Game in Review: Milwaukee Bucks @ Minnesota Timberwolves – January 2

The Milwaukee Bucks finished their four game road trip in an eventful game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Target Center.

Starting Lineups – Milwaukee Bucks: Michael Carter-Williams, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker, Greg Monroe

Minnesota Timberwolves – Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, Tayshaun Prince, Kevin Garnett, Karl Anthony Towns

The Milwaukee Bucks may not be as good as everybody hoped heading into this season, but they certainly can’t be accused of not being interesting.

The Bucks have been the cause of plenty of moments of perverse entertainment throughout the season (that has probably been easier to appreciate for any non-Bucks fans out there), but they made a strong case for topping all of those on Saturday night in an eventful game in Minnesota.

For anybody who thought that the Bucks would enter into this game carrying momentum over from their New Year’s Eve win over the Pacers, Milwaukee had some ideas of their own.

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The Timberwolves got off to a quick start behind two straight buckets from Andrew Wiggins, quickly followed by a couple of nice Kevin Garnett jumpers. Jabari Parker’s physicality looked like it was causing problems for Wiggins in the early running though, and two fouls quickly sent Wiggins to the bench.

If that seemed like the sort of positive news that should help to kickstart the team, it still couldn’t light a fire under the Bucks.

Milwaukee went just under nine minutes before they finally managed to make their first field goal, yet that wasn’t even the most startling happening of the first quarter.

Giannis took a hard fall on a goaltending call, landing on his face, and as it turned out, losing a tooth. Luckily for him as he made his way over to the bench to regather his cool, his veteran teammate O.J. Mayo retrieved the Greek Freak’s tooth and delivered it back to him.

After seeing the caring veteran side of Mayo, it was perhaps even more shocking what followed. With his team struggling beyond belief, Mayo was talking to the ref heading into a timeout and got called for a technical foul for his sins. The talk didn’t end there though, and after Mayo was assessed his second tech, he effectively lost all control of his temper.

Exactly what happened remains a mystery at the moment, but Mayo’s anger didn’t end on the court if reports are to be believed.

After all of that “fun” there was still a game to be played. It wasn’t going well for Milwaukee either. At the end of the first the Bucks had only made 3-17 from the field, and found themselves trailing 28-15.

The second quarter saw the start of improvements from the Bucks, which in large part could be credited to their second unit effort. For the second game in a row, Joe Prunty staggered his rotations leaving Giannis and Monroe to play a lot of time with the key reserves who in this case were Johnny O’Bryant, Jerryd Bayless and Rashad Vaughn.

They all contributed too. In his hometown, Vaughn splashed home a nice three quickly off the back of a nice mid-range jump shot from JOB. Bayless took over with a couple of triples and a nice reverse layup playing a significant role in the Bucks finding a foot hold in the game in the second quarter.

The Bucks briefly got the lead before half time off a Khris Middleton triple (3-5 from deep on the night), but some nice play from ricky Rubio meant the T-Wolves would lead by three at the break.

The third quarter saw both teams exchange passages of good play with neither fully managing to seize control. From a Bucks point of view, Jabari Parker once again showed off his dunking prowess with a slam over Towns.

While Bucks fans also got a rare Giannis three-pointer to cheer about:

It was the early stages of the final period where Milwaukee grabbed the initiative. A three-pointer from Bayless straight out of the gate was followed up by an effort play from him, drawing a charge against Zach LaVine on the defensive end.

If that was the spark that got Milwaukee going, John Henson turned into a fully grown fire. Hook had a personal 8-0 run which he punctuated by a block on Towns to open Milwaukee’s lead up to double digits.

As unlikely as it seemed early on, the Bucks coasted home from there. What a crazy night.

The Bucks return to action at home in the Bradley Center against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.