12-02-2007, 02:16 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 5,454
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SI: Young Bucks falling into old trap of inconsistent play
Maybe this explains what's going on:
Quote:
"I know exactly what you are saying," said Bucks head coach Larry Krystkowiak when asked about the possibility of having blown a chance to pull ahead. "It has been frustrating. I think we won a couple of games recently, but things had to line up for us to win them. All of a sudden we woke up on Monday morning in first place in the Central Division. I'm not sure we were ready to handle it. It was uncharted territory for us."
Just being mentioned as a legitimate contender is uncharted territory for Milwaukee, at least recently. Last season the Bucks were decimated by injuries and stumbled to a 28-54 finish. When healthy, however, Milwaukee was a formidable offensive unit; which is why Krystkowiak, who replaced the fired Terry Stotts at midseason, has used training camp, practice and subliminal messaging (I'm kidding about the last one ... I think) to preach and teach defense. The results have been mixed: The Bucks are holding opponents to 46 percent shooting, down from 47.9 percent last season. But that number still puts Milwaukee in the bottom third in the league in that category.
"We've got a ways to go there," said Krystkowiak. "We're blocking some more shots, there is more activity. But we have had some letdowns. I don't think we're satisified."
Still, Milwaukee is capable of simply outgunning opponents, which is precisely what it did for three quarters on Friday. The Bucks are active inside and can send waves of big bodies at opponents, including Chinese phenom Yi Jianlian. They also have Redd, one of the league's premier shooters, who morphs more into a franchise player with each passing game.
But they are relatively young and overwhelmingly inexperienced. Against the Knicks, the Bucks abandoned the fluid offense that helped them build a seemingly insurmountable lead and became an isolation team.
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I think I'd have been going nuts if I was watching this game.
Growing pains |
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SI: Young Bucks falling into old trap of inconsistent play
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