Minutes hard to come by as Bucks chase final playoff spot

With his Milwaukee Bucks positioned one spot outside the Eastern Conference playoff field, Bucks coach Scott Skiles knows that every game—and every minute—counts in this strike-shortened season.

In Tuesday’s win against Atlanta, Skiles put just eight players on the floor.

“I thought the bench played well again,” Skiles told the Journal Sentinel. “It was a short bench; I elected not to go too deep into it.”

The Journal Sentinel noted that starters Ersan Ilyasova and Carlos Delfino were out that game because of injuries, but that as the Bucks pursue that eighth playoff spot—they trail the Knicks by 2½ games—Skiles is likely to be even more particular with the minutes he hands out.

Mike Dunleavy has been great as the team’s sixth man. He’s fourth on the team in scoring (12.6 points) and has averaged nearly 18 points in the past 11 games, the newspaper reported.

The others in the rotation off the bench include Beno Udrih (18.5 minutes per game), Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (22.2 minutes) and Ekpe Udoh (19.9 minutes). Rookies Tobias Harris and Jon Leuer, in turn, are seeing fewer minutes as Skiles shortens his rotation.

Each of the subs has had his moments in recent games. Mbah a Moute scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 25 minutes against Charlotte. Udrih scored 15 points and had four assists and four steals in a win against Portland. Udoh grabbed 10 rebounds in 20 minutes against the Celtics.

“Every one of them (games remaining) is big,” Mbah a Moute told the Journal Sentinel. “We need all of them, if possible, to get ourselves in a good position to make it.”