Bucks at Wizards
The Washington Wizards open up their home schedule Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks, hoping to take advantage of familiar confines a bit more than they did last season. The Wizards, who started their current campaign by splitting a pair of road games, had a losing record at the Verizon Center as late as mid-February during the 2013-14 season and finished 22-19 at home, the worst mark of any playoff team. Included in that run of mediocrity was an overtime home loss to the league-worst Bucks.
Following a season-opening setback at Miami, Washington rode 30 points and 12 assists from John Wall to a 105-98 victory at Orlando on Thursday. Milwaukee put the clamps down defensively to allow seven fourth-quarter points in a 93-81 win over Philadelphia on Friday. Rookie Jabari Parker recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds while John Henson had six of the team's 11 blocked shots off the bench.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Wisconsin (Milwaukee), CSN Washington
ABOUT THE BUCKS (1-1): An early bright spot for Milwaukee has been the play of veteran shooting guard O.J. Mayo, who has burst out of the gate. Mayo scored 25 points in the win over the 76ers after posting 17 in the season-opening setback at Charlotte, and he is 8-of-13 from 3-point distance thus far. The 26-year-old saw the bulk of his numbers take a dip in his first season with Milwaukee in 2013-14, but averaged 19 points in two games versus Washington and shot 5.9 percent better at home (43.9) compared to the road (38.0).
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (1-1): The Wizards have received a paltry 17.5 points from their bench so far, with six reserves shooting a combined 4-of-15 in the win over Orlando. That should improve as the rotation deepens, especially with the presence of forward DeJuan Blair, who was suspended for the opener and did not play against the Magic. Fellow big man Kris Humphries, like Blair acquired in the offseason to toughen up the frontcourt, has provided only four points in 16 minutes on the season so far.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Wall averaged 21 points on 45.3 percent shooting at home last season, compared to 17.6 points on 41.2 percent shooting on the road.
2. Bucks PG Brandon Knight is 7-of-25 from the floor over the first two games but has made 18-of-20 free throws.
3. Washington is 30-23 all-time in home openers.