Sunday, October 21, 2007

Preseason Game #5: Bucks Defeat Timberwolves

The Milwaukee Bucks topped the Minnesota Timberwolves 106-97 to win the 31st annual MACC Fund game on Saturday night.

On cue, after I attempted to anoint Charlie Villanueva the starting power forward, Yi Jianlian delivered easily his best performance since coming to Milwaukee.

As I'll detail below, he had a very good game statistically and all indications are that the numbers aren't lying in this case. We must remember, even though the starters played big minutes last night, that it's still preseason. A lot of young players around the league have put up big numbers in a game here and there this preseason. It is worth getting excited about, just with a little caution. Last night's performance shows that Yi has the potential to be a very capable player on the NBA level. It's safe to say we'll be seeing a lot of Villanueva, Yi, and Dan Gadzuric on the court (probably not at the same time) this season.

Six more stats:
  1. Yi Jianlian scored 15 points on only nine shots from the field in 27 minutes. He also pulled down 12 rebounds and committed just one turnover.
  2. Charlie Villanueva scored eight points on 15 shots from the field in 21 minutes and missed all five of his three-point attempts. However, he grabbed 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive glass.
  3. The Bucks made twice as many free throws (32) as the Timberwolves (16).
  4. The bench (Desmond Mason, Charlie Bell, Dan Gadzuric, Royal Ivey, and Villanueva) shot a combined 7-31 (.226) from the field with four assists and eight turnovers.
  5. Mo Williams scored 20 points, made all three of his three-point attempts, dished out 12 assists, and committed only one turnover.
  6. Desmond Mason shot just 3-10 from the field but got to the free-throw line 12 times, making eight, in 24 minutes.

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