Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 102-96 win over Minnesota Timberwolves

Bench Struggles

Despite both teams being on either the front or back end of a back-to-back, each team’s rotation was relatively short. A large reason could be how poorly both bench units played.

Minnesota’s bench unit struggled to provide any type of scoring, providing just 15 total points on the night, 11 from Jamal Crawford and four from Aaron Brooks. With starting point guard Jeff Teague out of the lineup, Minnesota’s bench was missing one of their top performers in Tyus Jones, but still, only two bench scorers is unfathomable. Gorgui Dieng was once looked at as a future building block in Minnesota but has fallen on hard times as of late and was scoreless on Thursday.

Luckily for Minnesota, with the exception of Malcolm Brogdon, Milwaukee’s bench was not much better. Even with Brogdon’s efficient 13 point night, the Bucks scored just a total of 22 bench points, meaning the remaining bench unit had just nine, with no player recording more than four points.

Scoring was not the only problem with both bench rotations as Milwaukee’s entire bench unit totaled just 10 rebounds and eight assists. Meanwhile every player on Minnesota’s recorded a negative plus/minus,  Jamal Crawford leading the way with a -22.

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With rotations as short as they were on Thursday night, it’s possible players failed to get in a rhythm. Perhaps the poor play was the reason both coaches had such a short bench. Either way, Thursday night’s contest was decided largely by the starting lineups.