Bucks Zone

Game day preview and injury report: The Milwaukee Bucks visit the Toronto Raptors on a back-to-back

The Bucks don't have too much time to celebrate their win, as they are heading to Toronto.
Matthew Dugandzic|
© Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

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Milwaukee BucksToronto Raptors

The Milwaukee Bucks (24-13) are heading to Toronto, Canada to take on the Raptors (16-21) tonight, as they have no time to rest after their home win versus the Washington Wizards.

Game preview

The equation is pretty simple for the Bucks. When Giannis Antetokounmpo is on the court and playing as he has been lately, Milwaukee is a hard team to beat. The Wizards learned that the hard way, as they got grounded in their second clash, with the Greek Freak coming back and posting career-high-55 points on them.

With Jrue Holiday also back, the Bucks are almost at full strength now and ready to maybe rally another win streak to climb back into the #1 seed. By the way their January schedule is set up, that could be a real possibility.

But tonight on the other end stands a formidable opponent in the Raptors. Toronto was one of those dark-horse Eastern Conference teams before the season that everybody expected to be a dangerous playoff team. But instead, this has been a rather underwhelming season so far for Canada's team.

The Raptors are currently sitting 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 16-21 record, losing seven out of their last ten games. Their leader Pascal Siakam is having a great season, averaging 26.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game, but the rest of the team has underperformed.

Fred VanVleet is in a shooting slump, Scottie Barnes is having a second-year hangover after an impressive rookie campaign, and the rest of the core players like OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. have been up and down.

The experiment of playing a bunch of mobile wings is not working out right now for Nick Nurse, as Toronto is in a dire need of a true point guard and center if they want to turn things around. Masai Ujiri will definitely be exploring the market.

But despite all these troubles, getting a win in Toronto won't be easy, as they can get it going on any particular night, especially in front of their faithful and loud fans. The Bucks will have to be on their A-game tonight to get their second straight win.

Injury report

Khris Middleton (knee) and George Hill (illness) are expected to still be out tonight.

For the Raptors, only Otto Porter Jr. is expected to be out due to a toe injury.

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Matthew Dugandzic
MATTHEW DUGANDZIC

Matthew finished his bachelor's degree in Economics (Management) at the University of Split and got his master's degree in the same field at the University of Zadar. Whether it is playing the game as an undersized 6'3'' power forward or simply watching it, Matthew can't get enough of it. After all, he has been an avid NBA fan since the 2000s. But don't get him wrong, as Matthew still loves the old-school NBA and is a true student of the game. From on-court moments to off-court stuff, whether it's about the stars of modern-day basketball or legends of the game, Matthew covers every category of the NBA world and basketball in general, as long as it makes for an engaging and exciting story.