Sixers 100, Bucks 92: Operation Dinner Out

"Listen to this, because this is important. If you'd pulled a stunt there and got nabbed, I wouldn't come after you. You go off the reservation, I will not come after you."

Damien Wilkins took seven shots in the first quarter. No word on who appointed him Kobe Bryant for the evening.

***

"You didn't get to be a marksman putting food on your mama's table."
"No, we have a Safeway back home."
"Where did you learn to shoot?"
"Boy Scouts, sir."

Thaddeus Young also took seven shots in the first quarter, but he made six of them. Thad finished with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting and seven rebounds.

***

"When I was a kid I used to spend summers on my uncle's farm. And he had this plow horse he used to work with everyday. He really loved that plow horse. One summer she came up lame. It could barely stand. The vet offered to put her down. You know what my uncle said?"
"No, Muir, what did he say?"
"He said, why would I ask somebody else to kill a horse that belonged to me?"

Jim Boylan certainly should have euthanized his guards. Brandon Jennings went 0-for-3 from the floor in only 17 minutes, and while plus/minus is far from a perfect stat, -25 in 17 minutes is really not the kind of performance you're looking for.

Meanwhile, J.J. Reddick, for someone whose only job is to shoot jumpers, did a really poor job of that, littering the area around the bucket with 2-of-12 from the field, including 1-of-6 from three-point range.

***

"When did Noah build the Ark, Gladys? Before the rain."

No particular reason for this. I just really like that line.

***

"The Scotch is older than she is."
"Am I supposed to feel bad about that?"

Arnett Moultrie continues to be to Sixers players what "When I Go Out" by Five Iron Frenzy is to music--he only shows up for a couple seconds, but he goes berzerk on a trombone, then disappears. Six minutes, 2-of-3 shooting, three rebounds, a couple nice basket crashes.

***

"Happy?"
"Seventy-four casualties, an apartment block leveled, one dead terrorist? Yeah, happy."
"We have some fucked up barometer for success, don't we?"

Even though the Sixers led by as many as 18 in the first half, the Bucks came back and actually led for about five minutes in the late third and early fourth quarters. But the Sixers held the Bucks to only 14 points in the final 12 minutes, and zero points in the final 4:18. I'm feeling optimistic today, so I'm going to go ahead and say it was good defense rather than just pisspoor shooting on Milwaukee's part, but we all know that's probably not true.

***

"My god, you're hideous! Why do you even bother?"

Spencer Hawes collected a career-high 17 rebounds, but my man, the terrifying-looking Ersan Ilyasova, who is The Greatest Basketball Player in the World, one-upped Hawes. Ilyasova, despite shooting only 5-of-17 and committing four turnovers in 35 minutes, pulled down 18 boards. His six offensive rebounds would have been second on the team on their own.

But it was a rebound-rich environment. The Bucks shot about 35 percent for most of the first half, before a third-quarter hot streak pulled them up to 41.6 for the game. Monta Ellis, strange as it may sound, had the best shooting night of any Milwaukee player, going 12-for-21 from the floor.

The Sixers, for their part, shot a redoubtable 47.2 percent from the floor, a number that carries with it two interesting sub-points: an 8-for-16 team shooting effort from three-point range and 60 points in the paint. Now, a couple of those points were floaters from out near the foul line, but good shots lead to good shooting numbers. That probably warrants its own section, but I can't relate that back to: "And if you're not willing to sacrifice scum like Schmidt for those that want nothing more than their freedom, then you better take a long hard look at your chosen profession my friend. Because it doesn't get any easier."

Thanks for taking in the biggest NBA game of the night with us. We'll see you Friday against Cleveland. Here are Derek's post-game videos to tide you over.