Live Diary: Bucks vs. Sonics from Seattle

9:08: They just announced that Bobby Simmons is not with the team. He left on some mysterious "excused absence." They ought to just be straightforward with the reasons if possible. Otherwise it leads idiots like me to idle speculation.

9:11: I hadn't thought of it, but this could be the Bucks last trip to the Emerald City. If it is, the premier matchup between the Bucks and the Sonics will forever be the phenomenal 1980 Western Conference Semi-Finals, when the "Brash Young Bucks" as SI called them, featuring Lanier, the fantastic Marques Johnson, and a rookie named Sidney Moncrief took the defending World Champion Sonics, featuring Dennis Johnson, Gus Williams, Lonnie Shelton, and a certain young permed center named Sikma to the brink of elimination in a thrilling seven game series. Those were the days.

9:13: Btw, the elimination game in that series was also the Bucks last game as a member of the NBA's Western Conference.

9:17: They moved to the Eastern Conference the next year, and promptly won 60 games, but were eliminated by Dr. J and the Philadelphia Sixers.

9:20: The matchups I will be looking at will be Yi against Jeff Green, and Redd against Durant. Redd should be able to eat Durant alive. If he ends up checking Durant, he has to get physical with him. Redd has to use all that weight training that he was bragging about doing at a downtown Milwaukee athletic club in ESPN the Magazine.

9:22: I just listened to an interview with Yi. It brings to mind the interview earlier tonight on ESPN with Andres Nocioni. I've never heard a guy who's voice was so dramatically mismatched with his face. Nocioni looks like this tough guy redneck who would check you at the Y and then would want to fight in the parking lot afterward. Then you hear him talk and he sounds like a bad imitation of zorro or something. When Ric Bucher asked him about his trash talking and getting in opponent's faces, he replied, "It eeesss my way... no?" Sort of Pepe le Pewish.

9:25: I hate these West coast games. I don't promise I'll be staying with it all night, but I'll give it an effort.

9:25: Here's some pregame nonsense. Have you ever seen this insane show called "Man and Wild"? Its with this British guy who puts himself in these ridiculously implausible survival situations and then just does the most disgusting things to survive. I was watching that about an hour ago. On one episode I saw the guy actually gut a camel to get water. I'm serious! Then on another episode he stole some eggs from an eagle's nest for protein. Real eggs! I've never seen a show so ripe for parody.

9:30: Come on, let's tip! I'm getting impatient.

9:31: Paschke is waxing nostalgic about whether this will be the Bucks last visit to Seattle. That could be our drinking game for tonight... if he mentions it at least once more -- its on!

9:33: I heard an interview with George Karl earlier. He said when he gives pregame talks he tries to bring a "kind of energy... a leader energy". A "leader energy", George? What the fuck does that even mean? I love Karl's nonsense psuedo management cliche vocabulary. I used to listen to his Bucks pregame show just to pick up on his phrases. I think he used to also love that awful, nonsense business phrase "proactive". But "energy", any kind of "energy", is by far his favorite buzz word.

9:38: Btw, I just looked it up... in that 1980 series the Bucks had a 3-2 advantage coming back to Seattle and lost two close games. Ouch, those sting for a long time. Coach K just said the team went through some "energy" drills! He's speaking coach blather now too. Oh-oh, he just questioned the team's effort. But why not? They dogged the fuck out of that Golden State game. That was obvious to anyone.

9:40: Paschke just mentioned "could be our last trip to Seattle" again! From now on when he does it we drink. Which reminds me, I need a fridge run for a PBR before we tip here, boys and girls.

9:42: Aaaah, mucho better. The PBR... aka Milwaukee champagne is flowing... and we tip. Redd just went at the hoop and got the quick foul. God he's playing good. 3 point play.

9:45: Durant is checking Mason. Is he a SF or not? It makes a difference, because if he's checking SF's, then he's an SF, and if he's an SF, then his numbers are even more below average than I had originally calculated. More on that later.

9:47: Redd just set Bogut up for the stuff. Nicely done.

9:48: Durant just launched his first piss poor shot of the night. The Bucks aren't playing real "high energy" defense at this moment. 7-7.

9:50: Yi's gotta be stronger against Wilcox! He's just let him take 3 boards away from him. Seattle leads 9-7. Durant has missed 3 shots and made none.

9:52: Yi can't handle Wilcox. Coach K has to think about getting Voskuhl in for him, or perhaps Villanueva.

9:55: Nice rejection by Bogut, but we trail 11-9. I think Bogut has 4 of the points though.

9:55: Bogut's got it rolling. The Bucks tie it at 11. The Cowboy missed an easy bunny though. Wilcox just got a jam. Yi can't handle him physically! But he just hit a two on the other end. No D by the Bucks though on this end. Its now Seattle 15-13.

9:56: Timeout. The Bucks trail 17-13 and are playing very loose defense. Very loose.

9:56: Where the hell is the defense. Wilcox is eating us alive. The Sonics lead by 5, 20-15. And Wilcox just scored again. Its 22-15.

9:58: Wow, Bogut looks good. He just scored again. He's gonna have a huge game. Its Seattle 22-17.

10:00: Wilcox just got a totally uncontested dunk for his 10th point. The Bucks are not even making it hard for him. Its 24-17 Seattle and the Bucks defense looks terrible. Basically no one is playing defense at all and Wilcox is killing us.

10:00: Wilcox has 10 and 6 already. And it hasn't really been hard either. The Bucks have given up a bunch of uncontesteds.

10:02: Seattle 29, Milwaukee 21. So far our only good defense is to let Kevin Durant shoot and miss. Otherwise the Supersonics are killing us. This is one of the worst offensive teams in the Association.

10:05: End of 1st Quarter: Seattle 31, Bucks 24.
The only guys playing are Bogut and Redd. What a pitiful defensive showing for the Bucks. Seattle is an offensive team that is amongst the worst in the NBA, and they are on track to score 124 against the Bucks. And a lot of the shots have been uncontested. Disgusting so far Green and Red fans. That was a quick first quarter though... on the good side.

10:15: Bucks fans, Coach K is employing the look I feel he must begin to go with. He's got Villanueva in at the 3 and Yi at the 4. Its the triple tower lineup, if you remember one of my posts from a couple of days ago. And the defense has really tightened up. Perhaps the Simmons missing the game situation will prove to be a blessing because it will force Coach K to discover that Yi or Villinueva are workable options at the 3. I think the Bucks are much better that way. They've cut the lead to 35-32 with this lineup.

10:19: Now Coach K has sort of gone the opposite way. To the old Terry Stotts "3 guard lineup". Not much scoring this quarter. Really sloppy play. We are five minutes into the quarter and its still 35-32. The Sonics have only 4 points in the quarter.

10:20: Terrific pass by Bogut to a cutting Desmond Mason for a running one hander. Bogut's playing a terrific game. Hang on and at this time out I'll figure out his "position adjusted Win Score". Bucks are down 37-34.

10:22: Bogut is a +3.5. Pretty good start. What is the big mystery with Simmons? Why don't they just reveal it? Its starting to annoy me.

10:25: Bogut's playing Wilcox now and he played him well off the drive, doing the old "Bogut flop" and getting a .... wow, Bogut just caught an alley oop from the Cowboy and threw it down!! Within 3.

10:27: Jeez is Bogut looking good in every aspect. Why can't his teammates match his level of play? Well, everyone but Redd.

10:27: Bucks just cut it to two. Keep shooting Durant!

10:28: Alright, I'm going to pause for a bit, and I will intermittently post as thoughts come up. My impressions so far: The D was weak early, but good since Quarter 2... Bogut looks great, and Redd is Redd... Villanueva has been pretty good... Durant is a shooter and nothing else... and we need to win this sucker. Bucks down 4. I'll post again at the half.