http://www.jsonline.com/sports/buck/apr04/222109.asp Bucks still in control They have another shot at fourth spot in East By TOM ENLUND [email protected] Posted: April 13, 2004 Life suddenly took a dramatic turn for the better for the Milwaukee Bucks as they settled into their charter airplane for the flight home after a disheartening loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. The Bucks took to the cell phones upon boarding the plane to get updates on the game between the New York Knicks and the New Orleans Hornets, and the mood brightened quickly when word swept through the plane that the Knicks had rallied in the fourth quarter to win in New Orleans. The Bucks had departed Gund Arena thinking they had just suffered a major setback in their race with Miami and New Orleans for the fourth spot in the NBA's Eastern Conference playoffs. If the Hornets had won, all three teams would have been tied at 41-40 heading into the final game of the season. The Bucks do not own the tie-breaker against New Orleans and would end up sixth if there was a three-way tie. "Everybody was on the phone to people who were watching the game so the whole plane knew," said forward Keith Van Horn. "From the last couple minutes on, we were getting updates, up-to-date information on what was going on." Said guard Brevin Knight: "That's all we did was stay on the phone when our game was over. Everybody has somebody to talk to and find out what the score was (in New Orleans). We just needed another chance to breathe some life into us. You could see the whole mood of the plane was entirely different when we found that out." Bucks forward Joe Smith agreed that the atmosphere on the plane changed considerably after the players heard about the Hornets' loss. "It was like getting a call from the governor right before you were supposed to get executed, saying he changed his mind about it," said Smith. The Bucks do own the tie-breaker over the Heat so they can wrap up the No. 4 spot - where have we heard that before? - with a victory over the Toronto Raptors at the Bradley Center tonight. It will be the Bucks' third straight opportunity to clinch home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They could have seized the fourth position by either beating New Orleans at home last Saturday or winning in Cleveland, but they came up short both times. Miami will take a 41-40 record into tonight's regular-season finale at home against New Jersey, while the Hornets (40-41) play at Washington. The Bucks (41-40) are 3-0 against Toronto this season, the Raptors are going nowhere except home after tonight, and they are playing the second game of a back-to-back situation. But Smith and Knight have both played for teams that are just playing out the schedule and warn that it could be a dangerous game for Milwaukee. "I've been in that situation where Cleveland was last night and Toronto will be in, where you're not really playing for anything," said Smith. "Those are the toughest games for a team that's really working for something because those teams can come out (relaxed), and have fun out there because regardless of the result, they already know what their place is. That's why we can't take anything for granted." Knight said the Bucks must put Toronto away early. "(They've) got nothing to play for except to be a spoiler," he said. "So for us, if we can go out and put these teams away early, it's to our advantage because they don't have as much drive to try and come back. That'll be our main thing to try and come out strong from the beginning." In the last two games, Milwaukee led by two points heading into the final period and then faded both times. The Bucks shot 36% and let the Hornets shoot 61.5% in the fourth quarter; and Milwaukee shot 19% in the final quarter in Cleveland. The Bucks committed three fourth-quarter turnovers in both games. "We're living very dangerously," said Bucks coach Terry Porter. "New York did us a huge favor last night, and we've got a chance again to really go and finish the job that we started two games ago. We haven't done it yet." From the April 14, 2004 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel --

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