San Antonio @ Milwaukee preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 10, 2017 ) Milwaukee 94, San Antonio 87

LaMarcus Aldridge is putting the San Antonio Spurs on his back and willing the team back to the playoffs. Aldridge will try to lead the Spurs to a seventh consecutive victory when they visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday in the opener of a two-game road trip.

San Antonio took advantage of a six-game homestand by winning all six, capped by a 124-120 overtime triumph over Utah on Friday in which Aldridge scored a career-high 45 points on 19-of-28 shooting. "It's just one game," Aldridge told reporters. "I could have had 50 if I didn't miss easy shots. It was a good night, but it's just one game for me. I've been dialed in all week. I knew that this six-game homestand was going to be important. So, I wanted to make sure I did everything I could (for us) to win the games. I'm back to being myself, and that's it." The Bucks have their own do-everything star in forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he sat out a win over the Chicago Bulls on Friday and is day-to-day with an ankle injury. Milwaukee sits in the No. 8 spot in the East but is only four games behind the fourth-place Philadelphia 76ers while sitting six games clear of ninth-place Detroit.

TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, FS Southwest (San Antonio), FS Wisconsin (Milwaukee)

ABOUT THE SPURS (43-30): Aldridge averaged 32.2 points on 57.6 percent shooting and nine rebounds on the homestand. "He's been a horse all year long," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich told reporters of Aldridge. "He was awarded that All-Star position, which he deserves, and he's basically carried us; him with his talent, and everybody else with their heart. The game goes along and goes along, and then you realize his heart is as big or bigger than anybody's. He's on the board getting rebounds, putting the stuff back, blocking shots, doing a little bit of everything that we have to do to win games." Aldridge's run has the Spurs tied for fifth in the West heading into action on Saturday and is keeping alive the possibility of a 19th straight 50-win season for the franchise.

ABOUT THE BUCKS (38-34): Shabazz Muhammad scored a team-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting in 20 minutes off the bench on Friday and is carving out a niche as part of a solid reserve corps. Muhammad, who fell out of the rotation in Minnesota before being picked up by Milwaukee at the end of February, is 15-of-20 from the floor in the last two games. "Shabazz, I think everybody in the league knows what he can do, and he got that tonight especially with Giannis out," Bucks center John Henson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Hopefully that catapults him into playing well for the rest of the year and being a big contributor off the bench."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Spurs PG Tony Parker totaled three points in the last three games on 1-of-6 shooting.

2. Bucks SG Tony Snell went 4-of-4 from 3-point range on Friday after going 1-of-10 over the previous two contests.

3. Milwaukee earned a 94-87 win at San Antonio on Nov. 10 behind 28 points from Antetokounmpo.

PREDICTION: Spurs 103, Bucks 95