Bucks hope damage control will hold fort until troops return News Milwaukee Bucks

St. Francis - Milwaukee Bucks point guard Luke Ridnour cut right to the chase when asked about the team's ever-deteriorating injury situation.

"This is ridiculous," Ridnour said after the team's practice Friday. "It's disappointing but we've still got to keep fighting. You never know what can happen. We're still in the eight spot (for the playoffs) and we have to keep looking at that."

Ridnour, who suffered a fractured right thumb Thursday in practice, is the latest addition to the Bucks' growing injury report. Guard Michael Redd is out for the season with a knee injury. Center Andrew Bogut is lost until at least April with a stress fracture in his back. Ridnour is expected to miss about four weeks.

Redd is the team's leading scorer. He, Ridnour and Bogut are three of the six players on the team who are scoring in double figures. Bogut is the team's leading rebounder and Ridnour is the team leader in assists.

The Bucks will go into their game tonight against Detroit with 11 players on their roster. But one, Keith Bogans, was obtained in a trade with Orlando on Thursday. Another, Damon Jones, has played a total of just 20 minutes this season.

"It's a blow for sure," coach Scott Skiles said about Ridnour's injury. "All of it is. But it's the way that it is. We've got to come in every day and try and get better just like we would if the guys were healthy and hold down the fort until guys get back. Do the best we can."

Ridnour, averaging 10.7 points and 5.7 assists in 31.1 minutes per game, said his thumb was yanked back when it was caught in someone else's jersey in practice.

"It obviously hurt," he said. "I knew right away something wasn't right. It's really frustrating. It's disappointing, too, with our luck. . . . We've lost a couple guys for the year and at least I'm not out for the year but still just to get hurt anytime is not good."

The silver lining is that Ridnour's injury occurred in February, when the team has its lightest schedule of the season. The Bucks will play only 11 games this month, with 10 still remaining. With the all-star break coming up next weekend, the team will go through a five-day stretch with no games.

By comparison, the Bucks played 17 games in November and 18 in January.

"You looked at the situation where Ridnour is probably going to be out for a month, which is good considering it's a thumb injury," forward Richard Jefferson said. "If you look at this month, we only play 10 more games and there's the all-star break, which is another week of time.

"There's no ligament damage and he's a person that typically tries to get back as quickly as possible. So you're basically looking at not having Ridnour for the next 10 games. That's pretty positive considering it's a broken thumb. So, the season's not over. We're not mailing it in. It's none of that. It's just the next 10 games, try to play .500 Basketball or better, which has always been our goal and I believe we can do that."

Said Ridnour, "The good thing is - I guess there is really no good thing - but if there's any month to get hurt, there's not as many games this month."

Ramon Sessions will take over the point guard duties. Charlie Bell is a likely candidate to start at shooting guard although if Bell does start, all of the team's remaining top scorers would be starting. That's why Skiles might elect to start Luc Richard Mbah a Moute at shooting guard and bring Bell off the bench, or start Malik Allen at power forward and bring the high-scoring Charlie Villanueva off the bench.

"We'll try to balance it," said Skiles, who declined to name his starters for tonight. "We just can't totally deplete our bench. We've got to make sure we've got something coming off the bench as well. We'll balance it as best we can. We may change lineups depending on the game. We'll see how it goes."

PREVIEW

Bucks vs. Pistons

When: 7:30 tonight

Where: Bradley Center

TV: None.

Radio: AM-620.