After a sour end to their Western Conference road trip, the Milwaukee Bucks return home for a border battle against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
It appeared the Bucks had a shot at a winning trip because the Denver Nuggets played without four of their starters on Sunday night, but Milwaukee could not get the stops it needed in a 108-104 loss.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 31 points, 11 assists and eight boards. Myles Turner added 16 points, though he played just nine minutes in the second half due to illness.
“It really killed our rotations in the second half, we didn’t know (Turner) wasn’t coming out,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “Because now Bobby (Portis) isn’t in that second unit with (Kevin) Porter Jr. and I thought that really hurt us.”
It was another night when, when you look at the plus-minus category, the Bucks leading the way were Antetokounmpo and AJ Green. It has become a trend for Milwaukee.
“Giannis is great, plus-16, Green plus-11, everyone else in the minus,” said Rivers, who missed Ryan Rollins at plus-9. “We just need to figure that out, bottom line. I thought our passing was horrific tonight, we would have generated a ton of threes tonight if not for our passing.”
Now the Bucks deal with one of the hottest teams in the league in the Timberwolves, who got a huge 104-103 victory over San Antonio on Sunday night to claim their sixth win in their last eight. They erased a 19-point deficit to do so.
Anthony Edwards led with 23 points while former Buck Donte DiVincenzo added 19 points, nine boards, seven assists and three steals. Edwards banked in a game-winning floater with 16.8 seconds to go.
“Any time it’s the fourth quarter, I’m getting to the post. I worked on it all summer, I’m comfortable in those spots,” Edwards said. “Fourth quarter, four minutes left, the rest of the game let me get (the ball).”
The All-Star candidate leads Minnesota with 28.9 points per game. Rudy Gobert averages 11.4 rebounds and Julius Randle hands out 5.7 assists per night.
Minnesota will be without Terrence Shannon Jr. (left foot abductor strain) for the 10th straight game as he remains without an official timetable for return. Milwaukee’s injury report is clear, though Turner may be a question mark after playing through illness on Sunday.
This border battle has been a good one historically. With a victory Tuesday, Minnesota would even the all-time series at 36 wins apiece and sweep the two-game season series for the first time since 2021-22.
The Timberwolves took care of business Dec. 21 at home with a 103-100 win over Milwaukee, though Antetokounmpo did not play.
Edwards led Minnesota with 24 points and six assists while DiVencenzo had 18 points and Rudy Gobert grabbed 18 rebounds. Porter, who has gone 7 of 38 (18.4%) from 3-point range over the last nine games, just missed his fifth career triple-double with 24 points, 10 boards and nine assists.
