The Bucks started the game without injured guard Greivis Vasquez, then lost another backup guard, O.J. Mayo, in the first quarter for the rest of the night after he was whistled for two quick technical fouls and was ejected from the game.
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But the Bucks shook off the rough beginning to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 95-85, at the Target Center as they limited the home team to 38 points in the second half. Sports, Mayo has been fined $25K for “aggressively pursuing a referee and not leaving the court in a timely manner upon his ejection”.
Mayo made several more efforts to get back onto the court and finally was forced down the tunnel to the locker room by a security official.
“John is not the guy who is coming down and running the play”, Prunty said.
“I picked a poor decision to get thrown out of the game on the road”. “I know we’re building something here and we have to be patient and that’s not the way”.
The 28-year-old Mayo has been involved in several incidents this season, including a game-ending shouting match with Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins on November 25. Juice is an emotional player, and we have to, we need him to be aggressive, assertive.
Milwaukee scored just 15 points in the first quarter on 17.6 shooting and missed their first 11 shots from the field. Andrew Wiggins scored 19 points, but shot 7-for-17, LaVine only scored six points, and Towns had one of his worst shooting nights of the season, going 4-for-17 from the field. Minnesota started the game on fire but quickly cooled off and couldn’t seem to regain any momentum after their early onslaught.
They opened the fourth period with an 11-0 surge to take an 83-70 lead and never looked back.
– Here’s the quarterly breakdown of the Bucks’ paint points tonight: 4, 10, 16, 12.
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Timberwolves: The 8:42 that the Wolves kept the Bucks from making a field goal was the longest stretch to start a game since the franchise moved to its automated statistics system in 1996-97.
