The Milwaukee Bucks and visiting Orlando Magic find themselves on opposite trajectories ahead of their Eastern Conference matchup on Saturday.
Milwaukee carries a four-game winning streak, part of an 8-1 stretch in its last nine, into the last of four regular-season meetings with Orlando this season. The Bucks won each of the previous three, the most recent a 122-93 rout on Jan. 15 in Milwaukee.
That is not the only skid the Magic are trying to snap on Saturday. Orlando is on a five-game losing streak, matching its longest of the season.
The Magic completed a gut-wrenching 1-6 homestand on Thursday with a 125-123 defeat to Chicago. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Paolo Banchero each missed would-be go-ahead 3-point attempts in the final 1:07, and Franz Wagner committed a critical turnover with 39.1 seconds to play.
Thursday’s setback was the fourth loss by one possession in Orlando’s seven-game home stretch along with a 105-104 loss to Memphis on Feb. 21; and 104-102 and 114-113 losses to Toronto on Sunday and Tuesday.
The Magic also lost a 121-115 decision to Golden State on Feb. 27.
“We’ve got to sit down and lock in and understand exactly who we’re guarding and what we’re guarding,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said of recent defensive struggles for a Magic team that leads the NBA in points allowed per game at 106.2.
However, Orlando gave up 117.2 points per game over its current five-game losing streak, and 121-plus points in three of those games.
Mosley pointed to surrendering offensive rebounds as a point of emphasis to pull the Magic out of their tailspin. Their season-long yield of 8.8 offensive boards per game leads the NBA, but they allowed more than that in each of the last five games — including 13 to Chicago, with 13 and 12 in the losses to Toronto.
Orlando’s skid has it six and a half games behind Detroit for sixth place in the East and the last guaranteed playoff spot. The Magic, Heat and Hawks are in a three-team logjam from seventh to ninth place.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, leads a three-team race from fourth to sixth place with advantages of one game over Indiana through Thursday and two over Detroit. The Bucks are 3.5 games behind third-place New York ahead of the weekend docket.
Milwaukee extended its winning streak on Wednesday with a 137-107 blowout of Dallas. It was the Bucks’ fourth straight game scoring at least 121 points, improving their season output to 114.9 points per game.
Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 32 points and 15 rebounds, while Damian Lillard scored 34 points. Lillard has posted 13 30-plus-point performances this season, including one in the Jan. 15 rout of the Magic.
Antetokounmpo comes into Saturday second in the NBA at 30.8 points per game. Among his top-10 scoring games in 2024-25 are outings of 41 and 37 points against Orlando, supplementing his push to 20,000 career points.
He reached the milestone on Thursday.
“I don’t think about only this moment,” Antetokounmpo said. “I think about everything I had to go through in my life to be in this position: Before basketball, the minute I started basketball at 14, when I got to the NBA, all those moments I had to sacrifice away from my family…I just think about all those things, which make this moment all the more sweet.”
–Field Level Media
