Eager to spend time in town Bucks schedule lightens up News Milwaukee Bucks

This is a crucial week for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Whether it's having the opportunity to play consecutive games at home for the first time this season or returning some injured players to health or getting a fresh start and putting a nightmarish November behind them, this is a big week for the Bucks.

Most important, though, is a schedule that finally allows them to gather for some needed practice at the Cousins Center.

"We need some practice time right now," coach Scott Skiles said. "There's no question about that."

Because the Bucks were the busiest and most well-traveled team in the league in November, there was little time to practice. And with a number of areas of their game in need of attention right away, having today and Tuesday available to practice is a godsend to the team. The Bucks were able to gather in a gym on an off day last week in Atlanta, but Skiles hesitated to call it a practice.

"One of our issues right now is from a depth standpoint," Skiles said. "Even when you're practicing, you can't go out there and do everything because if you have another guy go down, then we're in even worse shape. So even though we had a practice, it wasn't really the type of practice that we need right now. So now we've got this week; we've got time to practice. We've also got a couple games and we can work on some things that we need to work on."

The Bucks took Sunday off so today they will be able to see how Michael Redd responded to playing 35 minutes Saturday night against Cleveland in his first game back from an ankle injury. And, how Charlie Villanueva and his bothersome left hamstring are doing after playing 16 minutes against Cleveland. Center Andrew Bogut's bruised left knee will be re-evaluated and the team will have a better idea of his future.

Richard Jefferson and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute were left as the only Bucks to have played in every game this season after Charlie Bell did not play for the first time Saturday, by coaches' decision.

The way Skiles looks at it, injuries are a way of life in the National Basketball Association.

"This happens," he said. "I don't know why it happens. Sometimes it just does. A lot of times, it's not one, but it comes in twos and threes. That's just the way it is. Generally, every team gets hit at some point, not always to key players, but at some point during the season, a team gets hit. So hopefully for us, the last three months of the season we won't have any. Maybe it'll even out. Somehow we can hang in and when the schedule becomes more conducive to maybe us being consistent, maybe we'll all be healthy at the same time."

The Bucks played a franchise-high 17 games in November, and they lead the league in road games (12) and most games overall (19). They are the only team that has yet to play consecutive home games and when they finally do play Chicago on Wednesday at the Bradley Center, it will complete the longest wait in franchise history to play consecutive home games at the start of the season.

It's still early in the season but the game against Chicago and the one against Charlotte on Friday at home are must-win games for the Bucks, who have lost four straight and can't afford to fall any further below the .500 mark. That's especially true with six of seven games on the road after the Charlotte game. The Bucks knew they would probably be below .500 after November but were hoping to be a little closer to even than they are now at 7-12.

That was one of the reasons Skiles changed his starting lineup for the game Saturday.

"I'm trying to do something to jump-start us a little bit," he said.