The Milwaukee Bucks have had some impressive wins in the last few games. The highlight is without a doubt the win over Utah. Milwaukee has gone 6-4 in the last ten games. For a team that struggled to win twenty-six games last season, they are certainly looking better this year. If the current win-loss trend continues, the Bucks may end this season with a 38-44 record.

What stings in Milwaukee is the flip-flop, win-one-night-lose-the-next exchange with The Charlotte Bobcats.  The Bucks crushed Charlotte by twenty-eight on Friday night at the Bradley Center.  The turnaround came within twenty-four hours as Charlotte crushed Milwaukee.  The Bobcats lead by thirteen points at the end of the third quarter, and had command of the game throughout. 

With just over five minutes in the game, the Bobcats went to the line after Charlie Villanueva was called for a mix of technical and flagrant fouls.  With a 21-point lead, Charlotte could hang loose for the rest of the night. 

Milwaukee was playing its fourth game in five days.  They could have blamed it on being road weary, but refused.  Richard Jefferson blamed the loss on poor leadership amongst his teammates.  Andrew Bogut was out of the lineup with back problems. He is still listed as day to day as of this writing.

Milwaukee tried to defeat Charlotte with the same strategy that produced three prior wins.  Perhaps the Bobcats had finally adjusted to that style of attack. If you combine Milwaukee's scoring at the line for the first three games, they outscored Charlotte 72-40.  Milwaukee out rebounded Charlotte in those first three games as well.

Putting strategy aside, we could chalk it up to one team figuring out the other, but that is what game-by-game adjustments are for. 

Milwaukee has one night off, and they face the Toronto Raptors tonight at the Bradley Center. Toronto is struggling at 13-20, winning only three of the past ten games.  Philadelphia and New Jersey both come to town in the coming week.   A solid win against Toronto could be salve on the wounds.  It would also put Milwaukee just below the .500 mark for the season.   

The Milwaukee Bucks have won six if their last eight games. Last night's win was perhaps the best effort by Milwaukee so far. The Bucks outlasted the Spurs in a game where Andrew Bogut had 14 rebounds, and scored twenty points. Michael Redd led the team with twenty-five points. 

Milwaukee led by five after one quarter of play. The Spurs cut that lead down to two points at the half. With just two minutes left in the third quarter, the Bucks pulled ahead by 11, but San Antonio cut that down considerably when they went on a 10-2 run. They pulled ahead by four with just seven minutes to play. 

Milwaukee responded with a three point shot and a dunk by Bogut. With another three-point score by Mason with nine seconds left in the game, and the deal was done. Tim Ducan missed an easy shot, and the game went to the Bucks. 

Duncan spent part of the game riding the bench after he allowed Milwaukee to dunk the ball on three separate trips down the court. Charlie Bell returned from his knee injury to score eleven points during his 25 minutes on the court. 

Milwaukee will spend New Year's Eve battling the Houston Rockets. Milwaukee is now just two games away from a .500 record. They find themselves over twelve games behind the Celtics.

Sometimes you just have to take what you can get when you play a solid opponent.  What the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night got was a banged up Utah Jazz team.  Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur were not in the lineup right from the start.  Early in the game, Paul Millsap came down with a knee injury and limped to the lockers in the first half.  That opened the window for the struggling Bucks to overtake their opponent.   

A nineteen point Bucks lead evaporated mid-way through the third quarter when Utah scored ten unanswered points.  By quarter number four, Utah tied the game at 77.  Milwaukee was ice cold from three-point range, but timely free throws by Redd and Jefferson put Milwaukee back up by six. 

On the other side of the ball, Utah's Millsap missed a pair of free throws late in the game.  Couple that with Kirilenko's offensive foul and goaltending call and the Bucks stayed ahead for good.  Milwaukee scored 27 of 33 at the free throw line, and finally outscored their opponent in that regard. 

Milwaukee's bench scored 27 points in total.  Villanueva scored 10, and Ramon Sessions put up 13 points going 5-6 at the free throw line.  He had a very productive twelve minutes to say the least.  Six players scored in double figures with Michael Redd leading the team with 27 points.  Redd had a cold hand from three-point range.  He scored only one of nine attempts.  Milwaukee was 1-16 from three-point range for the night. 

The score was tied eight times throughout the night, but the lead only changed hands twice.  Kirilenko scored 22 points in his 29 minutes on the court.  Deron Williams scored 17 and pulled in eight rebounds.

Milwaukee hosts Detroit on December 27^th.  Detroit is currently in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 15-11.  They are 5-0 in the division, and three games ahead of Milwaukee in the standings.  Milwaukee has only won three of twelve against the Pistons in recent seasons.    

Tony DiLeo was named head coach of the Sixers this past Saturday.  He saw his team overcome injury, and defeated the Bucks.  Philadelphia overcame the third quarter loss of Elton Brand when he fell on top of Luc Mbah a Moute.  The injury, a dislocated shoulder may keep Brand off the court for days.

Milwaukee led throughout the first half of the game.  They pulled ahead by ten, late in the third quarter.  From there, Philadelphia scored 21 to Milwaukee's seven, and pulled ahead by four. 

Missed free-throws crushed the Buck's chances to regain the lead in the fourth quarter.

Milwaukee could only manage to tie the game before Philadelphia scored six strait points.

Redd scored only six points while on the court for over 34 minutes.  Luke Ridnour scored 14 over thirty-two minutes.  Charlie Bell scored fourteen points going 4-8 with 23 minutes.  Five team members scored in double digits. 

Scott Skiles didn't mince words after the loss.  He blamed the team's lack of hustle up and down the court for the loss.  He felt the lack of energy was the soul reason for the loss.  Milwaukee gets one night off before going up against the Knicks in New York on December 19^th.  New York is 11-14 for the season, and coming off of a two game losing streak. 

The Bucks road trip out west was a debacle.  Three games, with three losses are what I'm talking about.  The final blow came last night when Milwaukee lost to Golden State.  The fourth quarter was the nail in the coffin, where Golden State outscored Milwaukee by twenty-two points. 

Milwaukee has lost seven of the past nine games.  Golden State, with a record of 7-15 is struggling.  Seeing that the Bucks have not beaten Phoenix in many years, and they never seem to defeat L.A., Golden State should have been the single game that ended up in the win column for Milwaukee.  At Phoenix, O'Neal crushed the Bucks, scoring 35, and rebounding 8.  Michael Redd's 23 points that night just didn't get the job done. 

What I am finding is that Milwaukee is amassing too many fouls early in the game.  These fouls are "reach-in" hacks that put the opposing players on the line way too much, and way too early in the game.

Scanning the stats for the previous game against The Lakers, shows that Milwaukee went to the line only 26 times verses 41 for L.A.  The Lakers outscored Milwaukee 18-32 at the line.  At Phoenix, Milwaukee was 16-24 at the free-throw line.  The Suns scored 29-38 at the line.  Game after game, Milwaukee puts their opponents on the line way too much. 

Milwaukee is now 9-15 in the standings, and find themselves eleven games behind Cleveland in their division.  Their losing streak stands at three, and they face Indiana at the Bradley Center on December 13^th.