Thunder, Bucks enter matchup without superstars
The last time the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks faced off, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo led their teams in scoring.
When the teams meet again Thursday in Oklahoma City in their final game before the All-Star break, neither star will be available.
Gilgeous-Alexander is set to miss his fifth straight game due to an abdominal strain, while Antetokounmpo will sit out a ninth consecutive contest because of a calf strain.
The Thunder lost their first two games after Gilgeous-Alexander got hurt but have since won back-to-back games, including a 136-109 road win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
Since dropping the first three games after Antetokounmpo's injury, the Bucks have won four of their past five games, most recently defeating the host Orlando Magic 116-108 on Wednesday.
The Thursday meeting is the last of two this season between the teams. The Thunder won the first matchup 122-102 on Jan. 21 in Milwaukee.
In that game, Gilgeous-Alexander had 40 points on 16-of-19 shooting while Antetokounmpo registered 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds.
Ousmane Dieng didn't play a significant role on Jan. 21, going scoreless for the Thunder in less than two minutes of action.
Dieng was dealt by Oklahoma City at the trade deadline, and wound up in Milwaukee after a series of trades.
He didn't find a consistent place in the rotation for the Thunder. However, on Wednesday in his second game for the Bucks, he scored a season-high 17 points, sinking a career-high five 3-pointers.
Outside of Dieng, Cam Thomas was the Bucks' other recent addition, signing with Milwaukee on Sunday after being waived by the Brooklyn Nets.
Thomas came off the bench to score 34 on Wednesday, causing Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers to look back and compare Thomas to some of the other streaky shooters he has coached.
"I've had Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, and now I have Cam Thomas," Rivers said. "Very similar. They're all different in their own ways, but Cam wants to do right. He wants to play well. You can see that, and we're going to give him every opportunity.
"The guy is a natural scorer."
Oklahoma City is also adapting to a rotation change, having added Jared McCain in a deadline deal with the 76ers.
McCain scored 12 in the Thunder's Wednesday win, and he is shooting 50% through three games with his new club.
"What he's doing is very difficult," Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. "It's an unexpected situation for him. He's joining a team that has had success together, and he looks like he has been there."
The Thunder could be without Jalen Williams against the Bucks. The former All-Star missed the first 19 games of the season after offseason wrist surgery, then missed 10 games from Jan. 19-Feb. 7 due to a right hamstring strain. He returned to action on Monday.
Williams was having his best game of the season Wednesday night in Phoenix, hitting 11 of 12 shots and scoring 28 points. However, late in the third quarter, Williams grabbed his right hamstring and headed for the locker room.
He didn't return to the game.
Chet Holmgren also left the game at Phoenix in the third quarter after taking a blow to the shoulder, and he did not return.
The last time the Thunder played a back-to-back set, Holmgren sat out the second night, Feb. 4 in San Antonio.