Ilyasova accepted the Bucks' four-year, $16 million offer because wanted to prove to himself that not only could he play in the NBA, but he could play at a high level.

After the Bucks' first four regular-season games, though, Ilyasova did little to distinguish himself. He played a mere seven minutes against Chicago.

But Ilyasova grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds against the Knicks last week and then followed that with a 17-point, eight-rebound performance against the Nuggets.

In both of those games, Ilyasova played 23 minutes. He played 14 minutes Saturday against Golden State and scored nine points.

Ilyasova said the reason he's played well lately is that he's finally caught his breath after a whirlwind of non-stop basketball.

"This summer I practiced and played for the (Turkish) National Team and then after that I came right here for training camp," Ilyasova said. "I was tired. I didn't have any legs.

"But my legs are fresh now. I feel good again."

Buck coach Scott Skiles is delighted by Ilyasova's strong play off the bench lately.

I think he's settling in and figuring out everything we want done out there," Skiles said. "He's been playing great."

--The Bucks won't be doing any extensive traveling in this month. In fact, the Bucks will play all 14 games in November in the Central time zone.

--Bucks general manager John Hammond will do a radio show on WSSP (1250 AM) in Milwaukee every Thursday night. Hammond will be joined by co-hosts Steve "Sparky" Fifer of WSSP and Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times.

--Veteran PF Kurt Thomas played in his 900th career game Saturday night against the Warriors. He was scoreless in six minutes of action.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "I was just trying to do whatever I could to help us win. We were out of sync in the first half and really needed to step it up." -- G Brandon Jennings, on his 55-point game against Golden State.