one, two, three in a row! for our milwaukee bucks!

Huge, huge, huge win last night at the Bradley Center by the Bucks over a damned good Jazz team. Bucks led 50-38 at the half, and after Redd hit the team's only three pointer of the night midway through the 3rd, they led 61-42.

Then, the collapse was on. A 22-8 Jazz run cut the lead to 5 entering the 4th quarter, and a 10-3 Jazz run tied the game at 77. Milwaukee finally pulled away thanks to some clutch play by Michael Redd, and two huge free throws by Ramon Sessions. Bucks 94, Jazz 86.

Most importantly, last night's win got the Bucks to 14-16. Which, if the playoffs started today ... is good enough to qualify for said playoffs.

John Hollinger's playoff odds at espn.com (my favorite thing on their site) sets the Bucks odds of making it in at 84%. It projects us as the 5 seed in the East, at 44-38.

(the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds)

If you're a Bucks fan, you have to be feeling good heading into the New Year. Noone had a tougher start to the season schedule wise (18 of 28 on the road -- no other team opened worse than 13 home /15 road on the split). The Bucks not only did enough to stay alive, they did enough to position themselves to now begin a run to the middle of the Eastern pack.

Consider the next ten games on the schedule:

Sat Dec 27: vs Pistons
Tues Dec 30: at Spurs
Wed Dec 31: at Rockets
Fri Jan 2: vs Bobcats
Sat Jan 3: at Bobcats
Mon Jan 5: vs Raptors
Wed Jan 7: vs 76ers
Fri Jan 9: vs Nets
Sat Jan 10: at Timberwolves
Mon Jan 12: at Wizards

There's no reason the Bucks can't go 6-4 in that stretch and get back to .500. (I actually think 8-2 is not an unrealistic goal, especially if we hold serve at home Saturday night against the Pistons).

And it gets better after that stretch of games, as the rest of January sees only two games the Bucks figure to struggle in (at Hawks, at Blazers) ... and the Bucks only play 4 road games in February. In fact, from February 4th to February 22nd, a span of 18 days, the Bucks leave Milwaukee once -- a quick flight to Detroit to face the Pistons on the 17th.

No matter how you look at it, there's one conclusion you have to reach.

These guys are Ready to Rise!

Party on Saturday night ...