MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks kick off a stretch of three straight home-and-home sets Wednesday when they host the Chicago Bulls at the Bradley Center.
The Bucks face Chicago on back-to-back nights and do the same next Tuesday and Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They wrap up that stretch with games against Washington to bookend the Christmas holiday.
It’s a daunting challenge for the Bucks, who lost three in a row after winning six of eight contests to move to two games above .500.
“It’s hard to beat an NBA team back-to-back,” Bucks coach Jason Kidd said Wednesday. “It’s tough to beat a team twice in 48 hours, no matter who you’re playing. LeBron (James), Chicago, Brooklyn but we’re professionals. Everybody has pride, and everybody wants to win.”
Chicago comes into the game looking to bounce back after blowing a 21-point lead and falling 99-94 to Minnesota on Tuesday night at the United Center.
Jimmy Butler finished with 27 points and nine rebounds in the contest while Dwyane Wade dished out eight assists but was ejected down the stretch for arguing with the officials.
Butler, who like Wade played collegiately in Milwaukee for Marquette, has been red-hot of late, averaging 25.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists over his last eight games.
In 17 career games against the Bucks, Butler averages 13.4 points per game on 47.5 percent shooting.
“Jimmy Butler is playing at a very high level,” Kidd said.
Point guard Rajon Rondo sat out the Minnesota game with an ankle injury and will be a game-time decision Thursday at Milwaukee.
Jerian Grant started in Rondo’s place and played 19 minutes while Isaiah Canaan covered another 27 minutes off the bench.
“Rondo was having one of his best practices of the year (Monday),” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg told the Chicago Tribue. “He was all over the place. He was talking, he was cutting, he was moving. And it was kind of a freak play right at the end of practice. He didn’t really land on anybody. Just kind of landed on it wrong and tweaked it.
“It’s point tender right now. He’s limping pretty good. Hopefully with a couple more treatments the next few days we’ll get him back for the Milwaukee games (Thursday and Friday).”
Chicago will be without point guard Michael-Carter Williams, who was dealt to the Bulls by Milwaukee during training camp but missed the last month with a sore left wrist.
In exchange for Carter-Williams, Milwaukee acquired Tony Snell, who started 22 games and averaged 8.3 points with 4.2 rebounds. Snell is struggling of late especially from 3-point range, going 5 for 23 in his last five games.
Three-pointers are a problem of late for the Bucks’ defense. Milwaukee was leading the league in defensive 3-point percentage but dropped to second after the Raptors made 14 of 25 attempts Tuesday in Toronto.
The Bulls, meanwhile, are 30th in the league shooting the 3 (30.7 percent) but make up for that shortcoming inside.
“This is a team that puts a lot of pressure on you in the paint and mid-range,” Kidd said. “We can’t give them threes.
“And we’ve got to protect the paint.”
The Bulls won three straight against Milwaukee.
