Coming into this game against the Golden State Warriors, the Milwaukee Bucks were riding a 2 game win streak and one in which their defense and their offense has stepped up to bring the team to a 4-5 record.  The Offense has scored over 100 points in both those victories over the Knicks and the Hawks.  The defense has also been able to choke the life out of both those offenses, something Scott Skiles has been excited about.

As with the previous 3 of 4 victories the Bucks got out to a fast start maintaining anywhere from a 8-12 lead through our the 1^st quarter, with a strong rebounding and defense being the key.  Andrew had 10 rebounds early in the 2^nd quarter already with lot’s of hustle on the offensive boards.

Another key stat was the early shooting of the 3point shot by the bucks 4-6 for a 66.7% otherwise they were at 33.2% shooting in the 1^st half, but on the other side Golden State was only shooting 27.8% to get out to a 13 point lead.

As we looked at the 1^st half it was the little things that made the difference, the hustle plays as we call them, hitting the boards, making the tough steal, getting on the floor.

The defensive pressure applied in the 2^nd half stayed just as strong as the lead ballooned to over 18 points back and forth, allowing for the lead to get so large that the Warriors put former Buck Charlie Bell in the game.  Until the bench failed to keep the momentum going and the lead fell to 3 with less than a minute to play but Gooden was able to pull down a key offensive rebound dish to Salmons and get the lead up to 77-72 with an eventual 79-72 home victory.

The Bucks problem was that they were getting shots off very early on the shot clock, when they were playing their best they were mid way through the 24 second clock in the 12-8 seconds left not with 19 left.  They needed to set up their offense.  When you play a team like Golden state the more time you take away from them the better your scoring opportunities will be.

As a note Andrew Bogut passed both Vin Baker and Jack Sickma to become the 7^th all-time leader in rebounds for the Bucks.

Milwaukee’s next game will be Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. against the defending world champion Las Angeles Lakers.