I've spent much of the evening working on tomorrow's post and updating some other site-related items, so I'll keep this recap brief: we won, 103-86; we kicked ass for the first three quarters of the game; the Bucks had no answer for Dwight Howard, who went for 25 points and 11 boards without breaking a sweat; and J.J. Redick made the most of his 3 garbage minutes with 6 points on 3-of-3 shooting. Note that J.J.'s strong showing tonight comes just one game after shooting 0-of-5 in significant minutes against the Spurs on Tuesday. J.J. Redick's NBA career: Where making shots when it counts doesn't happen.
Notes:
- Keyon Dooling left the game in the second half after landing awkwardly on a defender's foot. He left the court under his own power, but appeared to injure his ankle. Hopefully, it's nothing serious.
- The victory is our 24th on the road this season -- behind only Boston and the L.A. Lakers -- which sets a franchise record.
- By my count, the Bucks missed their first 14 shots of the fourth quarter, yet they still outscored us in the period, 23-16. Ouch.
- Only Royal Ivey and Ramon Sessions, the Bucks' infrequently-used, third-string backcourt, seemed to play with any fire for Milwaukee tonight. Sure, Mo Williams had 18 points and 5 assists, but he was just chucking the ball. It seemed as though most of his shots were ill-advised "heat checks" that just happened to go in.
- Magic coach Stan Van Gundy left Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu in the game deep into the fourth quarter, despite a comfortable 20-plus-point lead. Ordinarily, I'd have a problem with that, but not tonight. Rashard and Hedo shot poorly and I assume Stan left them in there to see if they could get in some sort of rhythm before having three days off.
- The Bucks hauled in a staggering 25 offensive rebounds, or 41 percent of their misses, despite playing without Andrew Bogut, their starting center. Incidentally, Bogut's imaginary friends might have been able to play better defense tonight than the Bucks did.
- Michael Ruffin, who started at center for Milwaukee tonight, is a career 40.7% field goal shooter. That's atrocious, especially for a guy who literally is never more than 3 feet from the basket on offense.
- Speaking of centers who can't shoot, Adonal Foyle took an eighteen-footer from the baseline tonight. It drew iron, which was a pleasant surprise.
- Dwight took a few jumpers tonight, and made one of them. Nice.
Weekend open thread tomorrow. Enjoy.