Bucks Mo better now

He made it look so easy. SuperMo to the rescue!

The newly reactivated Mo Williams whipped off his preppy glasses (he had been wearing while on the injured reserve), put on his green and red cape, and singlehandedly saved the floundering Bucks from another disappointing loss Sunday afternoon. And he did it in heroic fashion with a series of fantastic plays that staved off the hardcharging New York Knickerbockers and gave the Bucks a dramatic 107-105 victory.

In truth, though, the outcome should have been decided much earlier. The Bucks had the matinee game more or less won until, near the end, they decided not to play any discernible defense whatsoever. They allowed the Knicks, who will never be confused with the Suns, to score a whopping 36 fourth quarter poiints, including basket after basket in the closing minutes. Luckily, the Bucks had Mo Williams to pull their eggs out of the frying pan.

Right back in the saddle

Mo Williams performance was nothing short of astonishing when one consider his period of inactivity. But that's Mo. He can get into an absolute zone, regardless of circumstance or opponent, and that's basically what happened against the Knicks. It still boggles the mind, though. Fresh off the injured reserve, the Alabama Assassin got off 26 shots and found the bottom of the net 13 times. Incredible.

Ruben's back, too

Ruben Patterson had a terrific game off the bench (Eff48: 40.61). After an outstanding month of December, the Bucks forward had been struggling, but against the Knicks he was back to his holiday form. Perhaps the return of Mo Williams was all he needed to get his groove back. He's a player that finds his offense, rather than creating it. He is an opportunistic scorer, in other words.

"No Names" produce big games for the Knicks

Everyone knows the New York Knicks have a ridiculous payroll of $139 million. Its ironic that their most consistently productive player, PF David Lee, accounts for less than 1/139th of that amount.

The guy is an absolute machine. The Bucks sure couldn't handle him, that's for sure. He recorded an Eff48 of 46.46 -- and this is over 30 plus minutes of action. He was magnificent. And he's been producing like that all season long. He may be the best white American player in the Association at the moment (of course, that's not saying much).

The only guy at the Bradley Center who was more productive than Lee was someone named Renaldo Balkman. No, not Rolando Blackman... that's what I thought, too. Balkman is a 6'8'' rookie SF who played 19 minutes on Sunday and spent every second thereof making positive contributions to the Knicks cause. He was so good he gets the"Chamberlain 61-62" award for yesterday's performance, recording a stratospheric Eff48 of 58.10.

Is Eddy Curry really an All-Star candidate?

As underrated as David Lee is... well, that's how overrated Eddy Curry suddenly seems to be. On Thursday night's TNT NBA Tip-off Show, the three analysts (Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Reggie Miller) presented their choices for Eastern Conference All-Star reserves. Barkley selected Curry as one of his reserves (the other two did not). The other two analysts jumped on him, but they did so more because of his exclusion of Jermaine O'Neal rather than his inclusion of Eddy Curry. In fact, nobody disputed Barkley's underlying premise that Curry is having an All-Star season.

Well, I will. Curry is not an All-Star. His overall numbers are decidedly mediocre (Eff48: 23.33). O'Neal's numbers are unquestionably superior (30.44). Even Andrew Bogut's numbers are better (25.86) than Curry's.

Curry is an effective scorer, but that's about it. He is a below average rebounder, a terrible ballhandler, and an atrocius passer (his passer rating is actually a negative number!!). Oh, and he's basically a turnover waiting to happen, averaging nearly 5 of them per 48 minutes played.

Sunday's game was a microcosm of Curry's season. He shot the ball quite well (he was 6 for 9), but he grabbed only 4 rebounds in 28 minutes of action (the accepted minimum for centers is about one rebound for every 4 minutes of action), which matched his number of turnovers. Not good. Oh, and he had zero assists, zero steals, and zero blocked shots.