Live Blog -- Bucks 40th Home Opener vs. Bulls

7:31: From Milwaukee to Maple Grove, from Oak Creek to Orlando, from Delafield to De Pere, Bucks Live blog is on the air for the 40th Home Opener vs the Chicago Bulls.

7:33: Apparently they pulled the old rookie trick on Yi Jianlian. He ran out of the tunnel and no one followed. "Neehaw" and welcome to the NBA, Yi.

7:35: Starting lineups, with some extra flare. They're using some sort of Survivor style tiki torches all around the arena.

7:41: Oh, no! They're doing that cheesey, have a player address the crowd stunt. Michael Redd is now making like Sir Winston Churchill... hold on, that was about a 2 second speech. He basically said "What's up, Milwwwwwaaaaukkeeeee!" Way to get to the point, Mike!

7:43: McGlocklin just mentioned some of my favorite NBA names of all time: Norm Van Lier, and Bob "Is this" Love.

7:45: Bogut's taken the Road Warrior look to the extreme. He now has a clean shave working. Sweet. Quite the contrast with Ben Wallace's out of control fro.

7:46: Yi buries his first BC bucket. Great start for Yi. I think he can thrive against Thomas. Hinrich is off to a fast start. Come on, Mo... pick it up! 4-2, Bulls.

7:48: Mo is actually playing it pretty aggressively. He's picking up immediately at the half court line, which is good to see.

7:49: This game could set us back to the era of the peach basket. We are nearly four minutes in and its just now 4-3, Bulls. Let's see if Mase can tie this at the line... indeed! 4-4.

7:50: Stellar pump fake by Redd to get that flying gnat Heinrich off him so he could pull from just inside the stripe. Bucks up 6-4.

7:51: Bogut is picking up some cheapos. Now he's gone. He was coming off such a good performance last night. Damn it!

7:52: Oh, yeah. Paschke and McGlocklin are both echoing my "play like a point guard" criticism of Mo Williams. This game is suddenly moving fast and furious. And Mo just hit to put the Bucks up 10-9. Oh, Mo just picked up a bad offensive foul. He was forcing the issue instead of moving the ball.

7:55: What a makeup call by Violet Palmer. Charlie Bell got mugged. No call. Then Bell sort of drew a charge on Ben Gordon. She gave it to him. That's why she's notorious as one of the worst refs in the NBA. Time out. Bucks lead, 10-9.

7:59: Are we entering the Redd Zone? Redd just buried his first home 3 ball of the 07-08 campaign. Hey, Bell hit too. He's playing well and I'm eating my humble pie for criticizing him so heavily. Bucks 17, Bulls 13.

8:01: Gadzuric needs to be more stout in the lane. The Bulls are boarding right over him.

8:03: You know how they say guys are "football fast"? Desmond Mason is basketball fast. When he gets out on the break he is a blur. Michael Redd just fed him beautifully with one of those Larry Bird under hand scoop passes to get the break going and the Cowboy finished it off. Time out. Bucks 19, Bulls 13.

8:08: Gadzuric gets no love from the refs. He just got tomahawked by Tyrus Thomas. No call.

8:09: Paschke's mic just picked up Coach K telling Violet Palmer "Yah, no shit!". Sweet.

End of Quarter 1: Your Milwaukee Bucks 20, Chicago Bulls 19.

8:12: Redd already has 3 assists. Excellent sign. But the Bucks are leading by one despite shooting what is for them "lights out", at 58.3%. Ominous sign, especially against a defensive team like the Bulls.

8:15: Joe Smith is still a mudder. I like that guy. He'll give you everything he has and his lunch pail too. Bulls bench is out playing the Bucks right now. Bucks 20, Bulls 21.

8:17: The Bucks second unit is playing awful. The Bucks are at -7 since Bobby Simmons and Charlie V entered the game.

8:18: Gadzuric just got a really bad looking offensive foul. The Bucks have yet to score in this second quarter and we are 3+ minutes into it. Time Out. Bucks 20, Bulls 23.

8:23: Yep, as soon as we go a little cold, the game sort of slips away from us. Bucks are down 8 midway through the second quarter and its threatening to get worse. They have scored one point this quarter. The offense is really struggling. As it has all season so far.

8:25: Oh, my God. The Bucks lost 14 points with Simmons and Villanueva in the game. Or, you can look at it this way, the Bulls gained 12 with Nocioni and Duhon on the court. Nocioni is very underrated.

8:26: Joe Smith is just plain outworking our frontline at the moment. He changed the game around when he came in. What I wouldn't give to have Joe Smith, or a Joe Smith type, back on the Bucks. Its Bucks 21, Bulls 31, and we've only scored one point through six minutes of the quarter.

8:31: Yi is laying up bricks from the outside, but he's hustling. Its 33-25, Bulls.

8:36: Bucks are lucky to still be in shouting distance here. They can't hit the barn from the stone driveway. Redd just missed a layup. Bucks are down 8, 35-27.

8:38: I like what I'm seeing from Yi. He's hustling, he's playing hard, he's going to the boards, and he's not backing down when the shot is available to him. Bucks fans, we may have something here, after all. He's keeping the Bucks in the game right now. Bulls 35-29.

8:40: Folks, we are a +8 with Yi on the court. The game has basically swung back toward the Bucks with him on the floor. Amazing. Bulls, 35-32.

Halftime: Bucks 32, Bulls 35.
Comments: Perhaps the ugliest half of basketball I have ever witnessed in my life. The Bucks are shooting 27.3% from the field and the Bulls are not much better. The big players of the first half, in my mind, were Nocioni for the Bulls and Yi Jianlian for the Milwaukee Bucks. Best half of Yi's career so far (obviously). Time for me to make a trip to the refrigerator and possibly the "library" (public service announcement: Spotted Cow is hazardous to your next day digestive health).

8:46: I just did a quick calculation of the Bucks offensive efficiency (pts/possessions * 100). Now, remember what I stated in an earlier post... the worst offensive efficiency score last season was 98.6 by these very Bulls. Well, for the first half, the Bucks offensive efficiency was a mindnumbingly low 74.6! I'll give you the Bulls in a second, but it can't be much better.

8:51: The Bulls efficiency is at 78.6. We are witnessing caveman ball at its finest. I just switched for the moment to college football. How about Notre Dame losing to Navy. I highly recommend the article on Slate.com entitled the "Worst Coach in the history of the world" about how awful a coach Charlie Weis is. (That was a bad sentence).

8:53: Here's tonight's edition of the ongoing Bucks Diary Soap Opera: "Will he ever pass or shoot a free throw again?". Mo Williams has now taken 35 shots in the '07-'08 season; he has a grand total of 5 assists, including one tonight, and he has yet to take a single free throw.

8:58: Bogut just picked up his fourth foul. His long night continues. We need you, Andy. You can't get in foul trouble. I know you're trying to match the Bulls intensity, but be smarter.

8:59: If this clank fest doesn't pick up, you know its going to be turned into some kind of joke segment on ESPN's LameCenter.

9:00: Thank you, Johnny Mac. He just said "Mo's not penetrating and breaking the defense down like he ought to. He's got the skill to do it. He needs to get it done." Bulls, 37-35.

9:02: This shit is awful. We are 4 minutes into the third, and there has only been 5 points scored combined. How long will I be able to hold the TV tonight with this going on?

9:04: Yi's putting on a show tonight! Nee-haw (thats pig latin chinese for "Hello")! Yi just hit again!! The Chinese Larry Bird!! (easy, Ty, easy) We're tied at 37, and its been all Yi on both ends.

9:06: Yi and Desmond Mason are the Bucks +/- stars tonight. The Bucks are +14 with Yi on the court, and +16 with D Mase out there.

9:09: Yi just tried to two hand flush on Thomas. Thomas wiped it out, but it really looked like a foul... that's not just my Red/Green glasses, either. Yi just hit another jumper. What is Yi doing? He's come to play tonight and the Bulls can't do dukey about it! Bucks trail by 2.

9:11: The Bucks aren't going to have any centers. Bogut and Gadzuric both have 4 fouls and we are just past the midway point in the third. Bulls, 43-41.

9:12: Yi has brought it tonight, Bucks fans. He just rubbed out Tyrus Thomas, he has 14 points and 6 rebounds, and he's basically the only thing keeping the Bucks in this basketball game. We are tied.

9:15: Its the Redd and Yi show right now. The Bucks have recaptured the lead and its all because of those two, with partial credit going to D Mase, who's doing an extraordinary job on Luol Deng. Bucks, 49-43.

9:17: Listen to these numbers. The Bucks are +19 with D Mason on the court, +17 with Yi Jianlian on the court, and +12 with Redd on the court. Those three are carrying us.

9:19: How was that not a goaltending on Redd's shot. Yi just dunked and grunted. He's an NBAer alright!

9:20: Yi is having, really, a shockingly outstanding basketball game. I am much more impressed with his play tonight than I was with Kevin Durant's play on TNT the other night. Yi just went to the bench. The Bucks have a 6 point lead. Let's see what happens to it with Yi on the bench.

End of Third Quarter: Your Milwaukee Bucks 56, Chicago Bulls 48.
Comments: Its all about the Yi. He had a really fantastic quarter. He turned the game around. Well, he and Redd. But Redd's kind of a given. I'm a little worried about what will happen when Skiles puts Nocioni back on the floor. Its stunning to me that he's only gotten 12 minutes of work. The Bulls are plus 12 with him on the court.

9:26: Nocioni is back in. Watch out for Ben Gordon too. He's a notorious 4th quarter assassin. Joe Smith is killing us. He just hit his pattened slow release jumper. Bucks by 8.

9:44: Mo Williams better watch it. Bell looks pretty slick at the point. He just made a great dish to Bogut. Bucks 73, Bulls 64.

9:46: Yi's bleeding. Bucks by 9 with 3 and change to go. They have to close this one out and get the win.

9:47 Hinrich and Deng combined: 4 for 20. And a lot of them have been real solid bricks.

9:51: Nocioni is doing it on both ends, now. This is getting scary. Bucks 75, Bulls 70.

9:53: Yi with a nice challenge on Joe Smith. Bucks just got 2 reloads. And now Bout drew a foul on Nocioni. 47 seconds to play.

9:54: The shooting percentages are low 30s. This has been an UGLY game. The Bucks better win it. We've got 33 ticks to play. Watch out for Gordon here. I guarantee he pulls a 3 on this next possession.

9:56: The Bulls are brutal shooters!! They had 3 clean looks and couldn't come close on any one of them! And they all made "thump" sounds. This game is in the proverbial bank and earning some proverbial interest. Bucks 76, Bulls 70.

9:59: I have to give mention to the beautiful, and important seven minutes played by Michael Ruffin tonight. The Bucks were +10 with him on the floor, and those were important minutes. The Bulls just cut the lead to 76-72, but Redd extended it back to 6.

10:00: ITS OVER, BUCKS WIN!! Final Score: Your Milwaukee Bucks 78, Chicago Bulls 72.

10:02: I'm a little tired from staying out a little late last night, so:

Signing off from the Home office of Bucks Diary with a big win on the occasion of the 40th Opening Night in Milwaukee Bucks history.