Portland Trail Blazers vs. Milwaukee Bucks: A Battle of Two of the NBA’s Top Teams

Tonight will be a big game. The Portland Trail Blazers, the best team out west, will face the Milwaukee Bucks who are currently second in the standings out east.

This game features a couple of the top players in the league and some high-powered offenses, which should make for an exciting, high scoring game.

The Bucks are also coming into tonight leading the league in points per game and the Blazers are sitting at a respectable seventh in that category.

In addition, this game will feature two of the current top MVP candidates in the Kia MVP Ladder on NBA.com. Giannis Antetokounmpo is at the top of the ladder and Damian Lillard has climbed his way up to third.

Both of these stars are surrounded with plenty of talent on their respective teams as well. Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum can both light up the scoreboard and heat up from three-point range in a hurry. This matchup will be one of the keys to tonight’s game. If CJ can out-duel Middleton the Blazers should be in pretty good shape.

Probably the most obvious key to the game for the Blazers will be to limit Giannis offensively. The best way of doing this is to keep him out of the lane. Al-Farouq Aminu will have his work cut out for him tonight as this is assuredly easier said than done. Aminu has been known as a solid defensive player throughout his career and should have a better shot than most at making things difficult for Giannis. Holding him to 20 and 10 would be a win for Aminu and the Blazers.

Jusuf Nurkic will have to step up on the defensive end as well tonight, extending his coverage a little further out than on most nights. Brook Lopez has really turned himself into a nice three-point shooter over the past few seasons and has made a huge leap this year up to 2.9 threes per game on a 41.6% clip. Nurkic needs to run Lopez off of the line tonight and make Lopez beat him inside the three-point arc. On offense, Nurkic should attack the boards as well. Lopez is not a great rebounding center so Nurkic should be able to dominate in that category all night.

The Blazers also can’t forget about Eric Bledsoe who has been picking up his game as of late averaging 21 points and 6 assists over the past week. In addition to his scoring, Bledsoe is also a solid defender and will look to make it tough on Lillard tonight. Lillard will have to be solid on defense and spectacular on offense tonight for the Blazers.

The biggest deciding factor tonight is going to be which MVP candidate can will their team to victory. These are the kind of games Lillard lives for so look for him to have a big game tonight, but the game just seems to come with ease to Giannis so he is going to get his tonight, as well.

Tune in tonight at 8:00 PM EST to watch a battle of two of the NBA’s top teams and two of the NBA’s leading MVP candidates. We should be in for an exciting one up in Milwaukee tonight!