The Milwaukee Bucks spent Thursday night rolling over head coach Jason Kidd’s former team on the road en route to their third straight impressive victory. The Bucks will try to make it four in a row when they host the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday to complete the home-and-home set.
BROOKLYN vs MILWAUKEE
When: 5:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 3, 2016
Where: BMO Harris Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
| ROT | TEAM | PS | OU | Money Line |
| 701 | BROOKLYN | -9.5 (-110) | 217 (-110) | 300 -400 |
| 702 | MILWAUKEE |
TV: 5 p.m. ET, YES (Brooklyn), FSN Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
PREDICTION: Bucks 112, Nets 108
MILWAUKEE — Less than 48 hours after falling just short of a triple-double in a Milwaukee Bucks’ victory at Brooklyn, Giannis Antetokounmpo will get another crack at Brooklyn when the Bucks play the back end of a home-and-home series Saturday afternoon at the Bradley Center.
Antetokounmpo scored 23 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out eight assists in 30 minutes of work. Milwaukee was in such control of the contest — ultimately, a 19-point victory — that he didn’t take the floor in the third quarter.
“It’s a long season,” Antetokounmpo said. “It doesn’t matter for me. The only thing that matters is to get the win. We play them (the Nets) again in two days so they made a great decision sitting me in the fourth quarter because we’ve got to get the win again in two days. It’s a must-win game again.”
It’s no coincidence that as Antetokounmpo gets hot, so have the Bucks. Milwaukee has won three in a row and four of its last five games.
The Bucks are averaging 111.0 points, 48.0 rebounds, 24.7 assists, 9.7 steals and 7.3 blocks per game over that stretch and shooting 48.8 percent from the field and knocking down an average of 10 3-pointers per contest.
“I think we got the ball moving, but it all starts with our defense,” Bucks coach Jason Kidd said.
The Bucks held Brooklyn to 38.2 percent shooting and a 12-for-40 showing from behind the arc.
“We couldn’t pierce their defense,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They kept us in front and they would switch it and keep you there and kept us on the perimeter. I would like to see how many rim attempts we got, but I don’t think we converted at a high rate. So credit to their defense, they are a good defensive team and they were tough to score on tonight.”
Brooklyn also committed 17 turnovers in the loss to Milwaukee, continuing a season-long problem. The Nets are third in the league in turnovers this season, averaging 16.5 per game.
“There is not one player where we are saying, ‘Hey, you are turning it over all the time’,” Atkinson said. “It’s equal distribution, so our offense has to get better. Our execution has to get better.”
Milwaukee has won 13 of the last 17 meetings, dating back to Jan. 9, 2013, and the first two meetings of this season’s series.
Isaiah Whiteside wants to see that streak come to an end Saturday afternoon.
“I think they just wanted it more than us,” said Whiteside, who scored 14 points with six rebounds and four assists against the Bucks Thursday. “We just have to come out with more of a sense of urgency on defense and get stops instead of leaving easy buckets, and I think they basically did what we were supposed to do.
“We need go to their place and we really just play with a chip on our shoulder and come out with a win.”
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