3 keys for the Milwaukee Bucks kicking off road trip against Miami Heat

The Milwaukee Bucks kick off a four-game road trip tonight against the Miami Heat, who they will play for the third time already this season. The Bucks and Heat split the first two games of the season series, each blowing out one another in the first two meetings.

In the first meeting, the Bucks were without many rotation players, including Jrue Holiday and Bobby Portis, and lost by over 40 points. They were without key players again in their last meeting less than five days ago, most notably Giannis Antetokounmpo and Grayson Allen, but so was the Heat. Regardless, the Bucks won wire-to-wire and now will play their final game in Miami this regular season.

Both teams should be in better health for this one (although nothing is ever a guarantee this season for who plays any given night for the Bucks), and we may be able to take a few things away from this one.

The Milwaukee Bucks need to take advantage of their size against the Miami Heat

One thing that will be different in this game than it would normally be if both sides were at full strength is that the Bucks will have a clear advantage in size for this game. Miami will once again be without Bam Adebayo for this meeting, so there will be opportunities to be had at the rim.

Despite not having Antetokounmpo in their big win over the Heat four days ago, the Bucks still managed to shoot nearly 68 percent on shots at the rim, took 10 more shots at the rim than the Heat, and drew several fouls on their shots at the basket.

Those numbers should only increase with Antetokounmpo playing in this game. Adebayo has been one of the better one-on-one defenders against Antetokounmpo in his career, so without him, there should be some easier lanes to the basket going up against the likes of Dewayne Dedmon, P.J. Tucker, and Jimmy Butler who are all solid defenders but are either not quick enough or not strong enough to handle Antetokounmpo one-on-one.

Beyond that, we saw the Heat struggle to handle the size of DeMarcus Cousins in their second unit and the Bucks came away with 19 offensive rebounds with a near 39 percent offensive rebound rate.

This game will likely be closer than their first two meetings (although Butler may not play after re-injuring his tailbone on Monday), so grabbing those extra possessions and finishing around the basket will be imperative.