{"id":75970,"date":"2024-05-02T18:32:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T22:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=75970"},"modified":"2024-05-02T18:32:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T22:32:58","slug":"bucks-get-bittersweet-news-ahead-elimination-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/02\/bucks-get-bittersweet-news-ahead-elimination-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks Get Bittersweet News Ahead of Elimination Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the Milwaukee Bucks continue to stave off a First Round elimination, All-Star guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lillada01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Damian Lillard<\/a> will return to the lineup for Game 6, per a team announcement.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dame is ACTIVE for Game 6. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V93fL0n1Rq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/V93fL0n1Rq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bucks\/status\/1786147596202860771?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Two-time MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antetgi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> remains out with the soleus injury he sustained against the Boston Celtics on Apr. 9.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Giannis Antetokounmpo is listed as out for tonight&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bucks\/status\/1786149725361643858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Bucks Get Bittersweet News Ahead of Elimination Game<\/h2>\n<p>Lillard had missed the past two games after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/28\/will-bucks-latest-injury-report-lead-to-unforeseen-circumstance\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">re-aggravating an Achilles injury<\/a> he suffered at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Averaging 32.3 points and 1.3 steals per game against the Indiana Pacers, he\u2019s having one of his best postseason performances. Defensive-minded veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/beverpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Beverley<\/a> has done well in his absence, averaging 11.0 points, 8.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per game and shooting 66.7 percent from 3. However, he\u2019s far from the offensive threat that Lillard is.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, the Bucks\u2019 most valuable player the last two games has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/middlkh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khris Middleton<\/a>. Averaging 27.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assist per game in that span, his versatile scoring ability allowed him to take over for Milwaukee with Lillard out.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Highlights: Khris Middleton Scores 29 vs. Pacers | 4.30.24\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/89mIjByZJjE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With Antetokounmpo out, the Bucks may still need Middleton to deliver these types of performances at the offensive end.<\/p>\n<p>However, Milwaukee\u2019s big men \u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lopezbr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brook Lopez<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/portibo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bobby Portis<\/a> \u2014can also be counted upon for buckets. While Lopez posted 27 points in the Bucks\u2019 Game 4 loss, Portis tallied 29 points in their Game 5 win. Inside-outside scorers, they can alleviate some of the pressure being placed on both Middleton and Lillard.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, nobody on the team can mirror Antetokounmpo\u2019s impact at either end of the floor. Nonetheless, Milwaukee stands a solid chance of defeating the Pacers with those four in the lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Milwaukee Bucks continue to stave off a First Round elimination, All-Star guard Damian Lillard will return to the lineup for Game 6, per a team announcement. Dame is ACTIVE for Game 6. pic.twitter.com\/V93fL0n1Rq \u2014 Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 2, 2024 Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo remains out with the soleus injury he sustained against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":75973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1608,11,62,3],"tags":[187,306,324,596,494],"class_list":["post-75970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bucks","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-nba","category-news","tag-damian-lillard","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-khris-middleton","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-patrick-beverley"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}