In the last series against Orlando, a fan held up a sign that read, "NBC means No Bucks Coverage."

The fan meant to rip NBC for ignoring the Bucks in the playoffs for two straight years. Well, the network covered the second round opener Sunday against the Charlotte Hornets.

Could the Bucks take that as a sign of respect, as something to use for extra motivation? Or has the team matured beyond that stage?

"I think we've matured beyond it," coach George Karl said before his team beat the Charlotte Hornets, 104-92, in the first game of the second round. "I think they are aware of it, but also beyond it. If it was a regular season game against the Lakers, I might be a little concerned. But, our focus has a maturity to it."

Karl's players backed up his opinion. "We've gotten beyond that," said forward Darvin Ham, who started with the expressed assignment of slowing down the Hornets' Jamal Mashburn.

"We're on a mission for the Larry O'Brien trophy. Not that it's not great to be on NBC, but our focus is on winning."

Glenn Robinson has talked about the Bucks struggling for respect for years, but he agreed that playing on NBC was not as big a deal as it might have been a couple years ago.

"It gives us a little more exposure, but I just want to play," Robinson said. "It doesn't really matter where we are on. I'm playing to advance to the next game and next round."

If the series with Charlotte goes seven games, NBC will cover the games on May 13 in Charlotte and the final game May 20 at the Bradley Center. The other games are on Fox Sports Net locally and TBS and TNT cable.

It's good that the Bucks don't really care where they are on TV, but the franchise and fans do deserve more coverage from the networks. Milwaukee teams have been shortchanged for years.

That's in part because many of the decision-makers, and some of the commentators, don't think there is a country beyond the Hudson River on the East Coast, or the west L.A. suburbs on the West Coast. This year, the Bucks are going to make them revise their maps.

-- A second straight team was impressed with the sellout crowd of 18,717 at the Bradley Center.

"They have tremendous fans here," said Charlotte coach Paul Silas. "We're used to the crowd being loud, but the crowd was not hostile. That was kind of nice. They are professional in that sense. It was deafening in there for a while. It helps their team."

Ray Allen also cited the Bucks' crowd. "I don't think Charlotte has ever heard our fans like that," said Allen, who led Milwaukee in scoring with 26 points. "That's why it's so important to get home court advantage."

Keep it up, Bucks' fans. The Bradley Center is becoming notorious as a tough place to play, because of your enthusiasm.

-- Silas didn't like the fact he was told Mark Pope was starting Sunday, and then saw Ham walk out on the court. "I thought it was unprofessional," Silas said.

Karl, who has predicted a more "civil" series with the veteran Hornets than with the upstart Orlando Magic, apologized for the mixup.

"I don't know how it got to be Pope and not Ham," Karl said. "I never had a paper that said it. We knew it was Darvin all along. I don't play that game. It is unprofessional, and I apologize."

Ray Allen scored 26 points, including nine when it counted the most, after the Hornets had closed the gap. Glenn Robinson didn't score that much again with 15 points, but had a career-high 11 assists. "I was just trying to stay away from the crowd and kick the ball out when I was double-teamed," Robinson said. "That's a difference in our team now. We have a lot of guys who can shoot the ball now, so I don't have to score all the time."

With 2:32 left, Robinson fed Allen, who laid one in on a fastbreak for a 95-85 lead. Just 18 seconds later, Robinson again got the ball to Allen, who scored on another layup that put the Hornets away for good.

Whoever it was that messed up the starting lineup and got Silas mad. Don't do anything to wake up the sleeping giants. We had enough of trash-talking and juvenile behavior in the series with the Magic.

George Karl on Sam Cassell, who scored 20 points. "A lot of Sam's game is during the flow, in transition. I don't even know what he's going to do half the time."

Ray Allen: "I wasn't particularly proud of my shooting tonight (9 of 22), but we got it done when it mattered. We played well, passed the ball well."

Gregg Hoffmann covers the Milwaukee Bucks for state and national media and as of Monday publishes The Brew Crew Review on OnMilwaukee.com.