Milwaukee Bucks Weekly: Larry Sanders Apologizes For Incident, Brandon Knight Returns

On the injury front, it’s been one step forward, one step back for the Milwaukee Bucks. Just when big man Ekpe Udoh was ready to return from a knee injury, center Larry Sanders knocked himself out of the lineup with a thumb injury sustained in an incident at a downtown Milwaukee nightclub last weekend.

Larry Sanders has missed two straight games with a thumb injury. (NBA.com photo)

Sanders missed both of the Bucks’ games this week and is wearing a splint on his right thumb after an incident at Apartment 720. No criminal charges were filed, but an attorney for one of the patrons is claiming his client required eight stitches to close a cut over his eye and floated the possibility of a civil suit being filed against the Bucks’ center.

“I want to start by saying I put myself in a bad situation over the weekend,” Sanders said in a statement Friday that was reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I didn’t make the best decisions down the stretch, but I would like to apologize to my fans here and Sen. [Herb] Kohl [who owns the Bucks], who I will talk to directly. I talked to the team and apologized to them, just for shedding a negative light on our team and our organization.”

He wasn’t the only Milwaukee player in the news in a less than positive light. Caron Butler’s wallet is $15,000 lighter after the forward was fined by the NBA for making an obscene gesture during the team’s win at Boston on Nov. 1.

Brandon Knight returned Saturday night after missing three games with a bad hamstring. (NBA.com photo)

On a more positive note, point guard Brandon Knight returned after missing three full games plus all but 1:45 of the opener. Knight strained his hamstring in the opening-night loss to the New York Knicks, but came back to play 15 minutes off the bench Saturday night. He had six points and an assist in Milwaukee’s 91-83 loss at home to the Dallas Mavericks.

Here’s a quick recap of the Bucks’ week:

Wednesday: Bucks 109, Cleveland Cavaliers 104 (at Milwaukee)

The Bucks got 51 points from O.J. Mayo and Gary Neal and outdueled Cleveland’s backcourt combination of Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters down the stretch to get their first homecourt win of the year and improve to 2-2 on the young season.

Sanders didn’t start, with Zaza Pachulia getting 41 minutes at center and finishing with 14 points, nine boards and seven assists. Pachulia was 10-for-10 from the foul line. But Mayo had a breakout game, shooting 6-of-7 from beyond the arc and pouring in a season-high 28 points, while Neal was 4-for-5 from deep en route to a season-best 23 points off the bench.

Ersan Ilyasova also sat the game out after aggravating his sprained right ankle in a loss to the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 2. The Bucks had five players in double figures and shot 50 percent overall (36-for-72) and a sizzling 13-for-23 (56.5 percent from deep). That was enough to hold off Cleveland, who got 29 from Irving and 21 from Waiters.

Saturday: Dallas Mavericks 91, Bucks 83 (at Milwaukee)

The Bucks got behind by 15 by the end of the first quarter and after cutting the lead to just two at 83-81 with 2:30 to go, Dallas was able to hold on down the stretch by canning all four of its free throw attempts.

O.J. Mayo scorched his old team with 28 points, but turned the ball over six times and the Bucks were just 31-for-81 from the floor (38.3 percent). Caron Butler added 19 points and 13 rebounds, but was only 7-of-19 from the floor and Milwaukee’s bench was outscored 28-19. Former Buck Monta Ellis led the Mavs with 18 points, Dirk Nowitzki added 16 and DeJuan Blair came off the bench for 11 rebounds in 22 minutes..

Zaza Pachulia had three steals, but was just 1-for-6 with four points in 38 minutes.

The Week Ahead:

Tuesday: at Miami (4-3)
Wednesday: at Orlando (3-4)
Friday: at Indiana (7-0)
Saturday: vs. Oklahoma City (4-1)

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