Can Bucks make it a Texas triple?
By Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel
OK, can the Bucks make it a Texas triple?
They beat Houston at home on Friday night, using a 24-point, 22-rebound, 5-block game from Andrew Bogut to get it done.
On Monday in Dallas, the Bucks received a huge bench effort inspired by Ersan Ilyasova, Keyon Dooling and Chris Douglas-Roberts to snap the Mavericks' 12-game winning streak.
And Brandon Jennings dashed and slashed through the Mavericks defense, piling up 23 points and 10 assists and tearing coach Rick Carlisle's zone to shreds. Bogut added his fifth straight double-double (21 points, 14 rebounds) while playing strong interior defense as usual.
Now for maybe the toughest part. The Bucks headed to San Antonio on a charter flight after their 103-99 victory in Dallas. Next up will be the NBA's top team, the 20-3 San Antonio Spurs.
"That's big for us," Jennings said after the Bucks' victory improved their road record to 3-8. "But we've got another tough team, one of the best teams in the NBA, San Antonio. We've got to go in there and take care of business.
"We can't be too happy about this; we've just got to keep it going."
San Antonio is thriving with a faster-paced attack fueled by guards Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, and former Bucks forward Richard Jefferson is contributing with a vastly improved three-point shot. Jefferson, who shot 31.6% from three-point range last season, is hitting at a 46.3% rate (44 of 95) through the first 23 games.
They were shaking their heads in Dallas over Jennings' speed and ability to expose the Mavericks defense.
"He played great," Carlisle said. "He's the quickest guy on the planet. We didn't do a great job of handling him but he made some difficult shots.
"He was very determined; you could see it in his eyes the whole second half. He was attacking and we never really took away his momentum. So as it went along, it just became a more dangerous situation."
Jennings said he was impressed with the way the Bucks rallied from a 20-point first half deficit and didn't become too discouraged after initially being stymied by the Mavericks' 2-3 zone defense.
"I think we showed ourselves what we're capable of and what type of talent we have," Jennings said. "And finally the shots were falling.
"It was looking scary in the first half because the 2-3 was kind of getting to us and we couldn't get any ball movement or make any shots."
Bucks guard John Salmons said he wasn't surprised by the zone defense played by the Mavericks.
"It hurt us a little bit but I think in the second half we just played basketball and didn't give into it," Salmons said. Ers (Ilyasova) hit some good shots, threw some good passes and cut to the basket getting layups.
"This is what we were expecting in the beginning of the season. We finally got that signature road win and signature win, period."
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