The Mavericks might be the hottest team in the NBA, but the Bucks might be the scariest -- especially for the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. Since dealing for scorer John Salmons at the deadline, Milwaukee has won 10 of its 11 games, with the last two coming against the Cavaliers and the Celtics.
With their recent surge, the Bucks find themselves in the top 10 this week. As for everyone else? Read on to see where your favorites landed in this edition of our rankings.
The Celtics, reeling, visit Milwaukee tonight for the first time this season. The teams met up in Boston back in December, when the Celtics were running the planet (with a 17-4 record) and the Bucks were still trying to come to terms with what they'd drafted, the superlative point guard Brandon Jennings, who had already dropped a 55-point game and won November's Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month award (over notable rivals Jonas Jerebko and ... um ... yeah, not too many great rookies in the East).
My, how the seasons change. Boston now attempts to get a handle on what it's become, battling the Hawks (a team which has swept the Celtics 4-0) for third place in the conference. The C's had gone 11-13 since early January before putting together four straight wins to start March. Those four straight, you ask? The lottery-bound Pistons, the playoff hopeful Bobcats, the lottery-bound 76ers, the lottery-bound Wizards. Not exactly feats of strength, those games.
The Bucks know plenty about fattening up on cupcakes, and that's not a Kelvin Sampson joke, not remotely. Milwaukee, you may have heard, has been on some sort of brilliant tear, winners of nine of 10, 15 of 19. The team has lost once, just once, since nabbing John Salmons at the trade deadline, to the Hawks in Atlanta 10 days ago. But the overall schedule has been a touch suspect. The only notable wins in the 15-4 stretch came against Miami (twice, both in south Florida, what on Earth happened to the South Beach Flu?!), against the Hornets at the Bradley Center, and against the Cavaliers, Saturday, in Milwaukee, in a game in which LeBron James did not play. This is to take nothing away from the Bucks, just to provide context.
Guard Michael Finley, who turns 37 Saturday, will sign with them for the prorated veteran's minimum after having his contract bought out Monday by San Antonio. His agent, Henry Thomas, said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon his client is "excited'' about joining Boston.
"It's an opportunity for him to be in the rotation,'' Thomas said. "I think he'll get minutes. (The Celtics) have a need for a perimeter player who has his savvy. He's a veteran, and he still has the ability.''
Finley barely played this season for the Spurs. He asked for and was given a buyout in hopes of signing with a contender for the stretch run.
"It was really the first time in his 15-year career he was in that position,'' Thomas said of Finley getting into just 25 games while averaging 3.7 points for the Spurs. "But he understood the situation. ... Boston was at the top of the list. It's somewhere he can seriously contend for a ring.''
Other contenders, such as the Lakers and Denver, called. But the Celtics were said by Thomas to have shown by far the most interest.
Thomas didn't rule out Finley looking to play at least one more NBA season. He said Finley will evaluate how he feels after the season.
Finley, a two-time All-Star who has a career scoring average of 15.9 and won a title with the Spurs in 2007, will be the oldest player on Boston's roster, but it won't be by a lot. The Celtics have Rasheed Wallace, 35, Ray Allen, 34, and Kevin Garnett, 33.
The Celtics have a history of attempting to use trash talk to intimidate their opponents. Most of the time, the other team will ignore it, but occasionally, someone feels that a line was crossed. Stephen Jackson is of the opinion that the latter took place during his team's loss to Boston on Wednesday.
"It turned disrespectful when certain things were said," Jackson said. "You can be emotional in the game and you talk to your teammates and do all that but when you get personal and direct certain things to people as far as their manhood, that's when the problems come up. And I guarantee you that if I wasn't in this gym, that wouldn't have been said to me."
For what it's worth, Jackson didn't seem all that angry while issuing these remarks; you can listen to the whole thing here. But what's interesting is that as Jackson delivered that last part (which comes across as slightly threatening), his team's PR person cut him off to make sure he wouldn't continue down that road.
Jackson didn't name names in his complaint, but it seems that Paul Pierce was the one he was referring to, based on the Celtics All-Star's post-game comments.
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