When coach George Karl left town last week after the death of his father, the Milwaukee Bucks were reeling in the midst of a five-game losing streak.

When he returned to practice Monday, the Bucks had put together a two-game winning streak under the direction of assistant coach Terry Stotts.

Whether the ship has been righted, though, remains to be seen as Karl faced the fallout from biting comments made by two of his star players during his absence.

"When George left, he left us with a lot of negativity as far as what we were doing on the floor," guard Ray Allen said. "He had ingrained that in our minds.

"George is a very intense coach. When things had gone south . . . losing five in a row, there are a lot of things you're going to try different. Yelling is one.

"In the two games he wasn't there, we didn't think about losing five in a row. Not once did Terry mention a five-game losing streak. We just talked about the game plan."