Give Redd credit

Michael Redd hit a clutch 3-pointer at the buzzer to carry the Bucks to a 105-102 win over the Cavaliers Tuesday night. He hit it with Wally Szczerbiak's hand in his face; Szczerbiak had to be careful, so as not to allow Redd to break the tie from the foul line, but he still definitely contested the shot.

Redd's dagger followed LeBron's layup with 5.9 seconds left, capping a furious Cavs comeback that was made possible, in part, by Redd himself missing a free throw in the closing minute. It looked like the game was destined for overtime. But James left too much time on the clock. Even so, we figured to have an extra five minutes, with Redd jacking up a prayer at the buzzer. But it went in.

Interestingly, the first and last buckets of the game were both pretty darned improbable. The first, in fact, was far more improbable than the last. Anderson Varejao, playing in his first game in a month, due to an ankle sprain, started in place of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who had an upper respiratory infection and watched the game from a Milwaukee hotel room. And Varejao's the one who scored the first hoop. So right there, you're looking at fairly long odds. But the way it happened was beyond the normal limits of probability.

Varejao got the ball at the lower left corner of the key, and with his back to the basket, tried to make a pretty pass to Delonte West, who was cutting under the hoop. The Bucks' Mo Williams got a hand on the ball, however -- and batted it right into the basket from about four feet away. And the Cavs were up 2-0.

Z was obviously missed, and Varejao was not in any kind of shape to pick up the slack for him. I don't know many people who would be in great shape after missing a month, though. Andy finished with six points, six rebounds and five personal fouls.

The top two new guys both played worse than they did in their first game as Cavaliers, though neither was really bad. Ben Wallace got 11 rebounds, but did basically nothing else; and Wally Szczerbiak scored 13 points, but on 5-of-18 shooting. He seemed not to see a single shot he didn't like, and there were plenty of shots he shouldn't have liked.

Joe Smith had a decent game, with 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench. And Delonte West did OK too; he had just seven points, but with eight rebounds and seven assists.

Mr. James was his usual MVP-candidate self, with 35 points, though he recorded just four rebounds and six assists. Somehow, it seems like an off-night if he doesn't at least threaten to get a triple-double. But that just shows you how spoiled we are when it comes to LeBron. He did get the Cavs' only blocked shot of the game, though he blocked it right into the hands of the Bucks, who scored anyway.

I think it's pretty clear that if Z had been healthy, we'd have won this game. We had almost no low-post presence on the offensive end. Mike Brown has said repeatedly that the Cavs are a "no-excuses team," but that means they can't make excuses for themselves -- it doesn't bar me from making excuses for them.

Also, we have to remember that we have four key players who have now played exactly two games with the rest of the team. Take away the second-most-important holdover, and you can't be that surprised to lose, even to a pretty bad Milwaukee team.

We've got the Boston Celtics tomorrow night, in Massachusetts. I'll be shocked if we pull that one out. But when you've got a LeBron James, you just never know.