By BRIAN A. LESTER

The season is slipping away, and the Milwaukee Bucks know it. Their season began with so much promise, but with just a couple of games left, the Bucks find themselves staring at the very real possibility of missing the playoffs one year after taking Philadelphia to a seventh game in the Eastern Conference Finals.

A game against the Cleveland Cavaliers last week should have been just what the doctor ordered for a Bucks team dangerously close to having the plug pulled on its postseason hopes. Instead, Milwaukee's visit to Ohio only made matters worse. The Bucks lost, 106-81, and stretched its losing skid to four games.

In the last 24 games, Milwaukee has been downright bad. The Bucks have won just seven games during that stretch and have looked nothing like the contender they entered the season as.

It shouldn't be this way in Milwaukee. The Bucks are blessed with a roster full of talented players and if they had just kept their act together, they could easily be the most dominating team in the Eastern Conference right now.

Instead, they are going through the motions, seemingly wanting this season to end so that they can go off and chill in Hawaii, hit the golf courses or kick back and relax in their multi-million dollar homes.

That attitude was evident against the Cavaliers. The Bucks showed no heart and severely lacked the fire needed to compete like a team that needs every win it can get down the stretch run.

They trailed 35-29 at the end of the first quarter and went into halftime looking up at a 69-51 deficit. It only got worse in the second half. Milwaukee looked dazed and confused and fired up brick after brick after brick, shooting just 9-of-39 from the field and only 5-of-16 from beyond the arc. The Bucks' final shooting percentage was laughable as Milwaukee hit on only 37 percent of its shots.

Milwaukee's struggles continued on Friday with a loss to the Indiana Pacers, but it finally found something to smile about on Sunday, ending a five-game slide with a victory over the Charlotte Hornets and improving to 40-40 overall.

Still, Sunday's win might not be enough to salvage a season that has become a train wreck since the end of January. The Bucks were 27-17 after the first month of the new year but went 6-6 in February and just 5-11 in the month of March. In April, they are just 2-6 with games against playoff-bound teams Toronto and Detroit remaining.

Even if the Bucks do make the playoffs, will it really matter?

They would be the eighth seed and would have to face red-hot New Jersey in the opening round. The optimistic Bucks fan might believe his team has a prayer against the Nets, but that type of series has sweep written all over it.

Perhaps if the Bucks had played better when it mattered, they would be in a decidedly different situation right now. Instead, they will head into the offseason, be it this week or after the opening round of the playoffs, and wonder what might have been.

Brian Lester is a sports writer in Ohio and can be reached via e-mail at BAL4@hotmail.com