GAMEDAY: Milwaukee vs New Jersey - 01/29/11

Head Coach Scott Skiles

On tonight's game...
"Early in the game it looked like a typical back-to-back. We didn't come out as sharp as we would have liked, but we battled through it. We picked up our defense; the ball movement was good and we were able to get some shots to go down. Overall, everyone contributed and we were able to pull out a good win."

On Carlos Delfino...
"He gives us momentum plays. You go down the floor and throw it into Andrew Bogut, or you have some action going on the side of the floor and you move it to the weak side of the floor and have someone who can make the three. We've had too many times this year where we couldn't knock down that shot and that's one of Carlos' best shots."

Center Andrew Bogut

On controlling the inside...
"It's just something I've been able to do all season. Offense comes and goes but I think I can control the rebounds and being a presence down low."

On having seven blocks...
"It's all about being aggressive. Once you block someone it plays into the intimidation factor and hopefully they'll stay out of the paint, learn their lesson and shoot jump shots. It helps our perimeter to know that if they pressure the ball and they get beat I can help them."

On Carlos' impact ...
"He's been huge. He's steadily gotten better. These last few games he's been huge for us, he's exactly what we've been missing. A 3-point shooter that can create at the two and three spot, can really shoot the three, rebound, he's a smart player with a real high basketball IQ. It showed when he was hurt that we missed him."

Guard Keyon Dooling

On winning before their road trip...
"We knew that the schedule was turning to our favor. We're getting healthier and the schedule is beginning to turn to our favor, so we have to carpe diem. We have to seize this moment and seize this opportunity and try to get to .500 before the All-Star break."

On Brandon Jennings coming back ...
"He's too talented to not come back and excel. We just have to continue to get him healthy, get his timing back and monitor his minutes. We have to work him back in. We need him down the stretch. He's our leading scorer and assist guy, so we know how important he is to this team."

• Brandon Jennings returned to action tonight for the first time since Dec. 18 after nursing a left foot injury. He finished tonight with two points and one assist in 11 minutes. The Bucks were 8-11 during his absence.
  
  
• Devin Harris set his career-high in assists tonight with 16 dimes (previous high was 15). He recorded 16 of New Jersey's 19 assists. The Bucks as a team tallied 15 assists.
  
  
• All five Bucks starters scored in double figures, with Carlos Delfino leading the way with 21 points on 4-9 from 3-point range.
  
  
• Newcomer Garrett Temple appeared in his third straight game for the Bucks, scoring two points and grabbing one rebound in 26 minutes.
  
  
• Milwaukee used a 10-2 run to open the second quarter and led at the half by a score of 45-37. The Bucks outscored the Nets 23-12 in the period. Andrew Bogut led the way for the Bucks in the first half, scoring 11 points while Brook Lopez netted 10 points.
  
  
• Tying a career-high with seven blocks tonight, Andrew Bogut now has a block in 17 consecutive games. He needs 28 blocks to tie Ervin Johnson (586) for third in franchise history. Bogut is averaging 3.3 blocks in the past six games.
  
  
• New Jersey's loss tonight drops them to 0-9 on Saturday games.
  
  
• The victory tonight bumps the Bucks up to 15-3 when leading after three quarters. The loss puts the Nets at 5-26 when trailing after the third quarter.
  
  
• With 26 points tonight, Brook Lopez has now led New Jersey in scoring in nine of their last 10 games.
  
  
• The Bucks have now won three consecutive games for the third time this season. They have yet to win four games in a row this year.
  
  
• Milwaukee continues to protect the ball well at the Bradley Center, committing less than 10 turnovers in their past three home games (nine vs. Memphis, seven vs. Atlanta, eight tonight).
  
  
• The Nets did not record a steal tonight, a new season-low. Their previous low was two steals (on three occasions, the most recent being at Washington on Jan. 7).
  
  
• Finishing with a team field goal percentage of 42.7 percent, the Bucks are now 6-22 when they shoot 44.9 percent or less.
  
  
• The Nets scored 12 points in the second quarter, which is a season-low for a Bucks opponent in any quarter.

STEADY MAGGETTE - In starting the last seven games for the Bucks, Corey Maggette has produced double digit scoring in six of those contests and 20-plus points in five of those outings, including a season-best 29 last night in Toronto (including 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season). Over the last seven games he's led Milwaukee with 19.0 points on 50.0 percent shooting from the field (48-96), 42.9 from three (6-14) and a team-high 31 free throws (on 37 attempts, 83.8 percent). He's also contributing 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists.

On Friday Maggette entered the top 50 in NBA history for free throws made (passed Jack Sikma, 4,292 for 50th) and now stands at 4,294 free throws for his career. He leads the club with 174 free throws this season (4.5 per game).

KILLER Ds - Milwaukee's "Killer Ds" of Carlos Delfino, Keyon Dooling and Chris Douglas-Roberts have combined to produce 34.7 points (104), 8.0 rebounds (22), 13.7 assists (40) and 2.0 steals (6) over the last three games as the Bucks have gone 2-1 in that stretch. The trio has 4.0 triples per game over that stretch and have combined for a 40.0 percent success rate from 3-point land (12-30) and have also combined to go 24-31 from the charity stripe (77.4 percent).

THE DEJECTION OF REJECTION - With four blocks on Friday night Andrew Bogut extended his string of consecutive games with at least one rejection to 16, the eighth longest streak of its kind this season. It's Bogut's second 10-plus game streak with a block this season (he had a 13 game stretch from November 9 - December 18). Bogut has now blocked 551 shots for his career and is closing in on Ervin Johnson (586) for third in franchise history. The Aussie big-man is also closing in on sixth place in franchise history in rebounds as he has 3,417 and Sidney Moncrief stands at 3,447. He passed Oscar Robertson (4,701) for 19th place in team history for points and now stands at 4,704 and is looking to move past Quinn Buckner (4,738) for 18th place.

THE ERSAN EFFECT - Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova equaled his career-best with 25 points last night on 9-10 shooting from the field (2-2 from three and 5-5 from the free throw line) while adding seven rebounds and three steals before fouling out. It was Ilyasova's third game of 20-plus points, but it was his ninth game of tallying 16 or more points. When the Turkish forward records 16 or more points in a game this season the Bucks have gone 7-2, including a perfect 3-0 at the Bradley Center. Although he fell short of a double-double on Friday, the Bucks are 5-2 when he notches a double-dip.

WHAT'S IN A NUMBER? - There are a few key numbers in predicting success for Milwaukee this season. The Bucks improved to 6-0 when knocking down 50.0 percent or better from the field in their win in Toronto on Friday. They also improved to 8-2 when scoring 100-plus points, but if you take that further to tallying 90 or more points, the Bucks are 16-7 in those games. On the other side of the floor, the team is 18-18 when holding opponents below 50.0 percent shooting and 0-8 when their foes knock down at least half of their field goals.

• The Bucks have won four of their last six games. See the "6-pack" box to the right for more details.
  
  
• Despite seeing their streak of nine straight opponents scoring less than 100 points snapped last night in Toronto, the Bucks are still tied for third in the league by holding 34 of their 44 opponents under 100 points (77.3 percent). Chicago and Miami have held 35 foes below 100 points.
  
  
• The Bucks are 2-1 to start a stretch where five of seven tilts are on the road. After this stretch, the team will have just two road games remaining against the Western Conference, but both in the central time zone (at Memphis on February 11 and at Oklahoma City in the regular season finale on April 13.
  
  
• In the 19 games Brandon Jennings has missed due to his left foot surgery, Earl Boykins and Keyon Dooling have combined for 22.8 points, 9.0 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals. They've connected on 35.7 percent of their threes (41-115) and posted a 3.15:1 assist-to-turnover ratio (167:53).
  
  
• Carlos Delfino (349) needs one game played for 350 in his career while Corey Maggette (749) needs one for 750. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (198) is two games away from 200.
  
  
• Keyon Dooling has posted a 3.34:1 assist-to-turnover ratio this season (157:47), good for fifth in the NBA. That mark would be a career-best, topping his 2.51:1 ratio in 2008-09 with New Jersey. His 157 assists on the year are the third most in his career (this is his 11th season) behind 270 in 08-09 and 177 in 00-01 (rookie with LAC). In his last nine games Dooling's assist-to-turnover ratio is 5.36:1 (59:11)
  
  
• The Bucks have used 13 different starting lineups this season with 12 different players starting. Last year they used 15 lineups with 11 different players.