For openers, they very much resembled the Milwaukee Bucks, vintage 2000. And that, even Anthony Mason would agree, was a good thing indeed.

Creating defensive stops only when absolutely necessary and making all seven of their field-goal attempts in overtime Tuesday night, the Bucks followed the familiar script that carried them to the brink of the NBA Finals last year. It was good enough then and it was certainly good enough for a stimulating 119-112 victory against the Utah Jazz in the season opener.

"A Milwaukee Bucks game," said coach George Karl, who has certainly seen enough of these by-the-seat performances to know. "Don't come close to stopping anybody until it's almost too late and then make shots. It's us. It's what we do."

Ray Allen often gets a nervous feeling before tipoff and wonders if he'll score at all. Usually, though, it means he's ready for a big game.

He was Tuesday night, finishing with 32 points, and the Milwaukee Bucks rallied in the fourth quarter then beat the Utah Jazz 119-112 in overtime.

It wasn't just Allen as Glenn Robinson had 28 points and Sam Cassell added 25 for the Bucks, who hit all seven shots from the field in the overtime.

"It was the first game and I just had this fear in my stomach," said Allen, who was 11-of-21 from the field. "I said to myself, 'I wonder if I'm going to make a basket, just any basket.' Well, I made a couple of baskets."

So did his teammates, especially in the extra five minutes.

"We need to make shots, and we do," Milwaukee coach George Karl said. "At the end there, we were just making jumpers."

With Anthony Mason, the Milwaukee Bucks have spent $21 million on the supreme high-risk, high-return investment

Evidence of whether this venture eventually goes bust or pays off in an Eastern Conference championship or better will begin to make itself known Tuesday, when the Bucks, opening against the Utah Jazz, begin one of their most anticipated seasons in franchise history.

Before their pursuit of Mason, the Bucks were already a very good team. They finished one game from the NBA Finals last season on the strength of perhaps the league's finest perimeter offense. Yet they were soft in their artistry. What they didn't have was consistent rebounding, aggressive defense, an inside offensive presence and the kind of fierce edge characteristic of champions.

Those are precisely the skills Mason, 34, has developed during a 13-year career that culminated in his first all-star season last year in Miami, where he averaged almost 16 points and 10 rebounds per game. At least on paper, Mason is the ideal fit for the Bucks, the missing piece to make their title chase whole.

You have to like Amal McCaskill's perseverance.

After leaving Marquette University in 1996, the 6-foot-11 center has practically traveled the world in hope of finding full-time employment in the NBA. Finally, it looks like he may have found a job.

"He's played really well for us,'' said Sam Schuler, the San Antonio Spurs vice president of basketball operations and the man principally responsible for bringing McCaskill to the team. "He looks like he's a legit player. Sometimes it just takes some guys longer to make it here.''

But McCaskill's days of piling up frequent flyer miles may be over. He has impressed everyone in the Spurs' organization with his athleticism, versatility and desire. In six preseason games, McCaskill averaged 7.3 points and 6.2 rebounds in 22.2 minutes.

There is a chance Spurs coach Gregg Popovich might even use McCaskill in his rotation, playing him behind future Hall-of-Fame big men Tim Duncan and David Robinson.

"Amal has really been a pleasant surprise for us,'' Schuler said. "Of course, It's up to him (Popovich), but I think Amal could get some decent minutes this season.''

Are the Milwaukee Bucks capable of taking the next step? Have they improved enough to not only advance to the Eastern Conference finals, like they did last year, but win the Eastern Conference championship, like they didn't do last year?

Could they even win it all? Could they conceivably capture just their second-ever NBA championship, their first and last coming in 1971 with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson leading the way?

Those questions, and others, were posed to several NBA experts. Here are their takes on how the Bucks will fare this season and their predictions on what could go down in the playoffs:

The Milwaukee Bucks placed forward Darvin Ham on the injured list, and waived guard Jason Hart and center Aleksandar Radojevic to reach the 12-man roster limit Monday.

Ham had surgery on his right knee on Oct. 22, and is expected to be sidelined for the first 4-6 weeks of the season. He averaged 3.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in 29 games last season.

Hart, a 2000 second-round draft pick, played in last season's final game after spending 81 games on the injured list. Radojevic was acquired from the Denver Nuggets on Oct. 22, and played in only one preseason game with the Bucks.

Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News Tribune reports: The Sixers, inundated with injuries, went back to the past, trading with the Charlotte Hornets for Derrick Coleman, who wreaked havoc in the City of Brotherly Love for four years before being let go.

And the Bucks completed a trade earlier in the week to free up enough cap space for the free-agent acquisition of Anthony Mason.

Both players have been in bars and behind bars more often than Mickey Rourke's character in "Barfly." And both have a penchant for sending their respective teams over the proverbial edge.

For the Heat front office, the Anthony Mason saga these past few weeks has been a non-issue.

At least that has been the party line.

Too expensive against the luxury tax to work a sign-and-trade deal. Too insulting to offer the free-agent power forward a below-market contract to return. Too many sizable contracts already guaranteed by owner Micky Arison.

But allowing Mason to leave for Milwaukee without compensation is an issue. Mostly, it's an issue for Eddie Jones, for whom the pressure only figures to build.

First, ask these two questions:

Anthony Mason will probably start Tuesday against Utah.

Glenn Robinson may not.

Mason, has practiced just three times with the Bucks and isn't close to being in game shape. But coach George Karl said Sunday that he was leaning toward starting Mason because his bulk and defensive skills should give the Bucks favorable matchups from the outset Tuesday against Karl Malone and Thursday against Denver's Raef LaFrentz.

Robinson, the two-time all-star small forward, sat out a number of practices during training camp and played in just the last of eight exhibition games because of ankle soreness.

"I don't think he's ready to play a 35-minute game," Karl said. "We know he's got to work into that."

Karl raised the possibility that he may start Tim Thomas at small forward and bring Robinson off the bench for perhaps the first five or six games of the season. That would represent a significant departure for Robinson, who has started 495 of the 502 games he has played in seven seasons for the Bucks.

In Karl's mind, the Bucks have made strides, especially during last season's playoff run.

"The one thing I'd really like to say about my basketball tam is that last year we kind of portrayed our team as an offensive team that didn't play defense,'' Karl said. "I think deep down inside, at the end of last season, we became a pretty good defensive team and we never said that.

"Still our great improvement can be at the defensive end of the floor, and we are doing that and doing that well.''

If the Bucks' defense does improve, even marginally, they'll be extremely difficult to beat this season. After all, their explosive offense is about as good as it gets in the NBA.