A day after a thrilling overtime win at home over the Denver Nuggets, the Timberwolves are on the road and have to do it all over again.
At least the commute wasn’t a long one.
The Wolves are in Milwaukee to close out their back-to-back against Giannis Antetokounmpo the recently-struggling Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks have had a couple days off, and probably needed it. After starting the year off to a good start – and Antetokounmpo receiving serious early MVP consideration – the Bucks have cooled off in December.
They’ve lost five of their last seven games, most recently in Tuesday’s home loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Their highs in that stretch are still impressive, though. While their record isn’t where they want it to be, they do have wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, and Portland Trail Blazers this year.
When they’ve had success, it’s been through a similar formula the Wolves have used.
Even looking back to Wednesday’s overtime win at the Target Center, the Wolves won because Jimmy Butler took over, put up gaudy stats, and willed his way to victory.
They did get good production from Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins – as they usually do – but they were ultimately bailed out by Butler’s brilliance when the game mattered most.
The Bucks have the same problem, only their success jumping on Antetokounmpo’s back hasn’t been as successful.
They have good pieces in Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton to give them sound production, but often times it falls on their star’s lap to clean up the mess when things get close.
At this point, Butler is a superior player to Antetokounmpo, if nothing else because he has more experience taking over games in the clutch, and in general.
One guy Butler, and his team, has relied on for consistent perimeter shooting is Jeff Teague. After Wednesday’s injury, it was announced Thursday morning that Teague has a sprained knee and will be out indefinitely.
It was also announced that third-string point guard Aaron Brooks has an illness, and is currently questionable for the contest in Milwaukee. This likely means Jamal Crawford will see some time running the point, with Nemanja Bjelica helping set up plays for the second unit.
Be sure to follow Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA). He’ll be on the scene for Zone Coverage in Milwaukee.
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