Bucks look to put it all together in Khris Middleton’s season debut
Prior to the season, the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics were tipped as potential rivals for Eastern Conference supremacy. A pair of early season showdowns have already gone Boston’s way with the Nov. 10th home defeat representing the nadir of Milwaukee’s season, dropping them to 2-8. Since, the Bucks have climbed back into the East playoff picture with a 9-2 run and look to set a new tone tonight with Khris Middleton’s season debut.
Where We’re At
Milwaukee had managed to win seven straight and, if it weren’t for a LaMelo Ball phantom foul call, could conceivably have won 10 in a row heading into Wednesday’s tilt against the Atlanta Hawks. They’d recently blown the scrappier-than-expected Detroit Pistons off the court in their most thorough performance of the season, a 128-107 win. A back-to-back against a more thoroughly formulated Atlanta team was always going to be a challenge, and Milwaukee unfortunately failed to meet it in a 104-119 defeat that snapped that aforementioned winning streak. The Bucks have turned the corner and are now the fourth-best distance shooting team in the league by percentage (39.1% as a group), although their open shots failed them against an Atlanta team that had next to no difficulty waltzing into the paint time and time again. When the threes kept cold, Giannis Antetokounmpo (31 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 15-26 from the FT line) did his best to manhandle a result on his own to no avail. In short, the recent improvements seen on both ends of the court faltered—they’ll need to recapture form against the East’s elite.
Most importantly, though, Khris Middleton is slated to be back. That’s really exciting even if he will be on a minutes restriction to start with some rust needing knocking off.
Boston did not suffer an early season post-championship hangover and enter tonight at 18-4 and second only to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference. Their most recent victory was a 130-120 outing against the Pistons on Wednesday. Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday were sidelined with knee issues, but the Celtics had little issue jumping out to a massive lead on the back of Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis’s play. Detroit fought back with a hot shooting night from three, but the Boston machine saw their large opening frame lead through to a successful conclusion. As in the previous two games against Milwaukee, expect Boston to hoist a metric ton of threes (they lead the league in attempts a night at 51.0) and for the style to alter slightly on both ends of the floor now that Porzingis is back in the mix—he missed both earlier contests between these teams and he may miss tonight, too (see below). The scratch against the Pistons was Tatum’s first miss of the season, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on the injury report for him in particular.
Injury Report
For now, Giannis Antetokounmpo (right patella tendinopathy) and Khris Middleton (!!!) (bilateral ankle surgery) are probable while Taurean Prince (right patella tendinopathy) and MarJon Beauchamp (neck spasms) are questionable for Milwaukee.
On Boston’s side of the ledger, Jrue Holiday will be back, but…
Update: Tatum and Horford are now listed as available while Porzingis is OUT.
Player To Watch
This is painfully easy: Khris Middleton. The big questions we’ll need to see answered are whether he is inserted into the starting lineup immediately—he started in all 55 games he played in last year, for reference, and that on a minutes restriction—and how limited he will be. It took him about 10 games to start regularly logging around 20 minutes a night last season, although he did pick up a larger minute load on his return late in the season under Doc Rivers. Expect the medical staff to be conservative with his volume for at least a few nights here.
How To Watch
ESPN and FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin at 6:30 PM (CST).
Playback Streaming
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