Scout's Take

On the surprising Bucks, who were 8-8 at week's end after being largely dismissed as a playoff contender:

"Over the last two years they've basically given away Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Gary Payton and Glenn Robinson—yet they're still deeper offensively than a lot of teams in the East. Michael Redd is almost an All-Star, a shooting guard who can stretch defenses and doesn't force shots. He and Tim Thomas are running to keep up with rookie point guard T.J. Ford. There's scoring off the bench with Desmond Mason and Toni Kukoc, and they're defending better because coach Terry Porter plays straight man-to-man. That's a big change from the gimmick defenses of George Karl, which allowed a bad defender to claim that it wasn't his fault when he missed a trap or rotation."