Finishing up a three-game homestand before going back on the road for a single game, the Milwaukee Bucks will take on the Sacramento Kings for the first time this season.
The Bucks went through arguably their toughest five-game stretch this season, playing teams that featured a variety of different play styles. Coming off of a win against the Chicago Bulls last night, the Bucks take on the Kings on the second night of a back-to-back.
Milwaukee has absolutely dominated Sacramento in recent history, having won 10 straight games and haven’t lost since February 2016. The Kings have struggled (again) this season and despite the back-to-back, the Bucks are the heavy favorites tonight.
Can the Milwaukee Bucks find some offensive rhythm against the Sacramento Kings?
Despite the win last night, it was a slog for both teams on the offensive end. For the Bucks, in particular, it was supposed to be a game where they weren’t supposed to struggle much at all against a Bulls defense that had been hemorrhaging points recently.
In their last six games, they have an offensive rating that ranks in the bottom 10 during that span, including three games under 100 points. Some of that can be attributed to not having Jrue Holiday for the majority of those games.
Due to not having Holiday, it has forced other players to step into larger ball-handling roles which have not gone well. The Bucks are in the bottom five for turnover rate in their last six games, meaning they aren’t getting as many possessions (while giving easier looks for their opponents).
Losing those possessions would be more tolerable if they were crashing the offensive glass, but they aren’t doing that either as they rank in the bottom five for offensive rebounding rate in the same span.
Well, it’s unlikely that they’ll have Holiday tonight on the second night of a back-to-back while he works back from an ankle injury. The good news is that the Kings are one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA (fourth-lowest defensive rating) so this is another chance to get some offensive consistency.