By MICHAEL HUNT
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: March 23, 2002
This time last season, the Milwaukee Bucks were 42-25 and in the process of running away with their first Central Division championship in 15 years. They were on the way to finishing the regular season with 10 victories in their last 15 games, beating the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio and Sacramento in preparation for the memorable playoff run to come.

Bucks


Photo/Jeffrey Phelps
Sam Cassell and George Karl haven't been able to get the Bucks out of a deep funk.


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"We were rolling," Bucks coach George Karl said. "We had a lot of confidence. We were in a positive-energy mode."

Yet now, at 36-31, the Bucks are merely treading water in a desperate attempt to remain afloat in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Losers of eight of their last 11 games and four in a row, the Bucks are 27-30 after beginning the season 9-1, a start that seemed to confirm their pre-season status as one of a handful of NBA Finals favorites.

But instead of building on last season's accomplishments, when they pushed Philadelphia to a seventh game in the conference finals, the Bucks have regressed to the point where missing the playoffs entirely is not out of the question.

The confidence, chemistry, high-powered offense and the ability to make defensive stops when it mattered - characteristics which defined the 2000-'01 Bucks and made them one of the franchise's most fascinating and successful teams - is gone. Those qualities have been replaced by frustration, divisiveness, a sputtering offense and a sieve-like defense that has yet to stop anyone in transition.

How did it get to this point, especially for a team that brought back its principal stars, and then added what it believed to be the missing piece to a title chase with the signing of all-star forward Anthony Mason?

Injuries take toll
Two primary causes have emerged as the Bucks, with just 15 regular-season games to play, attempt to regain a measure of their promise for the stretch run.

One is injuries.

For the first time since Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Glenn Robinson and Tim Thomas have formed the team's core, all have been banged up this year. Among them they've missed 37 games. Robinson (bruised tailbone) and Thomas (knee) might not play again today when the Bucks face Orlando, and Allen (knee) and Cassell (toe) are not close to the brilliant forms that carried the Bucks to within a game of the Finals last season.

"I'm not going to blame our faults on injuries," Cassell said. "I'm not that kind of guy. But this is the first time this team has gone through injuries like this.

"Honestly, I need to miss some games. I need to take a week off. I'm really amazed that I make it through the games. I know for a fact I can't do things I normally do on a basketball court."

The other is the change brought about when Mason was introduced to the mix. His low-post game, the element that was supposed to balance the Bucks' perimeter-heavy offense, has not meshed 67 games into the season. The free-wheeling offense that once covered up the Bucks' defensive liabilities can no longer overwhelm anyone, except maybe Chicago.

"It's still hard to say," Mason said. "We still haven't established how we want to put the post game into running and gunning. We haven't learned how to combine that yet. I don't know if it is a mesh yet."

Allen, clearly not the player he once was because of a sore left knee that refuses to heal, was succinct when asked to pinpoint the main difference between this year and last season.

"I don't think it's injuries," the co-captain said. "I think it's the mental approach toward the game. We've been frustrated with each other a lot this year. We can all play the game and we all know what we need to do to win games, but we get so frustrated. Last year if something bad happened, we just came back and tried it another way."

Frustration a factor
But this year, Allen said, the Bucks are more apt to fight over the proper approach.

Long ago, Karl gave in to the Bucks' wild offensive style and almost stopped complaining when Allen, Cassell or Robinson took a questionable shot. After all, that approach nearly got the Bucks to the Finals last year. But he didn't mind Mason's clubhouse critiques, because Karl wanted a veteran to police the locker room.

Like Karl, Mason is a traditionalist who believes in fundamentals over the kind of flash that characterized the Bucks last season. Mason has been outspoken when the Bucks lose while firing away, and sometimes it has created a rift, Allen said.

"Talking it over with Mason, he gets frustrated a lot with us," Allen said. "It's created a negativity in some aspects. We play wild and crazy, and I told Mason at the first of the year, 'You've got to get used to how we play basketball.'

"In order for us to move forward, we can't worry about who takes bad shots and who takes a quick shot and who doesn't pass the ball. We've just got to make sure we're in it together. It's become a disease, because now everybody is playing to who took a bad shot.

"You're going to take bad shots. You're going to turn the ball over. You're going to do all those things. But you've got to play through it. George is going to let us play and let us find our way. As teammates, we've got to let each other play.

"The reason we were successful last year, and it took us two years to figure it out, is I learned to trust Glenn and Sam and let them do what they do. We've got to run and shoot the ball. But with Anthony in the fold now, we've got to figure out how to get him the ball."

Still time to adjust
The Bucks were unquestionably a more fluid offensive team last season with Scott Williams, who was traded to clear financial room for Mason's signing. When opponents were forced to double-team one of the stars, Williams consistently knocked down the open 15-footer. Williams was also an excellent rebounder in the playoffs, while Mason has not come close to matching the numbers he put up last season in Miami.

Allen, though, said signing Mason has not been a mistake. "I definitely think he's added to the team. But I've always told him that after 13 years of his career he has to change to how this team is," Allen said.

Karl says it is also the responsibility of the Bucks to adjust to Mason, who plays a game closer to Karl's preference.

But for all that has gone wrong this year, the Bucks still have a chance to make something of the season.

"I think my team is playing pretty damn good basketball with the hand we've been dealt," Karl said. "We're very close. We're not playing bad basketball. We're just not playing winning basketball. We get into fourth quarters and we kick away leads. We're not finishing games off.

"We have an opportunity to have a great year. If we get a little healthier and a little luckier and a little more confident, we can be very dangerous."

Mason concurs.

"The stage is still set for this to turn into a wonderful thing," he said. "It could be a great story. Start off good. Go down to the bottom. Run off a streak. It's all knotted up, but we're where we need to be. But it will have to be all about sacrificing and doing things the right way."