What: Charlotte Hornets (10-40) (5-19 away) at Milwaukee Bucks (33-19) (21-6 home)
When: 8:00pm Eastern
Where: Fiserv Forum; Milwaukee, WI
How to watch: Bally Sports Southeast, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Bucks–Icon (green)
Game Lines: Hornets +14.5, O/U 232.5
Injury Report:
Hornets: Cody Martin-probable (knee), LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Mark Williams-out (back), Davis Bertans/Vasilije Macic/Tre Mann/Grant Williams/Seth Curry-questionable (trade)
Bucks: Damian Lillard-doubtful (ankle), Khris Middleton-doubtful (ankle), Patrick Beverly-doubtful (trade)
As of the time of me writing this, I have absolutely not idea what the status of the newly acquired players is. If they aren’t ready to play, the Hornets will have 10 healthy bodies to suit up if they bring all three of their two-way players up. That’s very thin for an NBA rotation.
The Bucks made their own trade at the deadline, adding Patrick Beverley’s grit in place of Cameron Payne. I also don’t know if he’s playing tonight.
The Bucks are dealing with ailments of their own to some of their better players. Both Middleton and Lillard sat out with ankle injuries in the Bucks’ loss to the Timberwolves. Giannis Antetokounmpo struggled with the Wolves’ length. The Bucks were led by former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver second year pro AJ Green, who buried 7-of-8 triples and scored 27 points off the bench.
Doc Rivers started serving as an informal consultant to the Bucks and their previous head coach Adrian Griffin in early December. He consulted his way into replacing Griffin as the team’s actual head coach less than two months later. They are 1-5 under his watch. They’ve ranked in the bottom 10 in the league on both offense and defense in those six games. So far so good, I’d say. Surely he’ll do a better job in the playoffs given his track record of always having success and never underachieving in the playoffs.
As for this game, even with all the injuries, the Bucks have a whole lot more firepower than the Hornets. The visitors have no good option to slow down Giannis, Brook Lopez always seems to be a problem, and there’s enough outside shooting that’s going to strain the Hornets perimeter defense. Miles Bridges has been playing out of his mind now that he’s decided that Charlotte will be his home for at least the rest of the season. Brandon Miller is the seventh best scorer in the entire league for the month of February so far.
The trade deadline breathed a little bit of enthusiasm into the fan base. Let’s see if it shows up on the floor.
