What Milwaukee Bucks Must Do To Defeat New Orleans Hornets
The Milwaukee Bucks (12-16) will take on the New Orleans Hornets (5-23) tonight at the Bradley Center.
Milwaukee has lost five of their last seven and desperately need a victory to keep pace with the streaking New York Knicks for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. New Orleans on the other hand recently put an end to their eight-game losing streak with a win against the Utah Jazz Monday night.
All-Star Chris Paul was traded from the Hornets to the Los Angeles Clippers before the start of the season and New Orleans has never fully recovered. The Hornets only have five wins this season but the crazy part is the quality of those victories. Four of the teams they beat are playoff contenders with a combined record of 64-49. The Phoenix Suns are the lone team with a losing record at 12-17 .
The Bucks have had their fair share of thrills and disappointments but that is completely irrelevant tonight. If Milwaukee wants to get back in the thick of things they must take it one game at a time. The Hornets are going to give it their all, as they have only won back-to-back games once this season which so happened to be the first two games of the year.
Point guard Brandon Jennings will have to take the game over and get players involved. The Bucks must have a productive night from him otherwise things may go south quickly. Milwaukee must also ride the hot hand and figure out a way to give forward Carlos Delfino good looks. He is coming off of a 24-point performance against the Miami Heat in which he sank five three-pointers at a 62.5 percent completion rate. Delfino is converting extremely difficult shots and sinking the easy ones so there is no reason not to feed him the ball.
It is very important the Bucks take full advantage of every opportunity they are given. New Orleans may have lost 23 games this season but that does not mean they do not give opponents a challenge. They are currently 10th in the NBA in points allowed per game with 92.9. Considering Milwaukee averages 95.5 points per game they must make sure to not to take low-percentage shots.
The good news for Bucks fans is that the Hornets are almost dead last in the league averaging 87.1 points per game. With Milwaukee’s hardnosed, aggressive defense they should not get anywhere near 90 tonight.
I fully expect several Bucks players to be in double-digit scoring and Milwaukee winning by no more than eight points.
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