Even after five games, Milwaukee coach George Karl says the Bucks still have a training-camp feel about them.

Maybe, then, it's not such a bad thing that the Bucks are in the midst of an uncommon lull.

A 98-82 loss to Minnesota Saturday night was the second of four games the Bucks will play in a 17-day period. It is rare for a professional basketball team to have that much practice time between games, and Karl said he thought the 4-1 Bucks would need every moment of it.

Off until they visit Michael Jordan and the Washington Wizards Wednesday night, the Bucks won't play after that until Saturday against Utah and the following Wednesday against Chicago. That's a lot of time to make up for a training camp that wasn't really a training camp.

Not only were a number of key players unavailable with nagging pain, Karl spent a lot of camp haggling with management about signing Anthony Mason, who did not join the team until five days before the regular-season opener.

"Our training camp pissed me off a lot," Karl said. "Everybody was hurt. Nobody was playing. I was arguing with Sen. Kohl more than I was doing anything (in) trying to get Mason. But 'Mase' is pretty good. He fits very well with these guys and they get along very well.

"But I'm still seeing us playing a lot of exhibition basketball. Fortunately, a lot of other teams are doing the same thing."