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Failure to pass has Bucks falling back

A pretty simple and consistent formula has meant occasional success for the Milwaukee Bucks this season and it was evident again on their recently concluded four-game eastern trip.

When they pass the ball, play unselfishly and accumulate some assists, they put themselves in a position to have a chance to win games. Lack of ball movement usually translates into a lack of victories.

The Bucks (32-43), who take on the Los Angeles Lakers tonight at the Bradley Center, went 1-3 on the trip, with the lone victory coming Monday night in New Jersey when they passed for 27 assists and shot 48.1 percent against the Nets.

In the three losses on the trip, they had 16 assists against Miami, 15 against Orlando and 23 against Toronto. The Bucks had 17 assists through the first three quarters against the Raptors as they fell behind by 23 points.

The 27 assists against New Jersey were the Bucks’ most in a game all month—they went 3-10 in March—and gave Milwaukee its highest single-game total since it handed out 30 in a home victory over Washington on Feb. 28.

Maybe it helped that veteran forward Richard Jefferson had a conversation with point guard Ramon Sessions about the need to assert himself.

“I spoke with Ramon before the game, telling him he should be more aggressive,” Jefferson said. “Not just that game, but in general, the season. Come out aggressive. For him to be aggressive it would be good for our team. He came out aggressive, pushing the ball and shooting the ball, and I think that opened it up for everyone else.”

Said coach Scott Skiles, “We played very hard and played together and most all the time when we do that, we play well.”

The Bucks, realizing that the Nets had a late night after their game Sunday in Minnesota because lightning storms prevented flights from landing in New Jersey, were as aggressive as they had been in a long time, roaring out to a 32-13 lead in the first quarter.

The Bucks had nine assists—four by Sessions—on their 11 first-quarter baskets. Jefferson scored 10 points in the first quarter, Charlie Villanueva had eight and Sessions scored six. The Bucks had assists on all five of their baskets during a stunning 18-0 run that closed the first quarter.

The Bucks kept the ball moving in the second quarter also, passing for eight assists on their 10 baskets, and found themselves ahead by 23 at halftime as the Nets were serenaded with boos from the locals.

“We were moving the ball pretty well,” guard Charlie Bell said. “If we move the ball instead of holding it and playing one-on-one, we’re pretty good.”

Said Jefferson, “Everyone contributed. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a game going where everybody was hitting on all cylinders.”

The game at New Jersey put the lid on a forgettable month of March, when the Bucks saw their playoff hopes fade to the point where they now exist in a mathematical sense only. Five of their seven remaining games are at home, beginning with the Lakers, and the Bucks would like to finish the season in a respectable manner.

“We’re going to keep fighting to the end,” Bell said. “You never know what’s going to happen. We could get hot and win out and something could happen and we could make it to the playoffs. We’re just going to go out there and give it our best shot. We don’t want to look back and say we didn’t play hard and if something happened where another team loses while we kind of give up, it would be, like, ’We could have made it if we would have really tried.’ ”