The Milwaukee Bucks are anticipating the return of their standout player Giannis Antetokounmpo for the upcoming faceoff against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday.

Starting their three-game homestand, the Bucks (44-25) gear up to take on the Nets (26-43) who are slowly losing hope of clinching a spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament with just 13 matches left. The Nets are currently on a four-game losing streak, putting them 4 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Hawks for the final play-in position.

Antetokounmpo sat out his second consecutive game on Wednesday as the Bucks suffered a 122-119 defeat against the Boston Celtics, falling behind by 21 points at one stage. The two-time MVP stayed back to address his left hamstring injury.

“He’s feeling good, not great,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said before Wednesday’s game. “Those things are something you don’t take a chance on. Especially now. … Giannis probably would’ve come (to Boston) if it was up to him, but these are the ones you just have to say no and let him get better.”

The loss to the Celtics saw Damian Lillard scoring 32 points and Bobby Portis contributing 24 points along with 15 rebounds. Milwaukee put up a fight in the final quarter but ended up with a 3-2 record without Antetokounmpo this season.

“It was one of those games where they kept getting the lead, we kept fighting back. As far as that, you love that,” Rivers said. “We end up shooting the ball better than them.”

“We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds with turnovers, offensive rebounds, bad possessions defensively. All of those are great things for us to watch film and to learn and get better. This is a good learning opportunity for us. That’s how I look at it.”

The Bucks emerged victorious in their previous encounters against the Brooklyn team this season, triumphing 129-125 on Nov. 6 and 144-122 on Dec. 27, both away. Antetokounmpo put up an impressive average of 34 points and 11 rebounds in these victories.

In their recent game, the Nets struggled with a shooting accuracy of just 36.9% in a 104-91 home defeat against the New Orleans Pelicans. Cam Thomas stood out with 25 points for Brooklyn, even though they trailed by a significant margin of 24 points in the second quarter.

Thomas, having achieved 20+ points in six consecutive games, expressed dissatisfaction with the team’s poor form following the loss.

“It’s exhausting,” Thomas said about talking to reporters after losses. “At the same time, we have to do it so we don’t say the same stuff over and over.”

“We just have to go out there and do what we say up here. Even down to me, everybody, we have to do what we say up here — the effort, energy, whatever all that is, we just have to do it.”

Despite the defeat, there was a bright spot with reserve center Day’Ron Sharpe delivering a remarkable performance of securing a career-best 17 rebounds.

Also, forward Mikal Bridges marked his 500th consecutive game milestone in that match, holding the longest active streak in the NBA.

“Nobody sees the practices that he doesn’t sit out,” Brooklyn interim coach Kevin Ollie said. “Everybody focuses on the game, but he’s there in practice and his workouts and doing his things that he does in the dark when nobody is looking is more impressive to me than just the games. He’s never absent to anything, he’s always present.”