Bucks at Bobcats
THE STORY: The Milwaukee Bucks are one of the hottest teams in the NBA right now - too bad the team they are chasing is just as scorching. The Bucks had a six-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday, dropping them 1 1/2 games behind the eighth-place New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference. Fortunately for Milwaukee, it gets a chance to bounce back against the NBA-worst Charlotte Bobcats.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSWI (Milwaukee), SSO (Charlotte)
ABOUT THE BUCKS (21-25): Milwaukee’s six-game winning streak was its longest in two years and still was not enough to get it past the Knicks. The Bucks had made a remarkable turnaround into an offensive juggernaut during the winning streak, averaging 113.3 points while Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis broke teams down from the outside and Drew Gooden and Ersan Ilyasova worked the interior. Coming home after a two-game West coast swing on Thursday, Milwaukee did not have enough left in the tank and fell to the Boston Celtics, 100-91. Gooden, who had averaged 17.7 points during the winning streak, was held to just six on 2-of-12 shooting on Thursday.
ABOUT THE BOBCATS (7-37): One of Charlotte’s few victories this season came at home against Milwaukee on Dec. 26, a 96-95 triumph. D.J. Augustin led the way with 19 points and nine assists against a Bucks team that has since turned over three-fifths of its starting lineup. The Bobcats are in the midst of what counts as a surge for them, having won three of the last nine. They had a chance to record back-to-back wins for the first time but failed on Monday, suffering a 105-80 home loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Charlotte has allowed at least 101 points in each of its last four games.
BUZZER BEATERS:
1. Charlotte has taken two straight and three of the last five in the series.
2. The Bobcats agreed to a buyout with C Boris Diaw on Thursday.
3. Ellis struggled to 18 points on 6-of 26 shooting against Charlotte when he was with the Warriors on Jan. 14.