Milwaukee Bucks vs Memphis Grizzlies Preview: Preseason Finale

Author’s note: The preview doubles as the game thread post for all preseason games.

Four games down and one more to go. The Milwaukee Bucks will face the Memphis Grizzlies again in the preseason finale! These two teams played 10 days ago in Memphis and saw the Grizzlies sweat out a 108-102 victory. Milwaukee was without Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Damian Lillard for that game.

Where We’re At

The Bucks lost their previous game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but that’s not the news Bucks fans are talking about. The departure of assistant coach Terry Stotts on Thursday morning has dominated headlines:

We went ahead and outlined and provided updates on the situation on our piece yesterday, but the TLDR is this: Stotts and Griffin were regarded as something of an “arranged marriage” engineered by the front office, but a fit never materialized between the two. A minor yelling situation during shoot-around this past week may have been the final straw for Stotts. Feel free to continue speculating about “what it all means” in the comments, but for now, the Bucks are moving ahead down a lead assistant coach.

Good news though, Khris Middleton is BACK!!!

Since these two teams last played, the Bucks beat the Lakers and lost to the Thunder while Memphis lost their two road games against the Hawks and Heat.

Injury Report

For the first time all preseason, the Bucks are going to presumably be at full health. Khris Middleton was the only player they were waiting on and he is now back. For Memphis, Ja Morant continues to be disallowed from playing in preseason, Brandon Clarke is still out healing up from an achilles tear from last season, and John Konchar was away from the team for their last preseason game for personal reasons. New arrival Marcus Smart will play tonight per Chris Herrington at The Daily Memphian. Unclear if he will start.

Player to Watch

AJ Green has really come into his own this preseason. The shooter has been impressive in his short stints knocking down jumpers and not being completely lost on the defensive side. It is unlikely he will consistently get rotation minutes but he could be someone that could be an ace up Griffin’s sleeve if needed.

How to Watch

Bally Sports WI at 7:00 PM CDT

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