Bucks Week Ahead: On The Road Again
Seven straight wins have put the Milwaukee Bucks back into the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, with the All-Star Break in just a couple of weeks. The impact of having the Bucks’ big three of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton available is resonating with the whole team, who are putting together solid performances to win games. That included a 21-point comeback win against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night, spearheaded by Giannis scoring 54 points for a near career-high. Giannis has scored over 50 points in a regular season six times throughout his whole career, and three of those games came in the last month. On Saturday, he put together his third triple-double of the season. We are watching something special from the Greek Freak.
The downside to this week, however, is that the Bucks will be on a three-game west coast road trip. This season, the Bucks have not had a winning record in road trips that have lasted over two games, going 1-2 in November and 1-4 in December. They went .500 in January, with a four-game road stint that saw two consecutive losses to Miami, whom the Bucks beat on Saturday night to head into the week. While the team is on a hot streak, let’s hope that the road doesn’t cool Milwaukee down. Here’s what is ahead.
The week begins in Portland, where the Bucks will find a Trail Blazers team that is working their way into the Western Conference playoff picture as of late. Led by guard Damian Lillard, who has been putting together impressive scoring performances in the last couple of weeks, including a 60-point game on January 25, the Bucks will face a team that is starting to click once again. The Blazers also have a rising star in Anfernee Simmons, who scored 33 points to lead a 20-point Portland comeback on Friday against the Washington Wizards. While it certainly is Lillard leading the charge, the Trail Blazers won’t be rolling over easily when the Bucks come to town.
The best thing that could happen for the Milwaukee Bucks would be a big game from LeBron James on Tuesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Over the last couple of weeks, the story for Los Angeles has been James, who is getting closer and closer to breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA record for the most career points of all time. Realistically, James should break the record on Tuesday, but if he does not for whatever reason, the world will be watching on TNT Thursday night, when he could break the record against the Bucks. In either situation, the scoring record has been a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster year for the Lakers, who are in the outside looking in for playoff positions at the moment. LeBron has been the story, but his high-scoring games have come in losing outings. Once the national attention is off of Los Angeles, there will still be a high-profile game for the Bucks and Lakers on TNT Thursday, and it is a winnable one for Milwaukee.
The road trip concludes on Friday against the Los Angeles Clippers, in a repeat of Friday night’s comeback win from the Bucks. Giannis had a great game in the last outing, but Milwaukee will want to contain forward Norman Powell, who provided 26 points off of the bench for Los Angeles, and Kawhi Leonard, who had 17 points on what would be considered an off night for the star. Leonard missed a last-second attempt to steal a win in Milwaukee, but if the Bucks can continue to play solid defense and stop the Clippers’ stars, they should have a more comfortable path to victory this time around.
