* Tonight on ESPN: Warriors vs. Bucks
The Golden State Warriors are looking to bounce back from their loss to the LA Clippers on Wednesday but doing so will have to happen without star guard Stephen Curry.
The Warriors announced on Friday afternoon that Curry will miss the game with a sprained right ankle. Additionally, Omri Casspi (back) is questionable, while Andre Iguodala (left knee) and Shaun Livingtson (left knee) are available to play.
Curry had already missed 11 games this season with a sprained right ankle when he aggravated the injury at shootaround prior to Wednesday’s game against the Clippers, which he also missed.
But Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Wednesday that Curry “did look good” as he participated in a full practice on Thursday.
Curry is averaging 27.9 points, the second-highest average of his career, in his ninth NBA season.
Golden State was also without Klay Thompson Wednesday, but it was just a scheduled off-day — and the first time all season that Thompson sat out — so he’ll be back in action Friday against the Bucks, who are 12-5 against Western Conference teams this season and 4-0 against Pacific Division foes.
The Bucks are hoping the dominant second half of their 110-103 victory over Orlando Wednesday night will serve as a springboard of sorts against the Western Conference’s No. 1 team.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a team-high 26 in the contest, including 13 in an aggressive third quarter effort.
“It’s something I’m working on,” Antetokounmpo said. “I have a long way to go. I just want to set the tone in the third quarter and come out there in the fourth quarter and finish the game. That’s a theme, for example (in) Washington, that’s a theme that I’m working on and moving forward I want to keep doing it.”
As has been the case for much of the season, though, the Bucks struggled shooting from beyond the arc. Milwaukee made just 4 of 19 3-point attempts and has connected on only 26.5 percent of its long-distance shots over the last three games.
“We got lucky,” Kidd said of winning despite poor 3-point shooting. “In this league, if you don’t make threes you’re going to get beat. We’ve got to get better at making open shots.”
The Warriors have won three straight and seven of their last eight meetings with the Bucks, whose only victory over Golden State during that stretch came when they snapped Golden State’s historic 24-game winning streak to open the 2015-16 season.
