HHH GameTime Preview: Heat visit Milwaukee

Tonight at 8PM, the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks will tip-off in NBA action from BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tonight's matchup is the second of three between the teams this season. Miami lost the first one on January 19th by a 91-79 final in Miami, and they'll conclude the series on March 9th back in Milwaukee.

Miami is playing in the final contest of a five-game roadtrip. They started out with two losses, to the Washington Wizards 106-87 on January 20th and 101-81 to the Toronto Raptors last Friday. They won their last two games, 89-84 over the Chicago Bulls on Monday and 102-98 against the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.

Milwaukee just finished a one-game road trip last night against the Memphis Grizzlies, and after tonight's one-game homestand, will take to the road for a three-game tilt. They'll face the Sacramento Kings on Monday, the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday, and the Utah Jazz on Friday next week.

On January 19th, the Bucks defeated the Heat 91-79 back in Miami behind a 22 points, seven rebound, seven assist performance by Khris Middleton. Greg Monroe had 15 points and 10 boards, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 14 and six, and Jerryd Bayless scored 11 off the bench in victory. Hassan Whiteside had 23 points and 18 rebounds with two blocks for Miami, while Chris Bosh totaled 23 points and five boards. Notably, Dwyane Wade scored just two points on one-for-six shooting for the Heat that night.

When don't have your whole team out there it's tough on everyone, game to game, night to night. We've got to figure it out and got to weather the storm. - Wade

Brew Hoop has the goods on Milwaukee.

Miami's last game went a little better for the good guys, a 102-98 road win over the Nets. Wade and Bosh each scored 27 points, with Wade pitching in eight assists, three steals, four rebounds and two blocked shots. Justise Winslow helped out with 13 points and seven boards off the bench. Andrea Bargnani led the Nets with 20 points, also off the bench.

Well, Wade and Bosh got us again. - Nets coach Tony Brown

For news on Brooklyn, visit NetsDaily.

Last night, the Grizzlies defeated the Bucks in Memphis by a 103-83 score despite a 21 point, seven rebound performance from Greg Monroe. Jeff Green led the Grizz off the bench with 21 points, Mario Chalmers had seven points and 10 assists, Marc Gasol had 15 with eight boards, and both Carlos Lee and Tony Allen scored 13 in victory.

We didn't get to our pace at all from the start. Once (the Grizzlies) had the lead, they started firing off some 3s and they started to make a couple. - Bucks coach Jason Kidd

GameTime: 8PM

All-Time Series: Miami leads the all-time series against the Bucks franchise with 60 wins against 39 losses. In tonight's game, number 100 all-time between the two, Milwaukee will become the 11th team against which Miami has played 100 or more times.

Milestones

Udonis Haslem's last game was his 800th, joining Wade in the 800 club. He needs three assists to tie Dan Majerle in 16th all-time, with 717. Haslem is also currently tied in ninth place all time with Eddie Jones with 246 blocked shots. Interestingly, Miami currently has five of their top 14 all-time shot blockers on the team, with Wade (second with 738), Bosh (sixth with 330), Hassan Whiteside (eighth with 281), Haslem, and Chris Andersen (14th with 205).

Speaking of Wade, Miami's all-time leader in most categories' last rebound was the 4,000th of his career. He joins Haslem, Alonzo Mourning, and Rony Seikaly as the only Heat players to eclipse the mark.

Injuries

Miami Heat

Hassan Whiteside (hip) and Goran Dragic (calf) may play tonight. Chris Andersen (knee) may play on Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks. Josh McRoberts is still listed out indefinitely. Everyone else should be currently available.

Milwaukee Bucks

Kevin Garnett (knee) and Kevin Martin (wrist) are both listed as day-to-day.

Make sure to come back here to Hot Hot Hoops for developing Heat news, every day of the year. Tonight's GameThread goes live just prior to tipoff.