Whew.

You see that anvil floating up to the sky? That's the weight off Eric Musselman's back, floating into the Midwestern sky…

You imagine how we'd all be feeling if last night ended up as we expected it would, right? 0-2 with the second game of a back-to-back coming up. Not pretty. As beautiful as Ron Artest driving and Mike Bibby falling away and Kevin Martin shooting was during the last two game minutes last night, the offense was still awful as a whole. For the second straight game. They are scoring 89 points per 100 possessions so far, which would be historically bad, were it not only two games in.

But those were two good defensive teams. (Minnesota is 2-0 after beating the Nuggets, by the way.) Milwaukee? Not so much. The Bucks were the 6th worst defensive team in the league last season, and that was with Jamaal Magloire (an above-average defensive center) and Joe Smith (a slightly above-average post defender).

The Bucks added Ruben Patterson, a solid but aging defender who will likely mark Kevin Martin, the 5th leading scorer in the league. And Maurice Williams is definitely a defensive upgrade over TJ Ford, though Mike Bibby shouldn't have problems getting around or away from him if his (Bibby's) game is on.

On offense, Milwaukee will shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. Michael Redd is Ron Artest's assignment, and he'll hang out around the perimeter most of the time. I hope and pray he tries to drive on Ron-Ron a few times, just to pad #93's steals totals. Charlie Villanueva is also a perimeter-type, and Williams will shoot more often than not. Milwaukee's best chance is to get hot and hope Andrew Bogut can get something go against Brad Miller inside.

The best cure for a struggling offense is to face a bad defense. Let's hope that's the case tonight.

5:30p start on Comcast. Last road game for a while. A 2-1 road trip would be fantastic, no?

Let's go Kings!