The skinny: Milwaukee didn’t play like a 20-34 team in building a 21-point lead against the Pistons in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, shooting the ball confidently and getting terrific play from a bench that hasn’t been a strength. As open as the Eastern Conference playoff race is in the bottom half of the bracket, a win like that is one coach Larry Krystkowiak can sell to his team as a building block for a postseason run. That is, after all, what was expected of Milwaukee coming into the season with a slimmed-down Michael Redd, 7-foot Chinese lottery pick Yi Jianlian and the return to health of several players injured last season. On paper, the Bucks should be closer to the team that gave the Pistons more than they could handle the other night than the one that had stumbled through the pre-All-Star break portion of the schedule. The Bucks have terrific size – besides Jianlian, Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva and Dan Gadzuric give them four virtual 7-footers in the rotation – and a handful of dangerous perimeter shooters. They lack one-on-one scorers and their biggest Achilles heel has been their defense, but it was pretty good for most of the game against the Pistons.

What to watch: This game will be more about the Pistons than the Bucks. The Pistons came back from the All-Star break a different team than the one that carried a 10-game winning streak into the lull. For 7½ quarters they played curiously passive defense, which – as seems to frequently be the case with the Pistons – led to a lifeless offense characterized by one-on-one play and contested jump shots with the shot clock winding down. Flip Saunders got a spark from Amir Johnson in the fourth quarter – it was Johnson in for Antonio McDyess playing with the four starters when the comeback began – and that could plant a seed of confidence in him where the 20-year-old Johnson is concerned. Saunders has also subtly altered his backcourt rotation in the past few games, going earlier to Arron Afflalo for Rip Hamilton, resulting in less time together for Afflalo with fellow rookie Rodney Stuckey and more minutes featuring Stuckey paired with first Hamilton and then Billups. One other wrinkle: The Thursday trade addition of Toronto guard Juan Dixon figures to factor into the rotation, possibly affecting Afflalo.

Probable Starters

Prince McDyess Wallace Hamilton Billups Forward Forward Center Guard Guard Mason Villanueva Bogut Redd Williams