That used to be the formula to beating the Heat in the first month of the season.
Big man hitting the boards like Andrew Bogut, some random player exploding for an unexpected big game, like Chris Douglas-Roberts, a small guard like Earl Boykins collapsing the defense and a defensive effort to frustrate Dwyane Wade and force LeBron James into jumpers.
Well, the Bucks did that, and it almost worked. Almost being the key word, of course.
Somehow the Heat pulled out the win, but it's hard to say the Heat is regressing at all. It's just everything about the Bucks is just awkward.
From the ambidextrous strangeness of Bogut's game, to the Ersan Ilyasova playing a non-traditional power forward position, to John Salmon's slightly unusual game, to CDR's old-man game. But what makes the Bucks most difficult to play is they take after their gritty coach Scott Skiles. It's almost as if they approached this game saying "the refs can't call them all, so just keep pecking away." And you could see it was clearly affecting Wade and LeBron.
Good thing Chris Bosh recovered from his foul-plagued start to really make an imprint late in the game, on both ends of the floor. Had someone email me saying Bosh's defense at the PF spot is as bad as it comes in the league, comparing him to Amare Stoudemire in that respect. I couldn't disagree more. He's not physical, necessarily, but he plays solid defense and uses his length very well. He obviously was very effective defensively late against the Bucks.
In the end, that's pretty much a stolen game, though. The Bucks got more rebounds, more fast break points, more points in the paint, shot a better percentage (the Heat shot 39.3!). The key was the Heat got up eight more shot attempts and eight more free throws because they forced Milwaukee into 23 turnovers.
Safe to say you'll see a rebound game from the Heat against Portland, a team that doesn't play much like Milwaukee.
Not sure what the deal was with Spo closing the game with Carlos Arroyo. Not that he was playing especially poorly, or that Mario Chalmers was playing very well, but it was just an odd switch in approach.
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