USA - Redd alert for the ailing Milwaukee Bucks

NEW YORK (NBA) - It doesn’t take long for a team’s season to go off the rails in the NBA.

That could happen to the Milwaukee Bucks following the news leading scorer Michael Redd will be sidelined for at least a month with a knee injury.

Redd, who leads Milwaukee in scoring at 27.7 points per game - the fifth-highest mark in the NBA - will be sidelined with a strained patellar tendon in his left knee.

He suffered the injury in Saturday's 95-86 loss to Cleveland.

The loss of the all-star is a hammer blow with small forward Bobby Simmons out for the season following ankle surgery.

Power forward Charlie Villanueva has missed 14 games with a variety of injuries and the Bucks are now also sweating over the fitness of sensational playmaker Mo Williams, who sprained his shoulder in Monday’s 104-92 defeat to Denver on Monday.

The point guard collided with Lithuanian national team player Linas Kleiza and fell to the floor.

Williams had tempted fate before the Denver game because when he was asked about Redd, the 24-year-old said to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “It's another test for us.

“We can't cry. We can't whine about it. We just have to go and try to win games.”

The Bucks, who will now have to lean more heavily on Australian international center Andrew Bogut, have won 16 and lost 18.

They are last in the Eastern Conference Central Division.

Brand shines, Cassell returns

It took a while for the Los Angeles Clippers to get going in the NBA but with players returning from injuries, the team is beginning to show the form that carried it into the Western Conference semi-finals in 2006.

Team USA forward Elton Brand had 18 points and 12 rebounds and Sam Cassell played for the first time in three weeks and poured in a game-high 31 as the Clippers won 100-90 over the New Orleans Hornets.

Cuttino Mobley weighed in with 20 for LA, who improved to 16-19 in the tough Pacific Division.

T-Mac hot again

Tracy McGrady scored 25 of his 31 points in the second half and made the decisive jumper while Battier made two defensive stops against Ben Gordon in the final minute as the Houston Rockets rallied for an 84-77 victory over the Chicago Bulls.

By PA Sport