Another tough test for a rare W
After Karl-Anthony Towns and the New York Knicks drubbed them on Friday, the Milwaukee Bucks begin their first homestand of the season with the Boston Celtics this afternoon at Fiserv Forum. These teams faced off almost two weeks ago, and it was the Bucks’ third loss of the season, where Payton Pritchard and Jaylen Brown torched them for a combined 58 points.
Where We’re At
The Bucks still have not turned the corner on their early season struggles and now have some injury concerns to deal with beyond Khris Middleton’s continued absence. However, this will be only their fourth game of the year at home, and they will now have their first period of consecutive home games this week. An expected romp over Utah on Thursday preceded a pretty uncompetitive road blowout at MSG the following night, where many of the same themes repeated themselves: insufficient three-point shooting and slim-to-no contributions aside from Milwaukee’s stars. That was the same script in the Boston game on October 28; aside from Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpos’ combined 63, they got thirteen from Brook Lopez and ten from Gary Trent Jr. No one else mustered more than five.
If this is consolation to Bucks fans, the Celtics needed overtime on Friday night to down the frisky Nets, who also gave the Cavs all they could handle last night and took a double-digit lead into the fourth. But Boston took care of business in a game they mostly trailed and never led by more than two points until the final minute of OT behind 33 from Jayston Tatum. Brown missed that one with a hip flexor strain, marking his fourth straight absence. The C’s have had such an easy schedule as they’ve gotten out to an 8-2 start, though, that they could weather missing their Finals MVP against the Hornets and Hawks before dropping their second game of the season on Wednesday to the Warriors.
Injury Report
Milwaukee has a few more names joining Middleton today. Giannis is probable with his patella tendinopathy, as is two-way guard Ryan Rollins—who’s starting to see more minutes—with a shoulder contusion. Trent missed Friday with back spasms and is questionable alongside Andre Jackson Jr., who sustained a hip pointer just before half in New York and only saw two more minutes the rest of the way.
Boston remains without Kristaps Porzingis but also has backup center Luke Kornet on their injury report as questionable with a tight hammy, and he did not play vs. Brooklyn. Brown and Jaden Springer are questionable too, with the aforementioned hip issue and knee tendinopathy, respectively.
Player To Watch
Jayson Tatum was not really a factor in these teams’ previous meeting, scoring an inefficient fifteen on 6/16 shooting. Of course, he didn’t need to be as Brown and Pritchard went off, but you can bet he’ll take on much of the load if Brown can’t go today. Trent did very nice work on the gold medalist last time but will probably come off the bench if he plays. That could mean Jackson draws the Tatum assignment from the jump if he’s good to go, or Doc Rivers could switch it up and put Taurean Prince on the Celtic star (that’s what I’d do, at least).
How To Watch
FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin at 2:30 PM CST.
Playback Streaming
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