The Milwaukee Bucks have some bad taste in their mouths to rinse off following their loss to the Houston Rockets Sunday night. They appear to have a gimme game this Monday against the superstar-less Brooklyn Nets, but Joe Harris and crew are no cakewalks either. Check out our preview of this game below.
The Nets proved that they are not just at Disney World to enjoy the amenities there but to play hard and win, too, as they defeated the Washington Wizards last Sunday, 118-110. The Nets have pride and that was made clear by the trio of Joe Harris, Jarrett Allen, and Caris LeVert in the Wizards game. Harris had 27 points with six three-pointers, Allen had 22 points and 15 rebounds, while LeVert led the Nets with 34 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. Brooklyn is missing their best players, particularly Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but the men left behind can still bite. It helps Brooklyn that these players seem to have chips on their shoulders, so expect the Nets to give Milwaukee a hard time, at least in terms of effort. Among the Nets’ active players, LeVert is averaging the most points with 18.1 per game.
The Nets are 4-1 straight-up and 3-2 against the spread in their last five games.
After a thrilling win over the Boston Celtics last Friday, the Bucks failed to keep their slate clean in the Orlando bubble, as they lost to the Houston Rockets, 120-116, Sunday night. Giannis Antetokounmpo led all scorers with 36 points to go with 18 rebounds, while Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez scored 27 and 23 points, respectively. The Bucks, as expected, out-rebounded Houston, but by a shocking margin of 26 rebounds. But what really killed the Bucks was their inability to defend the 3-point area, with Houston knocking down 21 threes to just nine by the Bucks. Had the Bucks shot better from deep, too, the results would likely have gone their way, That’s something they should keep in mind against the Nets, who drained lots of threes in Brooklyn’s win over the Wizards. Milwaukee beat the Nets last January on the road, 117-97, with the Bucks hitting 17 of their 37 outside shots for 45.9 percent.
