Bucks Briefs: Milwaukee tries to snap Indiana's winning streak tonight

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MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Bucks will try to stop Indiana’s three-game winning streak when the two teams play tonight at the Bradley Center.

Roy Hibbert, the Pacers’ leading rebounder, is expected to play this evening. He left early in Saturday’s 88-77 Pacer win at Detroit with a deep thigh bruise – but coach Frank Vogel expects him to be ready for the Bucks. The 7-2 Hibbert averages almost eight-and-a-half rebounds per game for a Pacer team that has won 9-of-13 with a record of 13-and-11.

The Bucks are 12-10 after getting crushed by 26 points on Saturday night at home against the Los Angeles Clippers. That ended a three-game winning streak. Milwaukee is 6-and-5 both at home and on the road. Former Pacer Marquis Daniels has started the last eight games for the Bucks, averaging 12 points a game. In his last six contests, he has shot 48-percent from the floor. The Bucks will be without center Joel Przybilla, who was suspended for a game for throwing the ball at a ref late in Saturday’s Clipper loss.

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The Milwaukee Bucks are drawing the third-smallest crowds in the NBA. Through 11 home games, the Bucks are averaging 13-thousand-711 people at the Bradley Center. Only Sacramento and Detroit have smaller crowds. The Pistons average a league-worst 12,571. The Bucks have not had a dominant home record in three seasons, since the last time they made the playoffs in 2010. Milwaukee is 6-5 at the Bradley Center, going into tonight’s home contest against Indiana.

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Mike Dunleavy returned to practice for the Milwaukee Bucks yesterday – and the veteran forward is expected to play tonight when the Bucks host Indiana. Dunleavy has missed the last six games, and seven-of-the-last-eight, with a deep bone bruise in his left knee suffered on November 30th at Minnesota. Dunleavy has been Milwaukee’s sixth man this season – and the Bucks will need as many healthy bodies as they can get, as they’re about to play four games in the next five nights. Milwaukee plays at Memphis tomorrow night and at Boston on Friday, before returning home to face Cleveland on Saturday night. The Bucks are 6-5 both at home and on the road. Tonight, they’ll play a Pacers’ team with the NBA’s stingiest defense. Indiana holds opponents to 90 points and 41-percent shooting – and both are the best in the league. Coach Scott Skiles missed yesterday’s practice due to illness. Top assistant Jim Boylan guided the team.

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