The 8-0 Milwaukee Bucks take on the 4-4 Oklahoma City Thunder Saturday night in downtown Milwaukee. The Bucks are on a back-to-back having won last night in Minnesota. The Thunder last played Thursday at home, losing to the Denver Nuggets. The Thunder only managed 15 points in the 4th quarter.
There is a chance Giannis might not play tonight. Even still, Vegas has the Bucks at a 75% chance to win the game and 7.5 point favorites. Game time is 7pm.
Bucks Keys
Keep that home court advantage rolling: The Fiserv has been very kind to the Bucks so far. Milwaukee currently outscores opponents by more than 12 points a game during their 8 game winning streak.
Protect the ball: OKC is second in the NBA right now in terms of team steals. (9.5 steals a game) They like to try to get teams to turnover the ball. It’ll be important for the Bucks to protect the rock and avoid costly turnovers. (As a point of comparison the Bucks are currently 12th in team steals at 7.9 per game)
Get to the line and covert: The Bucks are currently second to last in the team in team free throwing shooting. They need to make that a priority and make their free throws.
The Bucks play OKC next week Wednesday in Oklahoma City.
The Opponent: The Oklahoma City Thunder
This team, similar to Detroit and Houston, is just really very young. They have decided to stockpile picks. So far so good. They have an outside shot to be a playoff team.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is no joke. He can flat out play and is currently 3rd in the NBA in scoring (32.3) , right behind Giannis (32.6) and Luka (36 points). Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t shoot a ton of three (3 per game) and is a slasher-scorer type. The comparable here seems to be Scottie Pippen.
Other key starters for the Thunder are 23 yr old Luguentz Dort and 20 year old Josh Giddey. Again, development is the watch-word here.
Things to tell your buddies as you are watching the game
- James Harden, Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook on the same team: you betcha! In 2012 OKC made the NBA finals with that trio.
- OKC was once the Seattle Supersonics and was owned by the Starbucks “main dude” Howard Schultz. The team relocated in 2008 to Oklahoma City after Schultz sold the team. In their first regular season game they took on the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks won that game 98-87
- Jrue Holiday is a career 36% percent three point shooter. So far this season he is shooting 37% from the 3 point arc.
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