blair
• NBADraft.net: Eric Maynor
• NBCSports: DeMar DeRozan
  
• Pro Basketball News: Ty Lawson
  
• Ridiculous Upside: Jordan Hill
• Rotoworld: DeMar DeRozan
  
• NBA Fanhouse: James Johnson
• SI.com: Jrue Holiday
• Sporting News: Ty Lawson
  
• The Sports Xchange: Stephen Curry

The breakdown: Blair (3) Flynn (3) Lawson (3) DeRozan (3) Evans (2) Clark (1) Curry (1) Hill (1) Holiday (1) Johnson (1) Maynor (1)

More photos » by Michael Perez - AP

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While you are voting for your preferred #10, don't forget about #41: An unusual bit of draft history has seen the Bucks score about as often in the second round as the in first since the turn of this century. Which got me hypothetical-ing...

You can choose from a few more solid second rounders, including Keith Bogans (2003: 2.14), Flip Murray (2002: 2.13), and Jason Hart (2000: 2.20) And of course this doesn't include Mo Williams (2003: 2.18), whom the Bucks grabbed after a short first season in Utah.

The only other first round option is Jason Collier (2000: 1.15). This is considering only players the Bucks actually picked, but if we went back a couple more years, the first rounders would have Dirk Nowitzki (1998: 1.9) while Rafer Alston (1998: 2.10) would become a second round possibility. Alas, this post-1900's only.