{"id":106892,"date":"2026-03-08T12:30:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/08\/confident-magic-experimenting-bucks-tangle-in-milwaukee\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T12:30:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:30:03","slug":"confident-magic-experimenting-bucks-tangle-in-milwaukee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/08\/confident-magic-experimenting-bucks-tangle-in-milwaukee\/","title":{"rendered":"Confident Magic, experimenting Bucks tangle in Milwaukee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\" w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/28392851.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/28392851.jpg\" alt=\"NBA: Washington Wizards at Orlando Magic\" class=\"w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">Mar 3, 2026; Orlando, Florida, USA;  Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) takes a shot in the second half against the Washington Wizards at Kia Center. Mandatory Credit: Russell Lansford-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>Coming in hot on a three-game win streak, the Orlando Magic will look to help solidify their playoff standing as they travel to Milwaukee to take on the Bucks Sunday night.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-2\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>It will be night two of a back-to-back for both teams. The Magic played Saturday night in Minnesota, where they dominated the Timberwolves 119-92 on Saturday night. The Bucks defeated the Utah Jazz 113-99 at home.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-5\">\n<p>Desmond Bane led Orlando with 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the floor, though notably the sharpshooter did not make a 3-pointer (0-for-5). Paolo Banchero added 25 points with 15 rebounds.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-7\">\n<p>The defensive end was the highlight for Orlando, which held Minnesota to its second-fewest points of the season and a 35.7% mark from the field.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-8\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-9\">\n<p>&#8220;Our guards did a great job applying pressure, just locked into the game plan,&#8221; Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. &#8220;It was a very big game plan win for our guys and they played with a level of confidence, being able to come in here and get the win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-10\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-11\">\n<p>With the victory, the Magic moved into the coveted sixth seed in the Eastern Conference standings as they aim to get out of the play-in bracket.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">\n<p>Milwaukee, which continues its chase for the play-in tournament, ended its four-game skid on Saturday night as it took care of the Jazz.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-14\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-15\">\n<p>Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way in his third straight game after returning from injury with 27 points, nine boards and eight assists in 27 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-16\">  <\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-17\">\n<p>The Bucks switched up the starting lineup in favor of size, benching AJ Green in favor of Kyle Kuzma along with Ousmane Dieng, Ryan Rollins, Antetokounmpo and Myles Turner.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-18\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-19\">\n<p>&#8220;Loved the starters because of the size; it took Ryan off the ball more. With Giannis, we&#8217;re trying to space the floor with our size,&#8221; Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. &#8220;I thought we made the most advanced passes we&#8217;ve made all year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-20\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-21\">\n<p>Rivers went on to emphasize his message to his team on playing time and why he&#8217;s switching up the rotations to find what works and what doesn&#8217;t. A 120-97 loss to the Chicago Bulls on March 1 spurred that decision.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-22\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-23\">\n<p>&#8220;After that Chicago loss, we told them we&#8217;re gonna sit guys, we&#8217;re gonna move guys, whoever plays right is gonna play,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-24\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-25\">\n<p>On the injury front, Anthony Black suffered a low back strain in first quarter and did not return on Saturday. He is listed as day-to-day along with Jase Richardson (back spasms) and Jonathan Isaac (knee), who both missed the Jazz game.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-26\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-27\">\n<p>The Bucks remain without Kevin Porter Jr. who has swelling in his knee. There&#8217;s been no timetable placed on the return for Porter, who is averaging 17.5 points per game.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-28\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-29\">\n<p>This matchup will decide the tiebreaker between these teams. They last played a baseball-like two-game series in early February in Orlando. The games were split with Orlando winning the first and the Bucks bouncing back to take the second.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-30\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-31\">\n<p>Neither contest featured Antetokounmpo. In the Bucks&#8217; victory, they were led by an outburst from Cam Thomas, who came off the bench to score 34 points in just 25 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-32\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-33\">\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/confident-magic-experimenting-bucks-tangle-in-milwaukee\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mar 3, 2026; Orlando, Florida, USA; Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) takes a shot in the second half against the Washington Wizards at Kia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}