{"id":473045,"date":"2025-12-14T15:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/473045\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T15:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:36:13","slug":"nets-vs-bucks-preview-sunday-night-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/473045\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets vs. Bucks preview: Sunday night hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MILWAUKEE,<\/a><\/p>\n

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 11: Kyle Kuzma #18 of the Milwaukee Bucks drives to the basket on Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics during the first half at Fiserv Forum on December 11, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by John Fisher\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

A good showing but not enough to bring it home. The Brooklyn Nets went to Texas for a showdown with the Dallas Mavericks. Brooklyn had a chance to win late, but the Mavs did just enough to hand the Nets a tough loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The opponent tonight is trying to hang on. The season hasn\u2019t gone according to the Milwaukee Bucks\u2019 plans, but they keep competing. They helped themselves a ton after beating <\/a>the Boston Celtics on December 11.<\/p>\n

YES Network on TV. WFAN on radio. Gotham Sports app on streaming. Tip after 6:00 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

No Cam Thomas or Haywood Highsmith. Ben Saraf is both ill and assigned to Long Island.<\/p>\n

No Giannis Antetokounmpo, AJ Green, or Taurean Prince.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee won the first <\/a>meeting.<\/p>\n

With the Bucks not meeting expectations, fans in Milwaukee want change. And if they have their way, it\u2019ll be at the head coach position with the departure of Doc Rivers. Over at Brew Hoop<\/a>, Finley Keuhl notes Doc\u2019s performance in comparison to some of the younger coaches in the NBA right now:<\/p>\n

In contrast, coaches like Hardy, Brooklyn\u2019s Jordi Fernandez, and Phoenix\u2019s Jordan Ott are building scrappy competitors out of subpar squads. They turn rag-tag groups of role players and fringe guys into unselfish hives of hustle and fearlessness. The Jazz and Nets are bottom-feeders, but their tanking efforts have been actively harmed by Hardy and Fernandez making their teams walking trap games. These first-time coaches are establishing identities in franchises that need them, and it\u2019s tough to imagine them not achieving serious success whenever they finally have competent rosters to work with. Seeing what Hardy, Fernandez, Ott, and more are accomplishing makes it obvious that the Bucks need a fresh face behind the clipboard.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see how things develop from here.<\/p>\n

Without Giannis, the Nets interior defense should breathe a huge sigh of relief. The Bucks are fifth in the NBA on field goal percentage inside the restricted area at 70.4 percent, led by Antetokounmpo\u2019s 77.7 percent on 12 field goal attempts inside the RA. Whew. Even still, the Nets can\u2019t afford to be lax on that end or take the Bucks lightly.<\/p>\n

To help get those paint buckets, they\u2019ll count on Ryan Rollins. RR is one of the league leaders in drives to the basket and he\u2019s been a welcome positive in what\u2019s been a cloudy season so far.<\/p>\n

Danny Wolf has been a pleasant surprise for the Nets and he\u2019s starting to get more comfortable coming off the bench. He\u2019s put forth a string of good games and we\u2019re starting to see the coaching staff have more confidence in him. As the Nets have started to play better and play more enjoyable hoops, the kids have been a big part of that. That should continue to make games fun to watch for Nets fans.<\/p>\n

Myles Turner, brother you\u2019re gonna need to be a LOT better. Milwaukee\u2019s prized off-season acquisition is having the worst season of his career on offense, however the defense is a bit better with him on the court as compared to off. That\u2019s nice, but Milwaukee is going to need him to find some success on offense, especially with Antetokounmpo out. For the Nets, Nic Claxton will look to be a pain in Turner\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Player to watch: Kyle Kuzma<\/p>\n

When the big dog is out, someone\u2019s got to step up. For the Bucks, that\u2019s been Kuz. He scored 31 points against the Celtics and the team will need something similar every night going forward. Kuzma will be the person Rivers turns to the most on offense as he tries to find the right mix until the team is back at full strength.<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr is back and back to the business of bucket getting. MPJ hit the Mavs up to the tune of 34 points on .600\/.600\/.800 shooting splits. If this game is close late, we\u2019ll see how the team handles things this time. Jordi Fernandez was a bit disappointed that his guys made some mistakes late. As the leading option on offense and team\u2019s most experienced player, a lot is required of Porter Jr every night. To his credit, he\u2019s handled everything thrown at him and the young Nets will turn to him for guidance.<\/p>\n

John Cena has officially retired from professional wrestling. Salute to The Never Seen, 17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 11: Kyle Kuzma #18 of the Milwaukee Bucks drives to the basket on Jaylen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,102,121,3871,6,19734],"class_list":{"0":"post-473045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-milwaukee","11":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","12":"tag-milwaukeebucks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nets-game-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115718664288975811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}