On trying to find a winning lineup combination tonight…
“We didn’t play very well beginning to end, to say the least. Basically all they had to do in the first five, six minutes of the game is put one of their guards down on the baseline, run off a couple screens, they were wide open, they knocked those down. We had great difficulty getting something going; Bogues (Andrew Bogut) got something going for us a little bit, and he was very good in the first half, but we had a hard time finding a place to go with it, getting anything of quality going.”
On lineup shakeup in fourth quarter – bringing in Earl Boykins, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Larry Sanders …
“We tried to close it and couldn’t get over the hump, that happened multiple times. You never know, you put fresh bodies in the game, maybe something gets ignited, somebody could steal it. We hung in a little bit there, but we couldn’t get it.”
Center Andrew Bogut
On the loss…
“Our defense in that first quarter was terrible. Rip (Richard) Hamilton, he’s an All-Star, [but] he hasn’t played in over a month, and he comes in and starts hitting shots and we’re not rotating well. There’s no excuse for our effort tonight, we played terribly offensively, defensively. Talent doesn’t cut it in this league. We’re a talented team, but we’re not good enough at the moment. Whether we find that in practice, or we find it wherever we find it, we need to find it before Tuesday. We have two winnable games coming up; we’ll go from there.”
Guard Keyon Dooling
On the loss…
“We got a lot of good players, so if some nights some guys don’t have it going, guys that come in off the bench can get it done. Unfortunately tonight for us, we had too many guys who couldn’t get it going. At the end of the day, we have a lot of talent on paper, but we’re just not getting it done, flat out. We’re not getting it done on the offensive end, we’re not getting it done on the defensive end. We’re not winning in the intangible game, the hustle points, the things that don’t show up in the stats sheet. Right now, we are what our record says we are; we are not a very good team right now. But, that could change. We have enough ability, enough talent to make that change. It just has to happen soon for us.”
Corey Maggette had another quick start to tonight’s game. In the first quarter he had nine of the Bucks 22 points and shot 4-5 from the field.
Despite allowing the Pistons to shoot 59.5 percent from the field in the first half, the Buck’s only trailed by five points after two quarters. The Bucks were able to cut Detroit’s lead from 11 points to five in the second quarter behind Maggette and Andrew Bogut who combined had 27 of the 47 points.
After allowing 52 points in the first half the Bucks stepped up their defensive effort in the third quarter limiting Detroit to 14 points on 5-14 (35.7 percent) shooting. However the Bucks were not able to capitalize on their defensive effort in the third quarter and cut into Detroit’s lead (they scored only 13 points on 5-20 shooting).
The 13 second quarter points for the Bucks are a season low for that quarter.
Detroit was able to pull away in what ended up being a very sloppy game and won 89-78. Combined the teams had 28 turnovers (Bucks – 13, Detroit – 15) and 41 fouls (Bucks – 23, Detroit – 18).
Coming into tonight’s game, Ersan Ilyasova had scored in double figures in six of the last seven games. Tonight he had trouble finding the basket scoring six points on 3-11 shooting.
Milwaukee has now lost four in a row and fall to .500 (11-11) at home.
The Pistons shot 51.5 percent from the field (35-68) and had four players in double figures for points including Tracy McGrady who had a game-high 20 points. Milwaukee is now 0-12 on the season when they allow an opponent to shoot over 50 percent.
Detroit was able to lock down one of Milwaukee’s hottest players in the past few games. They were able to hold Carlos Delfino to eight points and forced him to shoot 2-11 from the field. They also limited Brandon Jennings effectiveness, as he finished the game with only four points and five assists.
(NO LONGER) STRANGERS IN TOWN – After missing time with separate injuries, Bucks starters Brandon Jennings
and John Salmons returned to the lineup last week. Jennings missed 19 games recovering from left foot surgery
and returned January 31 against the Clippers where he came off the bench and logged just over 17 minutes.
Against Phoenix, he was back in the starting lineup and logged 24:27 and then played 19:33 at Golden State.
Salmons missed nine games with right hip soreness and has come off the bench the last two games (11:22 at
Phoenix, 21:06 at Golden State).
NIGHT MOVES – The Bucks have been moving the ball well recently with a season-high 31 assists (on 39 field
goals) Wednesday at Golden State. Keyon Dooling led the Bucks with nine assists while Brandon Jennings had six
dimes. Luc Mbah a Moute had a career-high five assists while Carlos Delfino also chipped in five assists. In
Dooling’s last five games played, he is averaging a team-best 7.2 assists to just 0.8 turnovers (36:4), which is a
9.00:1.00 assist-to-turnover ratio. As a team, the Bucks rank last (30th) in the league with 18.4 assists per game
but are averaging 21.6 dimes over the last five games.
THE FIRE INSIDE – Lately, there’s no way Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova can hide the fire inside. He has been hitting his mark as he has scored in doublefigures
six of the last seven games on his way to 16.7 points per game, second to Corey Maggette’s 18.6 in that stretch. Ilyasova is scoring his points while
knocking down 56.2 percent of his field goals (50-89), 40.0 percent of his 3-pointers (6-15) and 84.6 percent of his free throws (11-13). The third-year
Turkish player has also added 6.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game over the last seven.
STILL THE SAME – Much like Bob Seger croons, Bucks forward Corey Maggette has been consistent as a starter for the Bucks in the last 11 games and is
producing some big numbers. Maggette leads Milwaukee with 18.9 points over that time and is scoring his points by connecting on 49.7 percent of his field
goals (71-143), 37.5 percent of his 3-pointers (9-24) and 85.1 percent of his free throws (57-67). Maggette’s 57 makes from the line more than doubles the
next closest Buck over that stretch and his nine made 3-pointers rank him third on the team. In addition to the points, the Duke product has produced 4.8
rebounds and 2.5 assists while clocking in for 32.2 minutes during this 11-game stretch. Maggette has 56 made free throws in his last 10 games, which
ranks him 17th in the NBA over that stretch.
Keyon Dooling and Larry Sanders returned to the Bucks bench Thursday night at Golden State after missing
Wednesday’s game at Phoenix with an illness.
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute recorded his fourth double-double of the season Thursday night with 15 points and
a career-high 19 rebounds. Mbah a Moute had 11 of the team’s 20 offensive rebounds.
Over his last 10 contests, Mbah a Moute has shot 53.5 percent from the field (23-43). He is averaging 5.4
points and 6.4 rebounds in 22.3 minutes over that stretch.
On Thursday, Ersan Ilyasova (1,001) surpassed the 1,000-rebound mark. A few personal milestones are on
the horizon for the Bucks: Brandon Jennings (195) is five 3-pointers away from 200 and John Salmons (490)
is 10 3-pointers away from 500. Andrew Bogut (559) is closing in on Ervin Johnson (586) for third in franchise
history for blocks. He’s also closing in on sixth place in team history in rebounds as he has 3,446 and Sidney
Moncrief stands at 3,447. He’s also close to Quinn Buckner (4,738) for 18th place in points as he has 4,735.
Since returning on January 21 at Cleveland, Carlos Delfino leads the Bucks with 16 3-pointers (1.8 per game).
Delfino had a full stat-line on Thursday at Golden State, scoring 20 points (9-22 from the field), with eight
rebounds, five assists and a Bucks season-high (and career-high) five steals in 44:56.
The Bucks have averaged 9.8 (39) steals over their last three games compared to 4.8 (19) for their
opponents. It has helped them to a 12.8 (51) to 14.5 (58) edge in turnovers per game.
The Bucks used their 15th different starting lineup of the season on Wednesday at Phoenix (Jennings, Delfino,
Maggette, Mbah a Moute, Ilyasova), which ties the number of different starting lineups the team used last
year.
