Milwaukee Bucks were coming off their first loss since March 18th against Golden State. They were facing a Charlotte Hornets team who had a last gasp at the playoffs, but Buzz City needed to beat Bucks. That didn’t happen. Milwaukee ended that in the first half. They scored 72 first half points. That proved to be the difference with a 118-108 victory. This game looks a lot closer than it actually was as Milwaukee wins for the 12th time in 15 games. Bucks are now three wins away from a .500 record.

Player of the Game: Tony Snell (Bucks) – There have been the random Tony Snell games throughout the year. It seems like he’s a guy worth paying for next season when he’s up for a contract. He does a ton of the little things along with the random outbursts of great offense. Snell took advantage of Hornets having the worst three-point shooting defenses in the NBA. Snell scored a career-high 26 points with four made threes. He carried the load.

(Not) Player of the Game: Matthew Dellavedova (Bucks) – There’s not many bad players out there, therefore, let’s discuss another rough game from Delly. He scored 8 points with a couple threes, but Dellavedova added four turnovers to the mix including a bad one late as Milwaukee tried to close this one out. I’m probably be hard on him, but whatever.

Player of the Game (Hornets): Frank Kaminsky – Good game for the former Badger who broke out his shooting slump with 20 points along with two threes. Kaminsky struggled since coming back from injury until this one versus Milwaukee. I’m not surprised Frank The Tank had a big day versus Milwaukee considering he’s a bad matchup for the team. There’s no real solution to his ability on the perimeter combined with his size.

Positive: First Half magic – Milwaukee came in and kicked ass for the entire fucking first half. It was a beautiful thing to see. Giannis Antetokounmpo thought Bucks played the best half of basketball in his lifetime in Milwaukee. One of the better trends during their winning streaks has been how well they’ve played in the first half. It reached an apex tonight in Charlotte.

Negative: Khris Middleton’s near disaster – C’mon Jason Kidd, we complain a lot about how Milwaukee’s coaching staff manages minutes, but this was one of the worst ones of recent memory. Game is in hand, and Khris Middleton is still on the court. Now, he had the flu and not shooting well then he runs into Marco Bellini with a shit ton of blood with Ted Davis of WTMJ thought his nose was broken. Kidd needs to be more careful with his stars in late-game situations.

Next up: Milwaukee gets a house money game on Wednesday night when they play Boston. This is the first time they’ve played Celtics since the classic at Bradley Center a couple months ago. Remember, it was the Celtics who had a hot first half, and Milwaukee made a valiant comeback. C’s have won five of the last six.

Charlie.