The Milwaukee Bucks (18-17) host the Phoenix Suns (20-16) Tuesday in a battle of two teams looking to make up ground in their respective conferences.
The Bucks will hope to carry some momentum from their last game - a 95-82 win over the New York Knicks - into the matchup, while the Suns will try to build on a confidence-boosting 125-109 win over the Toronto Raptors Sunday.
Injuries:
The Suns come into the game fully healthy, while the Bucks are still missing several important players. PG Jabari Parker is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his ACL Monday, and C Larry Sanders is still out for undisclosed reasons (more on him later). PF Ersan Ilyasova has missed Milwaukee's last six games with a concussion, and is not expected to play against Phoenix. Rookie SF Damien Inglis will miss the rest of the season after an injury that required foot surgery, but Inglis hadn't played yet this season and isn't as big of a miss.
Storylines
The Suns are hanging on to the 8th seed in the brutal Western Conference, and lead the 9th-place Pelicans by two games. They're currently just 1.5 games behind the 7th-place San Antonio Spurs, though, and would love to move up and give themselves a little breathing room. The Bucks are in a slightly less fragile position - they're currently 6th in the Eastern Conference, and they now trail the slumping 5th-place Cleveland Cavaliers by just one game.
The Bucks are still trying to figure out what's going on with Larry Sanders - yesterday, rumors spread that Sanders had told Bucks officials he didn't want to play basketball anymore, but Sanders' agent strongly denied those reports, calling them "news to Larry". Regardless, Sanders is still out for what coach Jason Kidd will only describe as "personal reasons", and his status going forward is very much unclear.
Milwaukee Key Player:
PG Brandon Knight. Knight has stepped up tremendously this season, and is averaging a career-high 18 ppg and 5.1 apg. Against Phoenix's loaded backcourt, he'll need to be at his best if the Bucks want to win this game.
Phoenix Key Player:
PG Isaiah Thomas. With Jabari Parker out for the season, the Bucks have very little depth at point guard. Thomas was excellent off the bench against the Raptors, scoring 18 points on 6-10 shooting, and he can feast on Milwaukee's depleted second unit if he plays like he did against Toronto.
Prediction:
Suns win, 111-102. In Phoenix, their biggest strength is their backcourt depth...and that happens to be Milwaukee's most glaring weakness right now. This is just a bad matchup for the Bucks, no matter how you slice it, and the Suns should be able to come away with the win.
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