Game 64 Recap: Bucks 106, Nets 95

Brandon Jennings is a really hot and cold player, tonight, he was pretty damn hot

An 11th game against the Milwaukee Bucks, an 11th-straight loss for the New Jersey Nets against the Bucks. The injury-hampered Nets team just couldn't score enough points to offset Brandon Jennings' unstoppable 30-point performance. As stated in my earlier preview of the game, the Nets needed to stop the perimeter scoring of Jennings and Monta Ellis tonight in order to win, but, of course, that didn't happen at all.

Early on, both teams slugged through the game and didn't really show much intensity until the end of the 2nd quarter, when Milwaukee distanced itself from the Nets to take an 11-point halftime lead. Then, the Nets fought back to make it a close game towards the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th quarters. However, the Bucks distanced themselves once again after a Kris Humphries jump-shot cut the Milwaukee lead to 84-83 at the 6:16 of the final quarter.

Once again without Deron Williams (calf), the Nets took most of the game to find their offensive groove. The two Geralds (Green and Wallace) took the charge on offense for New Jersey as Green scored 16 points on 6-12 shooting while Wallace scored 18 on 7-12 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds. I don't even care anymore if we don't get to keep the lottery pick we gave up for Wallace anymore because he, in his limited time with the Nets, has given the team much-needed veteran presence, intensity, and defensive talent which can't always be quantified in the box score. I hope he, and Green (who is an unrestricted after the season) return next season because they form one of the better starter-to-bench small forward tandems in the whole NBA.

Game 64 Preview: Nets (22-41) at Milwaukee Bucks (29-33)

In order for the undermanned Nets to win, Gerald Green is going to need to have a monster game. At least we know we he can do it.

There's just three games left this season for the Nets, and only four for the Milwaukee Bucks. I guess that's a good thing for both teams as the Nets can't wait to start next season at the brand-new Barclays Center in Brooklyn while the Bucks can't wait to eliminate the terrible taste in their mouths from their epic collapse this season. Just two weeks ago, Milwaukee was only a half-game behind the Knicks for the 8th-seed in the East but after losing five of six games since then, they are three games behind the current 8th-place 76ers. A three-game deficit with four games remaining looks to be too big to come back from so Milwaukee's once-promising playoff hopes have diminished incredibly.

Background on Milwaukee

As mentioned above, the Bucks are a team with a lot of potential but have been dreadful down the stretch of this season. They did get much more explosive and athletic on both offense and defense by trading for Monta Ellis and Ekpe Udoh from the Warriors at the trade deadline. However, the addition of these guys helped the team early on but has been disastrous of late as the defense has been simply horrendous during their late-season swoon. Milwaukee has given up at least 97 points in their last six games (1-5 during that span) highlighted by allowing 121 in a loss to Washington and 118 in a loss to Indiana. They may be a hard-to-stop offensive team, but the Bucks are brutally inept on defense which should bode well for the undermanned Nets.

Game 43 Recap: Bucks 105, Nets 99

The Nets had no answer for this guy's jump-shot tonight

The Nets' losing streak to the Milwaukee Bucks was extended to 10 games tonight in a heart-breaking and simply dreadful 105-99 loss. New Jersey, without D-Will, finally got off to a quick start in the 1st half and even held a 12-point lead a few times in the 2nd quarter. However, when it got to the 2nd half of the game, the wheels on the Nets' already-damaged bus fell right off and they couldn't find a mechanic to put them back on.

The Bucks jumped out to a quick 5-0 run to start the 3rd quarter and cut the Nets' halftime lead to 55-51. Even a career-high 31-point performance by Kris Humphries could slow Milwaukee who just started shooting the lights out in the last two quarters of the game. After the Bucks took their first lead of the game, 78-76, at the 10:47 mark of the 4th, they would never turn back and cruised for the win. Drew Gooden (23 PTS, 8 REBS, 7 ASTS) started draining deep jump-shots, Brandon Jennings' (34, 7, 7) rainbow 3-point shot kept finding the bottom of the basket, and even Beno Udrih (15 PTS, 7 ASTS) somehow was wide open at the hoop for multiple lay-ups. The list keeps going on as the Bucks completely took advantage of the extreme lack of Nets' 2nd-half defense en route to the hard-fought win.

Going back to the Nets, Kris Humphries was the star of the show but he and Anthony Morrow, who had 17 points on 8-11 shooting, just couldn't pull out the win themselves and they didnt get much help from their teammates. No other Net's rebounding total was within 12 of Hump's ridiculous 18 board amount which meant that Milwaukee feasted on the glass when Kris wasn't in the game. Filling in for D-Will, Jordan Farmar did score 17 points but it was on inefficient 6-17 shooting while Marshon Brooks crashed right back down to Earth from his great performance on Saturday. Brooks only scored 11 on 4-10 shooting but also committed five bad turnovers which really hurt the Nets' chances of making a comeback late in the game.

Game 43 Preview: Milwaukee Bucks (17-24) at Nets (14-28)

Uh oh, how on Earth are the Nets going to be able to score points without D-Will in the line-up? Hey, I know, let's call someone up from the D-League

UPDATE: D-Will will not play tonight due to his sore calf. He is day-to-day.


The Nets look to bounce back from a winning streak-breaking loss on Saturday night at the hands of the Houston Rockets at the Prudential Center. Each team was without their starting point guard due to injury--Kyle Lowry (bacterial infection) for Houston and D-Will (calf) for the Nets--but that didn't stop the Rockets from shooting 56 percent from the field and scoring 112 points. New Jersey will have to overcome their season-long home struggles and snap their 9-game losing streak to the Bucks in order to get their 15th win of the season.

Background on Milwaukee

Milwaukee, like the Nets, has suffered a bunch of tough injuries this season but the most notable one is with their franchise center and former #1 overall pick Andrew Bogut. Bogut hasn't played since January 27th with an ankle fracture and has had to fight through constant injuries in his relatively short career. The Bucks have lost their fair share of games since their center's injury but have been on an uptick of late, winning their last two games--against the Raptors and Knicks--and three of their last four. One of the main reasons for Milwaukee's improved play of late is Ersan Ilyasova, the Turkish power forward who has been on a scoring, and rebounding, rampage since his team's Feb. 19th win in Newark over the Nets. Since his 29-point and 25-rebound performance in that game, Ilyasova is averaging 19.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per contest and doesn't seem to be looking back.

Trade Speculation Candidate: Jordan Farmar

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This post will be the first in a series that I will do highlighting potential trades involving Nets players who have a good chance of being dealt by this season's trade deadline, which falls on March 15th. Today's focus is point guard Jordan Farmar.


Since the Nets signed Farmar as a free agent from the Los Angeles Lakers two offseasons ago, he has emerged as a quality back-up point guard who could probably start for a few NBA teams. Farmar is good at leading the New Jersey offense and, so far this season, he has been prolific from 3-point range, shooting threes at a high 47 percent rate. However, the Nets would like to get rid of Jordan's 2-yr, $8 million contract to clear out cap space to spend this offseason, hopefully on Deron Williams and Dwight Howard. Let's take a look at three trade scenarios that would get rid of Farmar's contract, improve the Nets team, and clear cap room for this offseason.

Trade #1- Nets trade Farmar and a 2012 2nd-round pick to the Milwaukee Bucks for SF Carlos Delfino
Obviously, this trade helps out with the Nets urgent need for a healthy and somewhat talented small forward as Delfino is a good all-around player who is known especially for his shot. Nets fans may know Delfino because he irrationally always performs well against New Jersey and it would be nice to not have to face him anymore on the opposing side. Another bonus is that his contract ends after this season so if Delfino just doesn't work out in Avery Johnson's offense, the team can just let him go and have his salary come off of the cap for this offseason.

Milwaukee would want to do this trade because Farmar is a total upgrade at back-up point guard for the Bucks. Right now, Shaun Livingston and Ben Udrih are Milwaukee's current reserves at point guards. Livingston just isn't the player he used to be after multiple injuries and he doesn't provide much anymore on offense or defense. Udrih is actually a solid player (A good comparison would be Goran Dragic on Houston; both are lefties with really good shots, especially from three-point range) but his $6.925 million contract is one that Milwaukee wants to get rid of badly. Udrih will probably be amnestied after this season so Farmar would be the Bucks' #1 back-up behind Brandon Jennings next season and he would help Milwaukee out a lot with scoring, which has been a major problem for that team the whole season.

Game 33 Recap: Bucks 92, Nets 85

Yep, tonight was so bad this guy got 29 points and 25 rebounds.  #Ersaninsanity

If you look up "let-down game" in the dictionary, I'm sure you'll find the recap of this game. One night after an awesome, losing streak-breaking win over the NBA-best Chicago Bulls, the Nets laid an enormous egg and spoiled Brook Lopez' return against the lowly Milwaukee Bucks, who were missing some of their better players due to injury. New Jersey just couldn't get anything going on either end of the court as they shot a dismal 34 percent from the field, 22 percent from behind the arc, and a pathetic 67 percent from the free-throw line. They also couldn't keep up with the Bucks' Ersan Ilyasova, who had career-highs in points and rebounds with 29 and 25. A simply awful performance overall.

Milwaukee got off to a quick start in the 1st quarter and built up a 6-point lead after 1  and extended that lead to the high-teens by the 3rd quarter. Unlike the Chicago game, a game in which the Nets made tons of shots early on, New Jersey found a lid on the rim for basically the whole game and couldn't even convert on many wide-open jumpshots, lay-ups, and even free throw attempts. Brook's return didn't help much as his rust was obvious, evidenced by a 2-for-7 shooting performance while missing six of 11 free throw attempts. His lack of rebounding and interior defense really crutched the Nets' comeback effort which soured late in the 4th quarter with a few 3-pointers by Brandon Jennings and Carlos Delfino.

Game 33 Preview: Milwaukee Bucks (12-18) at Nets (9-23)

THE BROOKIE MONSTER RETURNS TO TOWN!!

Brook Lopez finally makes his long-awaited season debut later tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Prudential Center. Brook, who has missed all of the Nets' 32 games this season, will undoubtedly make an enormous impact on the team and will also give them a very good chance of beating the severely injured Bucks who will probably be missing two important big men to their offense due to injury, center Andrew Bogut and veteran power forward Drew Gooden. For once, the Nets are playing better basketball than their opponent as they are coming off a huge upset win yesterday over the Bulls in Chicago while Milwaukee is in the midst of a 4-game losing streak. I think I'm feeling confident about this game.

Background on Milwaukee

The Milwaukee franchise is in a state of uncertainty right now as star point guard Brandon Jennings has openly talked about leaving the team for a bigger market, veteran guard Stephen Jackson has said he barely has a relationship with coach Scott Skiles, and, oh yeah, that whole "being really bad on the court thing too." Going back even further than their current losing streak, the Bucks have lost seven of their last nine games and it doesn't get any easier for them anytime soon. Without interior cog and franchise center Andrew Bogut due to injury, Milwaukee will have to play seven of their next eight games (not including the Nets) against teams with over-.500 records. If you thought that the Nets were in some trouble, then you should look at the Bucks and really reconsider that statement.