The past few weeks were a time that the Milwaukee Bucks would prefer to forget.
The slumping and short-handed Bucks hope to post a much-needed victory Tuesday when they visit the Philadelphia 76ers, who are also looking to get over some rough results.
Milwaukee enters this one having lost five of its past six games while navigating a daunting stretch that included games against the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and two against the Denver Nuggets.
Things reached a low point on Friday in a 102-100 loss to the Nuggets, as star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo exited with a calf injury that is expected to sideline him for at least four weeks.
“I was feeling it the majority of the game but did not want to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. “But at the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop.”
The Bucks are 3-11 this season without Antetokounmpo, who missed eight games in December because of an injury to the same calf.
“I’m going to work my butt off to come back,” said Antetokounmpo, who also could get moved by the Feb. 5 trade deadline. “That will probably be the end of February, beginning of March. Hopefully the team will be in a place that we can at least make the play-in or make the playoffs and just take it day by day, try to get better.”
On Sunday, a scheduled Milwaukee home game against the Dallas Mavericks presented a juicy opportunity for a victory, but that contest was postponed due to snow-related travel challenges. So, on the bright side, Milwaukee will have three days off before facing Philadelphia in the opener of a three-game road trip.
The Bucks shot just 40% from the field and 30.8% from 3-point range in the loss to Denver. Antetokounmpo led the way with 22 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists while Ryan Rollins chipped in with 21 points.
The Sixers will need to rebound, literally and figuratively, when they take on the Bucks. They are coming off an ugly 130-93 defeat in Charlotte on Monday, a game that the Hornets led by 50 points at one juncture.
Philadelphia played without Joel Embiid (knee) and Paul George (knee) and was outrebounded 53-33 by Charlotte. The Sixers were outrebounded 53-37 in their previous game, a 112-109 home loss to the New York Knicks on Saturday.
“Without having looked at the film, we definitely think the rebounding was a concern,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said after the Knicks game. “We didn’t do well in that area of the game, and it definitely hurt us tonight.”
Third quarters have been the Sixers’ kryptonite this season. That was the case against New York, which had a 30-13 margin in that period, and again vs. the Hornets, who outscored Philadelphia 40-15 in the third.
“We have to find a way to not allow that to happen in third quarters,” said Tyrese Maxey, who scored a season-low six points Monday on 3-of-12 shooting.
The Tuesday contest will be the third of four meetings between Philadelphia and Milwaukee this season. The Sixers won the first two matchups, both in Milwaukee. Philadelphia posted a 123-114 overtime triumph on Nov. 20 behind Maxey’s career-high 54 points, and then a 116-101 decision on Dec. 5 behind 22 points from Quentin Grimes.
