Tuesday, December 19, 2006 | 2:10 p.m.

Mo Williams celebrates his 24th birthday today. He received the now-customary singing routine from Bucks rookies David Noel, Damir Markota, Lynn Greer and Chris McCray, as well as a birthday cake. Larry Krystkowiak was eyeing the cake after practice, but knew well enough that the first person to touch the cake should always be the person celebrating his/her birthday. So, he tracked down Mo, dragged him out of the locker room, and had him grab a piece. Once Mo had a nice, big piece on his plate, Larry had the green light to grab his own.

And he did.

Happy Birthday, Mo!

Ersan Ilyasova proved himself to be quite the clutch performer this morning. Following the team's hour-long shootaround session at the United Center, the entire Bucks roster (along with the coaches and other members of the basketball staff) took part in a friendly - but competitive - game of "Knockout". Others may know it by another name, but it's the game where players take turns shooting a three-pointer. If you make it, you go to the back of the line. If you miss it, you have to quickly track down your missed shot and make a lay-up or any other shot before the player behinds you "knocks you out" by making their own three pointer or missed shot.

Ilyasova won a few of the games at Bucks practice yesterday and he continued his dominance this morning. In fact, his final shot was a running, turn-around three-pointer.

The Bucks had a breakfast meeting this morning prior to their game in Golden State. They tend to not have shootaround sessions for the second game of a back-to-back set. This morning's meeting was on the second floor of the hotel in San Francisco.

Afterwards, Dan Gadzuric was heard toying around on agrand piano down the hall. His song of choice? The beginnings of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". When asked if he ever took lessons, Gadzuric laughed and said, "No. I just know what a friend taught me."

Michael Redd scored 45 points last night in a big win over the host Los Angeles Lakers. It was the most he has ever scored in a road game, and the most a Buck has scored in a road game since Ricky Pierce had the same amount in Sacramento on 12/5/89. Pierce's effort came in a Bucks loss (103-118), while Redd's led to a Bucks win (109-105). And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only other Bucks player to score 45 points against the LA Lakers is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He did it twice: 46 points in a game at Milwaukee in 1970, his rookie season, and 50 in a game at the Forum in 1972.

Another note from last night's game ... Redd, Mo Williams (22 points) and Charlie Bell (14 points) accounted for 81 of Milwaukee's 109 points (74.3%). It was Bell's first start of the season. He made six starts last year.

The win also snapped a 10-game skid the Bucks had going against the Lakers.

Andrew Bogut turned 22 today. To celebrate the big ocassion, all of the rookies on the Bucks roster had to sing a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Bogut after the team's shootaround this morning at Loyola Marymount University. The song was somewhat monotone, but the guys put forth a good effort, nonetheless

The Bucks are in Indiana tonight to take on the Pacers. They're looking for a little revenge after the Pacers came into the Bradley Center and escaped with a 102-100 win last Saturday night.

If Terry Stotts keeps the same line-up that he used on Saturday, Ersan Ilyasova will be getting his second start of the season and of his NBA career. Not too many fans know this yet, but Ersan has already played his way into the Milwaukee Bucks record books. On November 1, when he checked into Milwaukee's season-opening game in Detroit, he became the youngest player ever to play in a game for the Milwaukee Bucks (19 years, 5 months, 17 days). And when he was among the starting five last Saturday, he became the youngest Buck to ever start a game (19 years, 6 months, 3 days).

The last time the Bucks had a player under the age of 20 log minutes in a regular season game was on January 25, 2003 when Jamal Sampson played in a game against Denver (19 years, 8 months, 10 days).

Terry Stotts, Michael Redd and Bobby Simmons helped spread Thanksgiving cheer on Monday, November 20 when they distributed 150 Thanksgiving dinners to local Milwaukee families at the House Of Peace. They distributed 2,800 pounds of turkeys donated by Honeysuckle White ® as part of their grocery-partner Roundy’s “More To Share” program. The turkeys, along with all of the traditional fixings, were personally distributed and funded by Stotts, Redd and Simmons.

Turkey Giveaway Photo Gallery

Prior to last night's game against the Pacers, the Bucks recognized Michael Redd's 57-point scoring performance from the week before. Just before tip-off (after the starting line-ups were announced), Terry Stotts and Mo Williams presented Michael with the game ball from that game. The ball was partially painted and the painted area included the information from the historic night. In scoring 57 points, Michael broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 35-year-old franchise single-game scoring record of 55 points (set on 12/10/71 vs. Boston).

The Milwaukee Bucks, in collaboration with Sam's Hope Literacy Foundation, sponsored a “Read to Achieve” event this afternoon at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Players and coaches read with the 1,000 Milwaukee Public Schools students in attendance. Each student received books to add to or start their own home libraries. By the time the event was over, 10,000 books had been distributed.

Fans watching last night's Bucks game in Atlanta on FSN North may have noticed a delay in the action during the fourth quarter. Terry Stotts and Mike Woodson joined official Ken Mauer at center court for a brief conference about something Michael Redd noticed during the game. After missing four free throw attempts up to that point, including two straight to start the fourth, Redd, who rarely misses even one charity shot in a game, made a case about the basket not being properly aligned. And it turns out he was right. Stotts asked the officials to ask a couple of workers to measure the basket, at which point they found the basket to be one-half inch too high. Instead of the standard 10 feet, the basket was actually 10-feet and one-half inch off the ground.

Needless to say, they fixed it right then and there. Oh, and Redd went 7-7 from the free throw line the rest of the way.