The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

Look at that, the Bucks showed some heart and soul, fighting back from an early 14 point deficit to pull off a really nice win in Cleveland. They can win on the road!

There are some big positives about this game, namely that Mo seems to be shaking out of his slump. 20 points, 9 assists is a good game for anyone, and he finally got some free throw attempts (although he did only go 5-8). Also, Redd has typically had trouble in games where he has to match up against the games best (LeBron, Bryant, Iverson) and while James put up a typically excellent night (34/7/7), Redd was right there to match him (34/7/6). Possibly the most exciting thing about Redd is that he is still putting up the impressive rebound and assist totals.

There are a couple of questions here, though. Isn’t it a little early for Yi to hit the rookie wall? He has been a non-factor for 3 games now, and his first 6 minute stint in the game coinciding with Cleveland’s 22-8 run to open the game.

Also, I didn’t like one thing about how the Bucks handled the end of the game — when Mo got a rebound off of a Gibson missed free throw with 9 seconds left, why would he call timeout? The shot clock was off, he could have held the ball until one second remained. All he had to do was tuck the ball away like a football and the Cavs would have been forced to foul him. By calling the timeout then the Bucks had to inbound the ball, risking a turnover. Not to mention the Bucks burned their final timeout on that play.

That is either a bad decision by Mo, or a mistake by Krytskowiak. He should have made sure his players knew that if Gibson missed then the rebounder needed to hold the ball and get to the line. Well, it’s a moot point since the Bucks still won, but that timeout still made the Bucks stress an inbound pass that didn’t need to be.

Overall, a good win. Hopefully it carries over into a good showing against the Lakers tonight.