So, how far are the Milwaukee Bucks from being a championship team? Just about 10 minutes a game . . . the last 10.

They conned a sellout crowd at the Bradley Center, and they may even have deluded themselves for a while Tuesday night, but the Los Angeles Lakers are foolproof.

They're the bar in the National Basketball Association, and the Bucks slipped right under it after creating some excitement 2 minutes into the final quarter. An 11-2 run left them ahead and the customers on their feet, but it also put the defending champions in the proper frame of mind to dispense with pretenders.