The Milwaukee Bucks recently raised a banner at home commemorating their NBA Cup tournament title.
Adding a similar adornment to salute Khris Middleton for playing in his first set of back-to-back games this season would be a bit much, but the Bucks are giddy just the same.
Middleton enters Monday’s visit to the Chicago Bulls feeling progressively stronger. Offseason surgery on both ankles sidelined him for the first 21 games this season, and Saturday’s 112-101 home win against the visiting Washington Wizards marked his first start.
Middleton contributed 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds in 24 minutes.
“Going through the course of rehab, coming back to playing, the way I’ve been responding after games, I thought (Saturday) … would be a great shot to see what a back-to-back felt like,” Middleton said. “Hopefully (I can) move past that stage where I can’t play in back-to-backs anymore.”
Middleton played 19 minutes in Friday’s 124-101 loss at Cleveland. He finished with 14 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Milwaukee appreciates all the depth and stability it can get. Giannis Antetokounmpo (back spasms) and Damian Lillard (strained right calf) missed the Washington game, and both will sit out again Monday. Lillard, who has missed the past two contests, was marked out with a non-COVID illness, as were guard AJ Johnson and forward Chris Livingston.
Starting in Antetokounmpo’s stead against the Wizards, Bobby Portis scored a season-best 34 points to go with 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
“He was sensational,” Rivers said.
The winner of Monday’s game will secure at least a split of the season series, then have a chance to claim it outright when the teams play again on Saturday, also in Chicago. The host Bucks avenged an 11-point home loss to the Bulls on Oct. 25 with a 122-106 win on Nov. 20, fueled by 41 points, nine rebounds and eight assists from Antetokounmpo.
Chicago saw its season-high three-game winning streak snapped with a 123-98 loss to the visiting Boston Celtics on Saturday.
Two nights after defeating the Celtics in Boston by nine points, the Bulls shot just 37.8 percent, including 34.1 percent from deep.
“Obviously happy we won in Boston; good game for us,” said Chicago’s Nikola Vucevic, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday. “Tonight, I don’t think we played with the same intensity and focus we did in Boston, and they started changing up defenses to slow us down, and we couldn’t get much going and it affected our defense as well.”
Bulls coach Billy Donovan cited the team’s struggles with allowing second-chance points and keeping opponents off the glass, which wasn’t merely an issue over the weekend.
“We’re going to have to do things to manufacture things in transition, easy baskets, open 3s to offset it,” Donovan said. “We have to play (to our style). If we’re going to play in the halfcourt for 48 minutes, we’re going to have a really hard time. There’s a style we have to play with for our group that gives them the best chance competitively, and that’s running.”
Coby White has scored at least 20 points in four of his past five games against the Bucks.
Milwaukee has won six of the past 10 meetings.
