• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Bucks don’t want Bogut to push his ailing back: Skiles plans to bring center along slowly

ST. FRANCIS — Andrew Bogut actually likes to push the snowblower around at his suburban home, but the Milwaukee Bucks center won’t be shoveling out his driveway any time soon.

An ailing back has troubled him over the past few weeks, although he was able to play 39 minutes and return to the starting lineup Monday night in the Bucks’ 97-91 victory at Washington.

The 7-foot Bogut spent time soothing his back in the pool Tuesday at the Cousins Center, as the Bucks prepared for the arrival of Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. The two Eastern Conference foes will meet tonight at the Bradley Center in Miami’s only appearance here this season.

“My goal is not to play him heavy minutes right now,” Bucks coach Scott Skiles said of Bogut, who contributed 18 points and 10 rebounds against the Wizards. “On the other hand, we want to win games and play well, too.

”We hope at some point he can put it behind him. We can tell he’s probably not 100%, but he was very effective. We’ll just monitor it and hope it doesn’t get away from us.“

Bogut’s presence in the Bucks’ lineup clearly makes a big difference.

He leads the team with 15 double-doubles, despite missing seven games with injuries, and is averaging 11.8 points and 10.4 rebounds in 31.9 minutes per game. His 57.4% field goal accuracy ranks fourth in the league.

Even more telling is the Bucks’ record when he is not in the lineup: 2-5 this season and 5-22 during his four years with the franchise.

Bogut said he started to experience some spasms late in the game on Monday, but trainer Marc Boff worked on him during the final timeout and enabled him to stay on the court.

”It’s one of those things, we made a run and you don’t want to come out of the game,“ Bogut said of the Bucks’ fourth-quarter comeback. ”You try to get through it. It’s not really a big deal.“

Bogut has pulled down 20 rebounds twice this season, in games against Utah and Indiana, and three times he has grabbed 17 rebounds.

He had 20 points and 14 rebounds while battling San Antonio’s Tim Duncan in a Bucks road victory at the end of December.

But his back pain, which had bothered him earlier in the season, became acute after consecutive nights banging against Duncan and Houston’s 7-6 Yao Ming. He played against Charlotte on Jan. 2 at home, then missed four games before coming off the bench Saturday and playing 28 minutes at Minnesota.

”A big goal of mine was to rebound (better),“ Bogut said in assessing his play thus far. ”I’d like to be more of a scorer sometimes.

“But with guys like Michael Redd and Richard Jefferson, and Luke Ridnour is having a great year shooting the ball, some games I’m going to score 20, some games I’m going to score 10. Rebounding is something I can control.”

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft, Bogut showed faith in the franchise’s future when he signed a five-year, $60 million contract extension with the team in July. It removed a potential headache for the Bucks, who faced Bogut becoming a restricted free agent next summer if an agreement had not been reached.

He is excited about the team’s progress under Skiles. The Bucks are hovering near the .500 mark (19-21) and in playoff contention as they hit the halfway point of the season with Game 41 tonight.

“We’re still a long way from where we need to be,” Bogut said, “but you can see the improvement. Even our fans are saying we’re playing hard now.

”The arrow is definitely going up, no doubt about that. It’s exciting to be part of a team that has been in the dumps that’s coming up. A lot of NBA players these days like to jump ship. If the team (stinks), ’I want to go somewhere else to a winning team.’

“It would be even more humbling to be part of a team that was down and you slowly get better. That would be a dream come true for me, to keep improving every year now and hopefully one year make a championship run.”