Surging Lakers visit a Bucks team on a seven-game skid

The Milwaukee Bucks are 1-10 in their first season since trading Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the next visitor to Fiserv Forum sits on top of the Western Conference. The Los Angeles Lakers arrive at 10-2 on a six-game winning streak, and the market makes them an 84% favorite on the road.

Milwaukee has lost seven straight, the latest a 117-85 defeat at the New York Knicks on 10 November, and it hosts the Lakers on the second night of a back-to-back. Leading scorer Tyler Herro missed the Knicks game with a bruised right knee. He is one of the players Milwaukee received from Miami in the offseason deal for Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, along with Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis and three first-round picks.

The Lakers have kept winning through absences. Luka Doncic's run of four straight 40-point games ended with 32 points and 10 assists in a 124-114 win at Atlanta, his first game back after missing a win at Detroit with lower-back tightness. Austin Reaves covered that night with a season-high 43, then sat out in Atlanta with an illness. Reaves has since been cleared to return, while Quentin Grimes is nursing a sprained finger on his right hand.

A Milwaukee win would snap the skid against the West's top team. With Herro's knee uncertain and Reaves back, can the Bucks make this closer than the market expects?