For the second consecutive Warriors night at Chase Center, a marquee player will be sidelined. On Monday, it was Denver’s three-time MVP Nikola Jokić. On Tuesday, it’s Golden State’s two-time MVP Stephen Curry.
The Nuggets surprisingly withstood the absence of Jokić, and the Milwaukee Bucks will test the Warriors without Curry. Coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area begins at 6 p.m. PT with Warriors Pregame Live, with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Bucks (38-29, third in the East) have their own two-time MVP in forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who means as much to them as Jokić does to the Nuggets and Curry to the Warriors. The “Greek Freak” is averaging 30.4 points per game, second in the NBA behind only Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 33.0.
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How will the Warriors (39-29, sixth in the West) try to contain Giannis? The first step is crowding his space with more than one defender. The second is keeping him out of transition, where the 6-foot-11 veteran is the league’s most devastating force.
That task falls into the lap of Draymond Green because, well, despite being only 6-foot-6 he always gets the most threatening big man. He will be assisted by double-teams and occasional blitzes, which could include anyone from Jimmy Butler III and Jonathan Kuminga to Gary Payton II and Gui Santos.
The goal with Antetokounmpo is to force him into shots outside the restricted area, where he takes 59 percent of his shots and is making 73.8 percent. Ideally, the Warriors would like to push him out beyond the arc, where he is shooting 18.2 percent, the lowest since his second season in the league.
Antetokounmpo’s other exploitable weakness on offense is his propensity for turnovers. He’s fifth in that category, ahead of such turnover-prone guards as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Washington’s Jordan Poole. Giannis has committed at least six turnovers in eight games, with a season-high eight.
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Though Antetokounmpo is Golden State’s biggest challenge, the Bucks have six-time All-Star Damian Lillard (averaging 25.1 ppg) to keep defenses honest. Their combined scoring average of 55.5 points per game is the highest of any duo in the NBA.
With their season-high seven-game win streak snapped against the Nuggets, the Warriors are trying to avoid losing a back-to-back set at home for the first time since Nov. 12, 2023. There is a change they could be rejoined by guard Brandin Podziemski, who has missed the last five games with a low back strain and is listed as questionable.
Getting back to their winning ways against Milwaukee is hard enough for the Warriors, and trying to do without Curry is exponentially more difficult.