Riding the recently red-hot scoring of Ryan Rollins, the Milwaukee Bucks seek a third consecutive win when they host the Sacramento Kings on Saturday.
Rollins, who scored a career-high 25 points in Milwaukee’s 121-111 win over New York on Tuesday, followed it up with 32 points in a 120-110 defeat of Golden State on Thursday.
The guard in his fourth season bounced among the Warriors, Wizards and Bucks organizations, including the G League, before working his way into Milwaukee’s regular rotation last season. He has started four of five games in 2025-26 and scored in double-figures in four straight.
“Everybody that’s on the court is not afraid of taking the shot,” Rollins said of Milwaukee’s offensive balance, even with former two-time Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo sidelined. Antetokounmpo sat for Thursday’s game due to left knee soreness despite being listed as probable shortly before tipoff.
“I don’t even know what (the injury) is because (the training staff’s decision to hold Antetokounmpo out) was so late,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “I was scrambling, trying to figure out what we were going to do.”
Antetokounmpo, who has scored 36.3 points per game in his first four appearances of the campaign, is listed as questionable for Saturday’s game with patellar tendinopathy in his left knee.
In his absence, eight Bucks led by Rollins scored in double figures vs. Golden State, including all five starters. Among them was Myles Turner, acquired in the offseason, who finished with a season-high 17 points.
While the Bucks have started the season strong, Sacramento comes into Saturday’s matchup trying to end a three-game skid.
The Kings have dropped four of five to open the season, their only win coming in a one-point decision on Domantas Sabonis’ putback in the closing seconds against Utah on Oct. 24.
Wednesday’s 126-113 loss at Chicago, the second date in a four-game road swing, is Sacramento’s only outcome decided by more than seven points.
A bright spot amid Sacramento’s early struggles has been the scoring production of Zach LaVine, acquired in a midseason trade last season. His 30-point performance on Wednesday against his former team, the Bulls, marked LaVine’s fourth game with at least 30 points this season.
LaVine had been with the Kings for more than a month by the time he reached his fourth 30-plus-point game a season ago.
“We want the wins, and I think we’re playing at a level where we can have them. We’re just not putting a complete game together,” LaVine said. “We’ve been leading in a lot of these games. … But it’s not just one half. We have a new group of guys, we have a new coach, but no one is going to feel sorry for us.”
Sacramento added veteran guards Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder in the offseason to complement primary perimeter scorers LaVine, Malik Monk and DeMar DeRozan. Westbrook and Schroder join a group of six Kings averaging at least 12 points per game, but there’s a steep dropoff in production to Keon Ellis’ 7.8 points per game, and no one is producing more than two points beyond that.
The Kings have dropped 17 of the last 18 meetings with the Bucks.
–Field Level Media
