Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday are both available to play for the Bucks tonight against Washington, Eric Nehm of The Athletic tweets. Antetokounmpo sat out Sunday’s loss to Washington due to left knee soreness. Holiday has not played since Christmas Day due to a non-COVID illness.
The Bucks have listed Khris Middleton (right knee soreness) and George Hill (non-COVID illness) as out.
We have more from the Central Division:
- Zach LaVine, in the first season of a five-year max contract, admits he needs to do a better job giving consistent effort on the defensive end, he told Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “That might just be finishing plays as well as the possession goes on,’’ the Bulls’ wing said. “Getting a rebound, one more contest, one more rotation, one more effort … and you know, you can take that on the chin and say, ‘Yeah, there’s been possessions where if I have to make that last rotation, I have to give a better effort toward that.’ That’s something I do have to be better at.’’
- Bulls center Andre Drummond thought he’d spend his entire career with the team that drafted him, the Pistons, he told Mike Curtis of the Detroit News (subscription required). “For me, (Detroit) was always a place that I thought I was going to be for my entire career. But, it didn’t go that way,” he said. “They had other plans; I think they wanted to restart their team again and it’s never any hard feelings. I know the way of the business. It’s always love. I love (Pistons owner) Tom Gores. I love his family. I love the city of Detroit and I love the staff there.” Drummond played seven-and-a-half seasons with Detroit before he was traded to Cleveland.
- Donovan Mitchell‘s 71-point eruption on Monday has washed away his disappointing postseason performances with Utah last season, Michael Pina of The Ringer writes. The 25-year-old Mitchell has been as efficient offensively as he’s ever been during his career. If he can sustain that, the Cavaliers got a special talent that rarely gets traded, particularly before the player reaches age 30.
Different personnel in Cleveland than in Utah, but it makes you ask if Gobert takes away from the guard play? Edwards looks to have taken a step back so far this season further adding to the debate. Mike Conley also looks 100% better this season than last, and Bojan Bogdanovich is playing well too. The only Utah players from last season struggling is Gobert in Minnesota.
You’re not far wrong. I think once Rudy fumbles enough of your assists into turnovers you stop passing him the ball and all of a sudden the lane is clogged. Defenders can help off of him because he’s so slow to process what to do with the ball if he catches it.
Def see some points in what you say, solid post
Think Minny was too focused on putting an immediate stamp on defense and may have overlooked the O (amongst other things ).
Minny has never much had an identity and this may be a good lesson in 1 player can’t change an entire team’s identity : it has to already somewhat exist within
Still think they rally a bit and haven’t played their best ball tho yet. They haven’t gotten any type of snyc yet, dangerous team still IMO if it ever clicks down the road. I see some upsets in the West 1~4…not saying it will be Minny but not much seems locked down yet from the West
Anthony Edwards has taken so many steps back that he’s averaging career highs in FG%, 3P%, APG and PPG. Conley is so much better that he has his worst FG% of his career by far and lowest PPG since his rookie season. Bogie is averaging a little over 2PPG higher than his 3 seasons in Utah.
The season isn’t half over, and you are pulling player stats? That’s hardly a body of evidence. The # of games running out to position your team for the playoffs is an interesting stat also. Edwards was hyped to be much more than he has been producing. Scoring was his biggest hyped attribute going into the season. Maybe he has, but you can’t tell based on the product on the floor.
Yeah I look at numbers. How can a guy be taking a step back when he’s having a career year? How can someone else “look” so much better when they’re having the probably the worst season of their career?
Edwards isn’t horrible on D he’s merely average but as bad as Mitchell was at times on D last year Russell makes him look like prime Gary Payton. At least Conley, Clarkson and Ingles ran guys off the 3 point line. Minnesota doesn’t even try. Russell is the problem. He’s a volume shooter with poor efficiency and has never played anything resembling defense. Opposing guards don’t need to drive to the hoop and deal with Rudy when they can just put up 3s with impunity. This hasn’t changed. He’s been inefficient on offense and horrible on D his entire career. Rudy didn’t change that.
I almost forgot that Russell is stinking it up too. Way worse than Edwards. Gobert destroys guard play.
Donovan’s failures against Dallas last spring had absolutely nothing to do with Rudy Gobert. You might say his inability to work with Rudy was his demise.
When the other team knows exactly what you’re going to do each time down the court, they’re going to make you look bad.
The bulls are terrible this season cant close out games just another mediocre team and year for them
Even as a Cavs fan, it’s premature to say that he’s washed away his playoff performances in the past. He’s been incredible this year and deserves most of the credit for them taking another step forward, but let’s have this conversation again this summer.