The wheels have well and truly fallen off the Milwaukee Bucks wagon... again.

After the big trade in February which saw Gary Payton become a Buck who is to blame for Milwaukee's current woes?  Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News looks at last night's game against the New York Knicks - in which Knick Allan Houston went off for 50 - and scratches his head.

Payton is one of the NBA's most feared defenders, so when he was acquired it was believed that his presence would prevent outbursts such as the one that occured by Houston last night.  Instead of stopping the guy with the hot hand Payton was left to defend the likes of Shandon Anderson, Howard Eisley and Charlie Ward in a key game against the Knicks.

During the fourth quarter, when Houston scored 19, Payton was on him only once. By then, the Knicks were up 11, with less than 2:00 to play.

"I was a little surprised," Houston said.

Since Payton arrived the team has gone 5-8 and has been lit up on numerous occasions.  Tracy McGrady went for 48 against these Bucks, Stephon Marbury scoring 41, Antawn Jamison 40 and Kevin Garnett hitting for 34. Now we can add Houston for 50.  Add in the fact that Milwaukee has also been torched by San Antonio's Malik Rose (career-high 34) and Indiana's Brad Miller (29), neither of whom can normally locate the basket, and Milwaukee we have a problem.

So the question still remains why didn't Payton have his chance at guarding Houston?

"That's coach's decision," Payton said. "I don't know what was up. I just played who coach told me to play."

"You don't do that," Payton added when asked why he didn't demand that he guard Houston. "That's selfishness, to me. That's real selfish. To go over there and to say, 'I'll stop him,' that's showing up your teammates. You don't do that."

"You can't ask the man to guard the world," said Cassell. "Desmond Mason is a good defender. So is Tim Thomas. Allan just had it going. He made shots from all directions."

But he never had to make them over Gary Payton.

"I don't look at it that way," Karl said. "It's a team thing. It's not one individual."