More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

Throw it down, big fella!

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Box Score

Flashy rookies?  High-scoring games?  Who needs 'em.  For the Redd-less Bucks, ugly might as well be the new pretty. 

Following a lackluster first half, the Bucks turned the screws defensively in the third quarter and found their offensive rhythm long enough to turn a five point halftime deficit into a double-digit lead.  Andrew Bogut easily outplayed Al Jefferson on his way to a second straight double-double (17/10, four dimes, two blocks, two steals), and Hakim Warrick and Luke Ridnour came up big in the second half to balance out the Bucks' attack..

The big story coming in was understandably the Brandon Jennings/Jonny Flynn matchup, but the two rooks were relatively quiet until Flynn (20 points on 17 shots, one assist, three steals, three turnovers) went off for 12 points in the final 7 minutes.  Jennings (nine pts, 4/16 fg, six rebounds, three assists, one turnover) wasn't even in the game at that point, as Luke Ridnour's strong shooting night (6/9 fg, 16 points) allowed Skiles to rest his starter for the entire fourth quarter.  Before that point, both rookies showed occasional flashes of their talent, but neither got into a real rhythm until the Bucks had put the game away. 

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	vs.
1-2 (0-2 road)		1-4 (1-2 home)
November 6, 2009 - 7:00 PM CT
Target Center
Radio: 620 WTMJ TV: FSN Wisconsin HD
Probable starters:
Brandon Jennings	PG	Jonny Flynn
Charlie Bell	SG	Corey Brewer
Carlos Delfino	SF	Ryan Gomes
Hakim Warrick	PF	Oleksiy Pecherov
Andrew Bogut	C	Al Jefferson
94.1 (29th)	Off	100.5 (23rd)
95.5 (3rd)	Def	106.4 (16th)
93.1 (15th)	Pace	94.3 (11th)

News/notes after the jump.

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I had considered putting together a post on this topic before the Bulls game, but figured that was just asking for trouble.  Surely, having the gall to celebrate the opening weekend of Brandon Jennings' career was just begging for a 1/19 shooting night and complete embarrassment at the hands of Derrick Rose last night.  What can I say?  This is how being a Bucks fan for 20 years has trained me to think (and I haven't even written my thoughts on the Joe Alexander disaster yet).

Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about when it came to Jennings..

In any case, as you might guess this Jennings kid is attracting some buzz.  As in, hoops diehards from outside the state of Wisconsin are apparently going out of their way to intentionally watch the Bucks, simply to figure out if the kid is for real.  So far, so good.

Granted, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment if we expect 22.0 ppg and 50% shooting from deep to continue for 82 games.  Jennings' year in Rome seemed to confirm he's anything but a consistent outside shooter, and even a year in Europe may not immunize him from hitting the rookie wall at some point.  But no one has ever denied his talent, so we shouldn't have to worry about Jennings' first week being just the latest example of the Bucks perennially toying with our early season emotions.   Hopefully.

In any case, we're not the only ones paying attention.  Follow the jump for the beginning of what will hopefully be a season-long lovefest.  I think Bucks fans deserve it, right?

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More photos » by Michael Perez - AP

It's a familiar tune for Michael Redd

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Here we go again.

MRIs on Michael Redd's surgically repaired knee revealed a strained patella tendon today, shelving Redd for at least two weeks.  Redd looked to be in discomfort after a breakaway sorta-dunk in the third quarter, though he continued to play for a few minutes. He didn't return for the final quarter with what was described as knee soreness. The injury is eerily similar to the one he suffered in January 2007, when he strained the same patella tendon on a late-game dunk against Cleveland.  That injury ended up costing Redd six weeks on the sidelines.

Jim Paschke tweets that Charlie Bell will start in Redd's place, with second rounder Jodie Meeks expected to deputize.  Meeks struggled to find his shot in the preseason and was inactive for the first two games, but shot the ball exceptionally well in Vegas.  Considering he scored 23 ppg at Kentucky, the real question is whether he can defend well enough to win minutes over Bell, who hasn't been able to make shots for about two years now but can ably defend three positions.  You can guess what Skiles cares more about.  With Joe Alexander and Redd on the shelf for a while and Dan Gadzuric in Skiles' good graces for the moment, the Bucks will likely keep Francisco Elson as their only healthy player on the inactive list. 

The Bucks claim Redd will be "re-evaluated" after two weeks, so there's no guarantee he'll be back anytime soon.  It's a cruel blow for Redd, who worked diligently to come back after tearing his ACL and MCL against the Kings in January.  Unfortunately it's also somewhat predictable at this point.  Redd missed almost a month of action last November after what was initially thought to be a minor ankle sprain, and his penchant for injuring himself on attempted dunks has become something of a sad joke among Bucks fans.

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Box Score / AP Recap / JS Recap / GameFlow

With less than a minute to go in the first half of the Bucks' home opener, you would have been forgiven for getting that same old feeling about the Bucks.  Down 49-33, with Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd offering little help for the second straight night, it would have been perfectly acceptable to start extrapolating a long, long season.  If the Bucks sort-of-stars were MIA, how were they ever going to win games?   Anyone see John Wall or Derrick Favors lately?

Fortunately, the Bucks apparently have a bit more up their sleeve than just Redd and Bogut.  Namely, they have Brandon Jennings (24 points, 9/15 fg), who for the second straight night was the fulcrum of seemingly everything good that happened for the Bucks.  The rook had a perfect third quarter, making all seven of his shots en route to 16 points that catapulted the Bucks from down 11 to up 11.  And when Jennings wasn't getting it done, Hakim Warrick and the Bucks' role players were.  Warrick scored 21 of the Bucks' 52 bench points, and his 15 free throws were representative of a more active, aggressive approach that provided a stark contrast to Friday night.

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	vs.
1-1 (1-0 road)		0-1 (0-0 home)
October 31, 2009 - 7:30 PM CT
Bradley Center
Radio: 620 WTMJ TV: FS Wisconsin HD
Probable starters:
Rodney Stuckey	PG	Brandon Jennings
Ben Gordon	SG	Michael Redd
Tayshaun Prince	SF	Carlos Delfino
Charlie Villanueva	PF	Kurt Thomas
Ben Wallace	C	Andrew Bogut
103.4 (16th)	Off	87.8 (29th)
95.3 (4th)	Def	101.1 (9th)
86.6 (30th)	Pace	98.0 (3rd)

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More photos » by Michael Perez - AP

Sammy and the Sixers towered over Bogut & Co.

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Box Score / Recap

If you're looking for an explanation for the Bucks' opening night loss in Philly, just pick a stat.  Really, any stat.  Because if you compare the bottom lines in the box score you'll notice that Philly was better in every category save for offensive rebounds. The Bucks didn't shoot well, which isn't surprising.  The Bucks also held to form in the foul department, sending Philly to the line for 15 more free throw attempts (which translated into 18 more points).  And while the Bucks normally make a living forcing the other team into conceding turnovers and cheap points, tonight they were the more wasteful ones, turning it over 20 times and looking physically overmatched against a Sixer team that was faster, more intimidating, and more decisive.

Aside from a second quarter surge that saw Brandon Jennings (17 points, nine boards, nine dimes) quarterback the Bucks to a promising 47-41 halftime lead, every quarter went Philly's way, which shouldn't be a surprise.  Andrew Bogut looked out of sorts and uninvolved (eight points on nine shots, six boards), while Michael Redd sputtered in the second half to finish with 17 on 17 shots.  No one else aside from Jennings made much of an impact, though it's not really going to matter when Bogut and Redd are both off their game.  While Philly's not a great team by any stretch of the imagination, they have the type of athleticism that will give the Bucks problems.  More after the jump.

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Before the season kicks off tomorrow in Philly, I just wanted to throw out some admin stuff related to the site and some ideas about how we're hoping to make the site even better in 09/10. 

One of the best parts about blogging for Sports Blog Nation is the platform itself--the gang at SBN HQ have put together a terrific system that makes it ridiculously easy to share information, giving everyone a chance to have their opinions heard.  Unfortunately, we've often been pretty lazy about encouraging its use and explaining everything you can do with it.  That's our bad, and this year we want to put more of an emphasis on hearing what YOU have to say.  Here's how:

Sign up for an account.  There are lots of ways for you to interact with us, and most of it starts with signing up for an SBN user account.  It's free, you won't get spammed, and you can even use your Yahoo! or OpenID account to do it.  With it you can comment on posts as well as write your own stories (FanPosts) and posts links (FanShots) on hundreds of SBN blogs--including our in-state friends at Brew Crew Ball, Acme Packing Company, and Bucky's 5th Quarter.  

Game Threads.  For every game we'll try to have a preview (which we'll call a "Game Thread") up at least a few hours in advance, with up-to-date info on lineups, stats (off/def efficiency, pace, rebound rates), etc.  That's what we've been doing for the past couple years, so no change there. If you have ideas for other things you'd like to see, just give us a shout.

This year we're also hoping to encourage more in-game commenting.  Because priceless moments--you know, a Dan Gadzuric jumper, a smile from Scott Skiles--are more fun when you share it with other people, right?  So stop on by as much as you want and let us know what you're thinking.  SBN's comment threads also update automatically, so you don't even need to refresh.  Score.

Twitter.  I mentioned we had an account at twitter.com/brewhoop a long time ago, but only in the last couple months have I started to actually use it a bit.  Aside from my inane banter, I also update our Twitter feed everytime we post a new story.  

FanPosts and FanShots.  I'm not sure we've ever explained this well, but here goes: FanPosts are the blog within a blog--anytime you have some thoughts that don't relate to a story that's already up, go ahead and put it in a FanPost. You can also throw a poll in.

FanShots are meant for links--to latebreaking news, funny/cool videos, or interesting stories you find.  You can also throw in your two cents.

Contact us.  If you have any other ideas or comments, by all means drop us an email (brewhoop(at)gmail.com), a tweet, or a comment.

In the grand scheme of the universe, Andrew Bogut's spending habits really shouldn't be that interesting. Sure, he's an NBA player slated to make $10 million in the first year of a $60 million contract extension, so of course he's going to buy a lot more stuff than the rest of us.  Fine, I would too.

Still, Bogut's controversial comments from a few years ago about NBA players' lifestyles--even if the Antoine Walkers of the world continue to legitimize them--earned him some bad press and haven't been forgotten by everyone.  So when Karen Crouse mentioned in a New York Times article from earlier this week that Bogut drives a Ferrari, there were some who gleefully broke out their jump-to-conclusions mats. Shoals (tongue perpetually in vicinity of cheek) reported Bogut being "outed" as a "hypocrite."  Some other site called Bogut a hypocrite, and then a liar when Bogut denied owning a Ferrari via Twitter.  Because obviously if something is in the paper, it can't be wrong.

To be sure, I followed up with Crouse--whose story, by the way, is a very good read--and she got back to me quickly with confirmation that the Ferrari mention was based on an article by Michael Hunt from two weeks ago. Crouse wasn't able to follow up with Bogut while in Milwaukee to confirm it, and only after the story was published did she determine that the fine piece of Italian engineering belonged to Michael Redd.  She noted a correction would be run, so that will hopefully put the matter to rest.

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