Brandon Jennings may be a rookie, but he sure isn't being treated like one anymore by his opponents. After turning in several eye-opening performances, including an amazing 55 points against Golden State, Jennings is drawing considerably more attention. That was particularly noticeable Monday night against the Spurs in San Antonio. The Spurs made a conscientious effort to shut down Jennings and held the first-year point guard to 12 points -- his second-lowest scoring output of the season. The Spurs did a stellar job of stopping Jennings' penetration from the top of the key. In previous games, Jennings often would take advantage of a high screen by teammate Ersan Ilyasova and then use his extraordinary quickness to get into the lane. But the Spurs consistently jumped over the screen, forcing Jennings to hold the ball outside or pass it to another teammate.
"A lot of teams are starting to trap a lot, and teams are starting to be more physical," Jennings said. "They're not leaving me on pick-and-roll situations; a lot of the big guys are staying with me."
HORNETS 102, BUCKS 99 (OT): The Bucks took the Hornets to the limit Wednesday night at New Orleans, thanks mainly to Luke Ridnour. The veteran point guard had by far his best game of the season as he scored a season-high 23 points and had 10 assists and seven rebounds. The Bucks also got a big game from backup power forward Hakim Warrick, who finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Bucks rookie guard Brandon Jennings made two critical mistakes in the waning seconds of overtime. First, Hornets rookie point guard Darren Collison stole the ball from Jennings and converted two free throws to make it 99-97. Jennings then fouled Collison with eight seconds left, and Collison made one free throw to give the Hornets a 100-99 lead.
Play Basketball Hot Streak and win prizes!
