Box score.
Game flow.
Post recap.
Times recap.
Brew Hoop.
Live blog.
Highest plus/minus: Nick Young (+21).
Lowest plus/minus: Darius Songaila (-11).
The eight-point victory doesn't seem like much, but I think the way this game was won is extremely encouraging.
As has happened more frequently recently, it was the much-maligned bench that was the difference. We know about Nick Young, but it wasn't just him. Andray Blatche dropped 15 and 7 in just 23 minutes, continuing a really strong recent stretch. This wasn't one of Dominic McGuire's best games, but he still grabbed 3 rebounds. As far as the "Young 3" (Pech doesn't count because he didn't play), this was overwhelmingly a positive performance.
But the one guy who will be overlooked tonight is Roger Mason, a guy I've never particularly liked, but has played outstanding recently. When the Wizards pulled away in the fourth, they did so with Mason and Young playing the guard positions. My biggest beef with Mason has always been his poor shot selection, but last night, he was very under control, shooting just four shots and feeding Young in good positions to score. Too often, we've seen the reserve unit struggle running the Princeton, and the result is bad shots, mostly from Young and Mason. This time, the two worked well together, and both had better chances at scoring.
Granted, we're talking about Milwaukee, one of the league's worst defensive teams with one of the league's worst benches, but we're starting to see the end results of Eddie being forced to put his bench in the game during key situations. Once our stars getting healthy, this can only make us more dangerous, provided, of course, that Eddie continues to make use of his bench.