Sunday, November 06, 2005

Milwaukee Bucks 105, Shaq-Less Heat, 100


The Milwaukee Bucks continued their dominance of the Eastern Conference last night with a 105-100 victory over the Miami Heat. What made this less impressive than it could have been was the absense of Mr. Shaq O' Neal, who stepped on Ron Artest's foot the other night and got a sprained ankle that's going to keep him out for 4 weeks. They still had Alonzo Mourning, so at least the Bucks got to face a real NBA center for the first time this year. Of course, having 'Zo doesn't necessarily help the Heat at the end of the game when they're going up against someone as awesome as Dunkin' Bobby Simmons -- see the picture at the top of this post for proof of my point.

THE GOOD:
Again, this team can shoot, mainly because Ford (and Williams and even Kukoc) are doing a great job of finding people in a place where they can score. After Redd went wild on Wednesday, they decided to spread things around a bit last night. This makes it incredibly hard to cover them. Good job, Bucks.

The finally won a turnover battle -- in this case, 12 to 17. Unfortunately, they also allowed the Heat to shoot 48%. It was a freakishly well-played early-season NBA game, actually. With the Heat shooting so well and playing within their means for the most part, it's impressive that the Bucks were able to pull out the win.

Redd reportedly did a good job of defending the uberplayer, Dwyane Wade. I hope all those pundits who said that Redd didn't deserve a max contract because his defense is atrocius trip and fall into a big cake. Made of worms. Plus, he shot 8-14 from the field -- now that's efficiency.

The bench, especially Mo Williams, played well. They're giving the Bucks a variety of big and small looks they can use, and that bodes well for the future.

THE BAD:
The aforementioned shooting percentage defense, which is again tempered by the fact that Wade went 6-17 and Machine Gun Antoine Walker only took 14 shots.

Instead of outrebounding the Heat, they merely tied them in rebounds. Seriously, what can I pick on? This team is 3-0 in a very tough first month of the season. If they go 5-5 over the next 10 games, I'll be very happy.

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