Desperate Milwaukee Bucks host Western Conference giants Oklahoma City Thunder – NBA Preview
On Monday night, the Milwaukee Bucks will play hosts to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI.
This matchup between the two will the last time, Oklahoma City plays any Eastern Conference team this season until the NBA Finals, and that too if the Thunder get that far.
The Bucks currently occupy the 9th place in the Eastern Conference, and after having won their last 4 games are they have all the momentum by their side in their bid to either dislodge either the New York Knicks or the
Philadelphia 76ers, both of whom are one game ahead of the Bucks in the chase of the final playoff spot.
However their biggest test in their search for an offseason berth yet, lies in their next game against the Western Conference powerhouses Thunder.
Bucks defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 116-94 in their last game on Saturday. In that game, Beno Udrih and Brandon Jennings scored 21 points each. They also outscored the struggling Blazers 62-31 in the second half.
Nevertheless, their last four victories have come against teams who have below 0.500 records and all of a sudden they will be up against a team that last week, was on the verge of displacing the Chicago Bulls as the top team in
NBA.
Milwaukee coach, Scott Skiles has emphasized the fact that in order for the Bucks to be able to make the playoffs they have to defeat teams that are better than them in the league.
Jennings also kept it real by saying that it will be a tough matchup.
"For 48 minutes, we just have to go out there and give our all," Jennings said. "They're one of the top teams in the Western Conference, so it's going to be a tough one on Monday."
Oklahoma City which had lost three games in a row bounced back to winning ways by defeating Toronto, 91-75 tonight. Kevin Durant managed to get a game-high 23 points. Russell Westbrook added 15 while NBA`s strongest contender for
the 'Sixth Man of the Year' award, James Harden came off the bench to score 17 points on the night.
Thunder also had a 24-0 run in the second half which made life easy on them for the rest of the night. OKC will now be looking to build on the win and take some momentum into the playoffs.
In the previous three meetings between these two teams, Bucks hold the edge as they have won 2 out of those 3. Buck won the first encounter on Jan 2, 2010 with a score of 103-97 in overtime. The second on Nov 20th, 2010 was a close
affair as well with the Thunder holding onto a 82-81 win.
The third meeting between the two was a tough road victory for the Bucks at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. The contest was decided in overtime with a score of 110-106 on April 13, 2011.
The Bucks will be hoping to repeat the kind of performances they had put against Thunder in the last three head to heads. With the playoff spot at stake, they need to do that more desperately than ever.
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