Milwaukee Bucks vs. New Orleans Pelicans Preview: Can the Bucks bounce back from heartbreak?

On Thursday, the Milwaukee Bucks will be making their first and lone voyage to the Smoothie King Center to take on the New Orleans Pelicans. This will be the Bucks’ second meeting with the Pels, as the teams met January 9th at Fiserv. In that contest, the Bucks carved out a solid 141-117 victory.

Where We’re At

The last time we saw this Bucks team take the floor, they lost an absolutely heartbreaking double-overtime thriller at home against the Lakers. With around two seconds left in regulation of that game, the Bucks ran a lob to Giannis Antetokounmpo off of an inbounds play. The ball slipped through the Greek Freak’s hands and went out of bounds, but Bucks fans—as well as people who generally care about fairness in life—thought Anthony Davis got away with quite a bit of contact on Giannis without a whistle. I’m not biased at all, and I was disgusted. I could barely finish the remainder of the game after its sanctity had been tainted so severely. But anyways, Giannis had a monstrous triple-double in the box score, but its brilliance was kind of watered down by his seven turnovers and some ugly defensive blunders down the stretch. Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard also had pretty rough games overall.

The Pelicans have quietly put together a really nice stretch of games in the home stretch of the regular season. They’re currently the fifth seed in the Western Conference and lead the Southwest Division by just one game. Despite dropping their most recent game against the Thunder, they have still won nine of their last 12 games. In the aforementioned game against OKC, Zion Williamson led the way with 29 points and 10 assists. Even though CJ McCollum was a forgettable 33% from the field, he still had 23 points, five assists and six boards. 2021 NBA Draft-mates Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III also added 16 each.

Injury Report

For the Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton are probable with minor left leg injuries, and MarJon Beauchamp is probable with back spasms. Patrick Beverley is out after suffering a torn wrist ligament.

For New Orleans, Jose Alvarado is questionable with hip soreness, and Brandon Ingram is out with a left knee injury.

Player To Watch

Excluding a slow offensive night in a win over Brooklyn, Bobby Portis has been filling up the statsheet on offense for the Bucks. I’m excited to see if he can keep being the offensive engine for the second unit, especially with an even thinner bench unit now that PatBev is sidelined.

How To Watch

NBA TV or Bally Sports WI at 7:00 PM CDT

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