Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves are two of the most exciting young teams in the NBA today. It’s too bad they both played each other on a back-to-back. This game was a mess. Both teams looked out of sorts at different points, and stupid things occurred that you only really see in the back-to-back setting. Still, Milwaukee achieved its sixth straight win, and head on their six-game Western Conference road trip on a happy note.

Player of the Game: Tony Snell (Bucks) – Another big scoring night for Snell who scored 19 points with four made threes. He hit some big shots throughout the night helping pick up Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton who both struggled a little bit. As I said after Philly game, if Snell can continue to be a double-digit scoring on offense, Bucks are going to win many games. Also, a deserved shoutout to Matthew Dellavedova who had one of his best nights in a Bucks uniform with 16 points and four made threes.

(Not) Player of the Game: Thon Maker (Bucks) – At this point, I’m not sure what Bucks are trying to do with Thon Maker. My best guess is Jason Kidd sees the first five minutes as an opportunity to get Maker some minutes, but it’s not really working. Karl-Anthony Towns got going early against him just like Myles Turner did the other night. If anything, Bucks are ending up in an offensive slog due to Maker being on the court.

Player of the Game: Karl-Anthony Tows (T-Wolves) – Sweet fancy Moses is Towns a treat to watch or what? Saturday’s game said everything I needed to know about Towns and why he’s a must-see if he’s in town. The third-year man out of Kentucky dropped 35 points with 14 rebounds. Bucks couldn’t really guard him with Maker, John Henson or Greg Monroe. He dominated each of them at certain points of the game.

Positive: Grit on full display – I realize we overuse the word grit in sports nomenclature, but the fact is that’s what Bucks showed in this game to win their sixth in a row. They could have easily wilted at some point in the second with both Giannis and Khris not having good nights from the field, but instead, guys like Rashad Vaughn and Jason Terry picked them up. I know I was critical of Vaughn last recap, but something clicked on Saturday where he actually cut to the basket and made layups instead of worrying about his outside shot.

Negative: Way too many late-game errors – Bucks are lucky that Minnesota is like them in terms of youth because holy shit, were they bad in the late game to finish this one. Middleton missed two easy layups, Antetokounmpo had a layup also go off the iron, but Bucks found a way. That’s the only thing that matters, but the result may have been different against a veteran team.

Next up: Milwaukee starts their road trip on Monday night with a meeting with Memphis Grizzlies. This is the first time the two have met since November. Grizz are in a rut currently losing their last five games. Milwaukee and Memphis traded off home wins in their series recently, and Bucks haven’t won in Hustle and Flow territory since 2009.

Charlie.