Ridnour's loss further complicates matters for the Bucks because word of his injury became known a short time after general manager John Hammond had traded backup point guard Tyronn Lue to Orlando for shooting guard Keith Bogans. In fact, the two events could have happened almost simultaneously.

And so, the Bucks started the day with three point guards and finished it with one.

"It takes a lot of air out of you," said guard Charlie Bell, and he was talking only about the injuries to Redd and Bogut before Ridnour was hurt.

Or, as coach Scott Skiles said, "No one is going to feel sorry for us."

Hammond, who is generally forthright when dealing with reporters, had no comment when asked Thursday evening about an injury to Ridnour. The team's practices are closed to reporters.

Without Ridnour, the Bucks would have 11 players on their roster, which would mean they most likely would have to bring in another player on a 10-day contract.

Ridnour is averaging 10.7 points and a team-high 5.7 assists in 31.1 minutes per game. He is the team's leading free-throw shooter at 89.4%.

After practice, a composed but frustrated Bogut spoke about the incomplete stress fracture in his lower back. He has been bothered by a bad back for more than a month and missed 13 games because of the injury. But now he will miss many more.

"It might be longer than (eight weeks), it might be shorter. Who knows?" Bogut said. "There's no sense in rushing back at the moment. It's caused problems three separate times and there's a lot of pain to deal with, so we just have to kind of nurse it back slowly. I won't be doing anything for the next couple weeks and then start rehabbing after all-star weekend.

"I told the trainer I want to feel 110% before I come back because I came back three times now and it hasn't felt 100% and I tried to push through it and be a hero and do all those things and it was just very stupid."

Asked about the pain, Bogut said, "It's kind of like someone sticking a knife in your back when you don't even expect it."

To fill in for Bogut, the Bucks will go with a committee approach involving Francisco Elson, Dan Gadzuric, Malik Allen and maybe even Charlie Villanueva.

"We need a little bit more out of everyone," Skiles said. "In games he's been out we haven't been as good defensively and we haven't rebounded the ball as well . . . two of his biggest strengths. We need to try and shore those areas up and it's not just going to be one guy. It's going to be multiple guys. That's what we're going to need."

By trading Lue, the Bucks were trying to add depth at the shooting guard position to make up for the loss of Redd. They had been deep at point guard all season with Ridnour, Ramon Sessions and Lue.

"We felt like losing Michael, we needed another guard with size and we got one," Skiles said. "Also, Ty Lue is invaluable to a coaching staff the way he approaches the game with his professionalism and we wanted to do right by him, too, if we could. We were able to do both. Bogans has size, he can make the corner three, he's been an athletic-wing-defending-type player, which we need in our division. So we'll see."

Bogans is in his sixth season out of Kentucky. He averaged 5.3 points in 36 games, including 15 starts, this season with the Magic. He was drafted by the Bucks with the 43rd overall pick in 2003 but was traded on draft night to Orlando for cash. He is a 39.5% shooter, including 35.1%, in a career that has also taken him to Charlotte and Houston.

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