Friday Bucks Notes

Mo and Redd were both rested vs. the Bulls Jonathan Daniel/Getty/NBAE

• The Bulls routed the Bucks 97-81 in Chicago last night (recap). Check out video highlights here. Pretty predictable outcome given Mo and Redd rested ahead of tonight's game in Minnesota, while Bogut missed out with his sprained left wrist. Fortunately Bogut is expected to play in the season opener. Other notes:
• The patchwork starting lineup was Bell, Mason, Simmons, Villanueva and Gadzuric.
  
• Charlie Villanueva started for the first time this preseason and was the Bucks' best player for the second straight game. He scored 19 on 6/10 fg along with 8 rebounds and a couple blocks in 27 minutes. Like on Tuesday, he was aggressive going to the hoop and showed some renewed interest on defense.
• Yi never really seemed in the flow of things, finishing 2/7 with 7 points and 3 rebounds in 21 minutes. Both of his field goals were on mid-range jumpers.
  
• Charlie Bell's line was better than Royal Ivey's, but Bell still seems less comfortable running the offense than Ivey.
• Jim Paschke was kind enough to mention us on his blog, while we've also infiltrated ESPN. Baby steps, people.
• Dave Cotey has a good summary of Yi's first month in the NBA. While ESPN and everyone else was more than happy to report Yi's purported "no comment" to the age question on his first day of practice, here's something I bet they won't report:

  The 19-year-old Yi's age continues to be a hot topic. After not commenting on the subject when he first arrived, he eventually addressed the claims that he is older than listed.

  "I feel nothing uncomfortable with people asking these questions, but as I've said numerous times, I was born in 1987," Yi said. "Those questions are meaningless to me."

  When the "no comment" story broke, one of the Chinese posters at RealGM said Yi actually responded rather dismissively to the question--as you can imagine, he's heard the question before and doesn't appreciate having to answer it constantly--but that his interpreter tried to be more diplomatic by issuing a "no comment." Of course that looked worse in the media, so it's interesting to see this follow-up. But given this quote isn't nearly as interesting, don't expect it to be publicized. And in case you're wondering, I do think Yi is probably 22 (about to turn 23 on Sunday). Also of note is that Larry Harris claims in the article they had Yi rated third overall. My guess is this might be some spin, given most sources suggest Al Horford was correctly third on the Bucks' board.

  "I try to make the team better," Harris said. "I felt we got the best player at six, and I said all along, we would have taken him at three if he were at three. I have all the faith in the world in him, but I don't want to put any pressure on him to perform. We're going to be patient with him and develop him."

• Don Walker writes that David Stern is expecting big things from Yi. Walker also writes that the Yi/Yao matchup on November 9th will be the first between two Chinese players, but Yao has played against Wang Zhizhi four times.

  "...From the NBA's perspective, having another bona fide Chinese superstar in waiting, he's coming here with less exposure and less experience than Yao (Ming), but there are very high hopes for him in his homeland."

  Asked for his reaction to Stern's comments, Yi, who is in Chicago tonight for the Bucks-Chicago Bulls exhibition game, seemed pleased. "This is my first season and there is a need to improve and work hard," he said.

  Asked if he was impressed that Stern singled him out in his remarks to reporters, Yi smiled and asked reporters to thank Stern for his comments.