Bucks' playoff prospects take hit vs. Boston
MILWAUKEE -- With a record of 15-24 two weeks ago and playoff aspirations still alive, it was going to take a very strong stretch in the final 27 games for the Milwaukee Bucks to make the postseason. Then, the Bucks won six in a row and did so in impressive fashion, including back-to-back dominating road wins.
Spirits were high and expectations were growing as new acquisitions Monta Ellis and Ekpe Udoh were preparing to make their home debuts in Milwaukee for Thursday's game against Boston, which would ultimately play a large role in the Bucks' playoff push.
Then, for the first time in two weeks, Milwaukee struggled both offensively and defensively and lost to the Celtics, 100-91.
"We needed this game," Brandon Jennings said after scoring 19 points with two assists and five turnovers.
The loss, coupled with the New York Knicks' five-game winning streak, pushed the Bucks back to 1 ½ games out of the Eastern Conference's eighth seed.
"If New York keeps winning and we keep losing, obviously we know what's going to happen," Jennings said.
Going into the night, Milwaukee was also only three games back of seventh-seeded Boston. A Bucks win would have shortened the distance to just two games, but the loss means that four games now separate Milwaukee from seventh place.
"That's why tonight was a big game for us; the fact that Boston is right up there with us," Jennings added.
With the lockout-shortened 66-game regular season, the Bucks still have nearly one-third of their schedule to play, despite only 20 games remaining. But many of the players are already keeping a close eye on what Boston and New York have been doing in recent weeks as Milwaukee chases them.
"We definitely watch standings," Drew Gooden said. "We keep up with it. We know what's going on. All we can do is take it a game at a time. This game's behind us. We have work to do tomorrow."
Even before trading Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson -- both of whom were injured -- to Golden State, expectations in the Bucks locker room have been to make the playoffs. Now with Ellis and Udoh in tow, those expectations are even higher.
"We're mad, we're upset that we lost the game tonight," Gooden said. "Other teams might be in here laughing, giggling, but as you can see, everybody's down right now. That's a good sign."
There was a lot that looked different for the Bucks on Thursday from their previous six games. In Milwaukee's last four wins, the team had at least 32 assists in each game, including an NBA season-high of 38 in a victory over Cleveland. In addition to great ball movement in those games, shots were falling. But against the Celtics, the Bucks had just 23 assists and shot 40 percent from the field.
"We just weren't very sharp in any area of the game," coach Scott Skiles said. "(The Celtics) have multiple Hall of Famers. Nothing against the teams we've played (during the winning streak), but this is a different caliber of opponent. They're very experienced and we were way too sloppy on both ends.
"Hopefully we can take something from this."
Every victory during Milwaukee's six-game winning streak was against a team below .500, including the Nets, Raptors and Warriors.
Before the game, Skiles said that Jennings needed to do a better job against Boston point guard Rajon Rondo than he had in previous matchups.
"Rondo has destroyed us," Skiles said in his pre-game interview. "That's been the fact of it. We've had absolutely no answer against him. Brandon has got to do a better job on him. Brandon's got to compete against the guy. It's that simple."
That didn't happen, with Rondo dishing 14 assists to go along with 10 points.
"That was the biggest key to the game for us, was could we contain Rondo? And we didn't." Skiles said after the game.
Gooden, who had just been named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, only had six points on 2-of-12 shooting and three rebounds.
"I didn't have my best game," Gooden said. "Monta didn't have his best game. We had a lot of guys that didn't have their best games. Tonight, compared to the games we won, it's night and day."
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