The Bratwurst - Milwaukee Bucks Blog

While the fact that the Bucks have gotten blown out ten times so far this season has been a neverending source of frustration, if there was ever a night where it is no big deal it was Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

Of course, losing by over 40 is never acceptable, but once the Bucks were down by 19 at the half, there was no telling how bad it would get.

After seven games in nine days, and missing Redd as well, it was no surprise that this game would be a problem. Philly is a lousy matchup for a Bucks team with a thin backcourt, as their best players — Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Louis Williams — would be able to stress the Bucks defenders and Samuel Dalembert is a pretty tough matchup for Andrew Bogut. Also, while the Bucks were playing a back-to-back, the Sixers were coming off of a three-day rest.

I do have two questions, though:

Doesn’t it look like Yi needs some rest? Whether it’s hitting the “rookie wall” or just simply being tired from playing constantly since the NBA Draft, Yi Jianlian is playing horribly right now. Less than two weeks after I wrote that the most impressive thing about him has been his consistency, his game has really fallen apart. He has gone through his worst five-game stretch of the season, and he has fallen off in every way. He hasn’t scored in double digits in 8 games, his rebounding has been below average in five of his last six, and his “Curry Ratio” (defined in this post) has been subpar in 7 straight games. He has been awful offensively (IPM of 0.6 or less in 7 straight — below 0.6 is “you are hurting the team more than helping” territory) and his defense has slipped, only blocking two shots in 8 games.

It really seems like the guy is tired, and maybe after the Houston game, Yi should come off of the bench for a couple of games.

With Redd hurt, why wasn’t Sessions called up? The Bucks only have four guards on the roster anyway, but with Redd out and Bell playing some small forward, they only had two full time guards available. Doesn’t it seem like three games in four nights is a little long to go with such a shorthanded backcourt? It’s not as though it was a cost savings move — while in the NBDL, Sessions still gets his NBA paycheck. At the very least, Sessions could have played the fourth quarter against Philadelphia.

The shorthanded backcourt was also a problem against New Jersey as Kidd-Carter-Jefferson gets a big edge over Williams-Ivey-Bell. Not that it’s likely Sessions would have turned one of those losses into wins, but at least he could have helped spell the starters some.

Other than that, I don’t have many other specific complaints about the Philadelphia game. They were screwed from the beginning. The Bucks’ defense was horriffic, but with Yi playing poorly, then Bogut can only do so much to help the guards when they get blown past. Mo has enough trouble guarding point guards his own size, what is he supposed to do against Vince Carter and Andre Iguodala? With Yi doing badly then my master strategy of moving Villanueva to the 3 isn’t an option, and thus his weak interior defense contributes to the problem. I think the only thing I might have done differently would have been to throw in the towel even earlier than Krystkowiak did, and taken Bogut out for good after Philly pushed their third quarter lead to 24.

It’s still an embarrassing loss, and at some point the team isn’t going to keep brushing off the blowouts. Hopefully they get back on track against Houston, a game that is supposed to mark the return of both Michael Redd and Desmond Mason.