Milwaukee Bucks vs. Orlando Magic Preview: The Mo Show Comes to Town

The Milwaukee Bucks play on a back-to-back against the Orlando Magic, fresh off getting spanked down in San Antonio on Monday evening.

Where We’re At

It was a night to forget for the Milwaukee Bucks, whose defense looked entirely out of sorts against the San Antonio Spurs in a 146-125 loss. Despite their big three basically going all the way, they could never quite close the gap in a meaningful way. As the Spurs kept bombing away from deep, any type of comeback hinged on a defensive performance that clearly wasn’t going to be in the Bucks cards. They fall a full game behind the Nets in the fight for the two seed and will need some help to get there. Thankfully, they should, theoretically, be able to at least keep pace against an Orlando franchise that’s celebrating any L they can get nowadays.

The Orlando Magic have steered beautifully into their tanking skid after their All-Star Break moves. It’s starting to look like they got away with a Wizard’s ransom in that Vucevic trade, as the Bulls self-implode themselves. However, that hasn’t precluded the Magic from occasionally pulling off some surprising wins, including narrow victories over the Pistons Grizzlies and Cavaliers. They’ve turned into Mo-town down there too, starting the Mo’s, Wagner and Bamba, the former of whom has been a thorn in Giannis side for some time. Milwaukee walloped this team 124-87 back on April 11, even without Giannis in the lineup.

Otto Porter, MCW, Jame Ennis, Chuma Okeke and Terrence Ross are all out for the Magic. Wendell Carter Jr. is questionable. We will have to see whether Bud opts to rest his starters for this contest or not.

Player to Watch

Honestly, I’ll just watch Mo Bamba on Orlando. The guy seems like he’s probably a stiff, but there’s no excuse for him not to be putting up numbers as a starter in a weak lineup, so let’s see if he’s able to put together any semblance of an offensive or defensive performance befitting a top-five selection. He had 21 points in his last outing against the Bucks.

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