Two teams who look quite different after the trade deadline face off as the Milwaukee Bucks welcome the visiting Golden State Warriors on Monday night.
It’s the second day of a back-to-back for the Bucks, who defeated the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday afternoon 135-127.
Without Giannis Antetokounmpo able to play on Sunday, Damian Lillard led Milwaukee with a season-high 43 points and eight assists.
“I told Dame that he needs to be an aggressive scorer and aggressive playmaker and that’s a hard thing to do,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought his downhill attacks to create other buckets were great and then that led him to his shooting.”
Golden State last played on Saturday when it handled the Bulls in Chicago, 132-111. Jimmy Butler made his Warriors debut in the city in which his career started and scored 25 points.
“Pretty fun having Jimmy on our team. He’s an amazing player,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “I’m most impressed with his passing. It changes everything, connects the game. He does it from anywhere. He’s a lion out there.”
Butler was acquired on Wednesday after months of turmoil with the Miami Heat, including multiple suspensions. Golden State parted with Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a protected first-round pick in the deal.
Milwaukee is now without one of the best players in its franchise history in Khris Middleton, who was traded along with AJ Johnson to Washington for Kyle Kuzma. In his first two games as a Buck, Kuzma has 12 and 13 points, respectively.
Stephen Curry paces the Warriors with 23 points and 6.1 assists per game. Kevon Looney leads down low with 6.9 boards per game.
Antetokounmpo leads Milwaukee with 31.8 points and 12.2 rebounds per contest. Lillard averages 7.5 assists.
Antetokounmpo (calf) will remain sidelined through the All-Star festivities out of caution. The two-time MVP was the leading vote-getter.
“We’ve been monitoring it and it just hasn’t improved enough for us to play him,” Rivers said. “If this was a playoff game, would he play? Probably yes. But we want to make sure he’s playing in the playoffs.”
Pat Connaughton (calf) also missed Sunday’s contest for the Bucks. For Golden State, Jonathan Kuminga (ankle) has been out since Jan. 27 and will be re-evaluated soon.
The Warriors find their success from beyond the arc as well as from their depth. Golden State is second in the league in both percentage of points from 3-pointers (41.5 percent) and in bench points per game (45.8 ppg).
However, the Bucks are more efficient shooters, coming in second in the league in 3-point percentage (38.7 percent) and fourth in effective field goal percentage (56.3 percent).
This is the first matchup between these teams this season. The two-game season series has been split in each of the last four seasons, with each team winning every game at home. Notably, Curry has not played in Milwaukee since the 2022-23 season.
The Warriors handled the Bucks in the last matchup on March 6 in San Francisco, 125-90. Curry led with 29 points eight rebounds while Antetokounmpo scored 23 with seven rebounds and six assists.
–Field Level Media
