While the Bucks tread water, the Kings are one of the league’s hottest teams.
After licking their wounds from a drubbing at MSG, the Milwaukee Bucks begin a four-game homestand tonight by welcoming the Sacramento Kings. A couple weeks ago, these two teams were in similar places of underachievement, but one of them has flipped that script completely.
Where We’re At
Let’s not rehash the Knicks matchup too much, where the Bucks shot the three-ball especially poorly. That defeat came after Milwaukee stabilized a bit with three straight wins, and they’ll look back to get in that column this evening. The Bucks’ defense dove a few spots in the rankings after Sunday’s ugliness (and why are they 2.4 points per 100 possessions better when Giannis isn’t on the floor?), but their offense is more what needs to step up as they remain basically a middling unit: their season-long offensive rating of 114.2 is just above league average per Cleaning The Glass, and their 115.1 figure in the last two weeks isn’t much better. Doc Rivers’ rotation is stabilizing more despite a DNP here and there to Khris Middleton or Gary Trent, so availability is no longer an excuse. I mentioned Giannis earlier—their offensive rating is a solid yet unimpressive 116.2 when he’s playing. He’s always been a plus-minus darling in his career, so what gives?
Oh cripes, are the Bucks catching the Kings at the wrong time! If you follow the wider league, you probably know what happened in Sacramento: they fired 2023 Coach of the Year Mike Brown towards the end of December on the heels of a six-game losing streak that dropped them to 13-19. To replace him, they promoted assistant coach and former starting shooting guard Doug Christie as the interim guy. Since handing the reigns to a beloved King from their early-2000s glory years, the vibes are crazy good: they’ve since gone on a seven-game winning streak, including a clutch victory over the Grizzlies and an impressive handling of the Celtics in Boston. In that time, he’s improved a defense that was ranked 17th to 12th. I thought Brown was known as a defensive coach?
Injury Report
It’s the first night of a back-to-back for Milwaukee, and after playing in both ends of their last back-to-back, Khris Middleton will sit this one out for injury management. You’d think he’ll play against Orlando tomorrow. Gary Trent Jr. was scratched Sunday morning with a hip flexor strain and Ryan Rollins was so sick that they sent him back to Milwaukee before tip; both are questionable tonight. AJ Johnson, Chris Livingston, and Tyler Smith are still on G League assignment. Giannis is probable, and for the first time in a few weeks, Damian Lillard isn’t on the injury report!
Sacramento is much more healthy. 2024 Sixth Man of the Year runner-up Malik Monk is questionable with groin soreness, but he did appear for Sunday’s victory in Chicago, nearly notching a triple-double.
Player To Watch
As you might expect, the Kings’ two stars have looked every bit of it during their win streak. While Domantas Sabonis’ rim-running is a little worrisome after seeing what KAT did to the Bucks on Sunday, the real key here is going to be holding De’Aaron Fox honest, who has scored at least 23 points in his last 10 contests and is sixth in the league in scoring. For that reason, I’m going with Andre Jackson Jr., who is coming off a dreadful performance in New York. Fox is one of the league’s fastest players, if not the fastest, and has a solid .300 free throw rate. He gets to the line on 13.1% of his shot attempts—81st percentile among point guards, according to CTG. Those figures aren’t much lower than Jalen Brunson’s, who AJax struggled mightily against with three fouls in three and a half minutes. Milwaukee really needs a bounceback from Jackson.
How To Watch
FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin at 7:00 p.m. CST.
Playback Streaming
We are streaming the game live on our Playback and YouTube channels. Read on to find out how you can get NBA League Pass on us!
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