I can stomach one sluggish effort at home against an inferior opponent, but not two. The Bucks are not a bad team, but they are missing two starters in Michael Redd and Charlie Villanueva. The Nuggets have had nice success against the Bucks at home having won five of the last six games. History also tells us that it will not be a particularly close contest as the last four games in Denver, of which Milwaukee won one, have been decided by an average of 16 points.
There are two things that frighten me about the Bucks. One is Bogut getting Nene in foul trouble early. Nene is the only player on the roster who can guard Bogut. If his playing time is limited the Nuggets will have to double Bogut every time he touches the ball. The good news is without Redd the Bucks may struggle to take advantage of the double, but anytime your defense is forced into doubling it is exposing a weakness somewhere.
The second thing that frightens me about the Bucks is Ramon Sessions. He is a quick athletic point guard with good size who can give defenses fits. He is crafty and is good at setting up his teammates. Fortunately Scott Skiles has been playing him behind Ridnour and I doubt that Sessions gets promoted into the starting lineup tonight. Just remember, the less he plays the better it is for the Nuggets.
The Nuggets need a win to keep pace with the Jazz who ran away from the Suns last night in the last five minutes of the game and hopefully we see a more well rested and energized Nugget team than we did on Sunday against the Timberwolves.
I am still unsure if I will be allowed to bring my laptop to the game, if I can I will try to live blog it, but I am going early for some tech presentation on document imaging so hopefully I can sneak it in.
For some thoughts on the game from the Bucks point of view check out Brew Hoop.
