There are some games in a long NBA season that feel like they count for more than just a single win or loss. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks played in one of those games.
Without
two of their best players, Anthony Edwards (Right Foot Injury Maintenance) and Rudy Gobert (League Suspension), the Timberwolves routed the Bucks 139-106 in a game they led by as many as 41 points. For the Wolves, the night was an indication of where the team could be headed this season and beyond. For the Bucks, it was another indication that an era may be coming to an end.
Even with both their MVP candidate and the four-time Defensive Player of the Year unable to play, the rest of the Wolves laid the smack down, including 29 points from Julius Randle, who has averaged 26.4 points per game in the nine games Edwards has missed this season.
It’s another impressive performance from a team that has had a few of them recently. Since Thanksgiving, Minnesota has gone 17-6, including wins in six of their last seven games since the calendar turned to 2026. There have been low moments, too, including a beatdown in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve, but the Timberwolves have responded resoundingly, putting together their best stretch of basketball of the season.
The game also served as a showcase for two of the newest members of the Timberwolves’ rotation. The first was Bones Hyland, who the Wolves acquired midway through last season on a two-way deal and was given a partially guaranteed one-year deal this past offseason.
Hyland, who had a strong start to his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets, was seemingly on his way out of the league before Tim Connelly, who drafted Hyland in Denver, gave him one last shot in Minnesota. It’s a similar story to that of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, as the Wolves have found a knack for revitalizing talented players whose careers have not turned out the way they had hoped for one reason or another.
Bones has made the most of his time on the court of late. Since re-joining the rotation a little over a month ago, Hyland has averaged 9.4 points across 18.1 minutes per game, including a season-high 23 points against Milwaukee. He finished that game with a plus-minus of +41, a Timberwolves franchise record for a player coming off the bench.
“Just playing the right way,” Hyland said about his performance after the game. “I feel like when you go out there and play the right way, you don’t force things, the plus-minus just speaks for itself. You’re not going out there and try to do things out of the ordinary for the team. You try to stay with the team game plan, but also mixing in being yourself, too as well.”
The other standout from the Wolves’ bench was the 19-year-old rookie, Joan Beringer. The Timberwolves selected Beringer with the 17th pick of the 2025 NBA Draft, and while the Wolves front office raved about the French big man’s potential, it was clear he was still an incredibly raw talent, given that he only started playing basketball just four years earlier.
With Gobert out for the game due to a league suspension, Beringer joined the rotation for the first time. Beringer made the most of the opportunity, scoring 13 points on 6-7 shooting while providing pinpoint help defense, preventing many Bucks players, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, from getting easy baskets near the rim.
“It was great. It was great,” Beringer said about his performance, “And we won. Giannis is my favorite player, especially to play against him was a really good experience. I really enjoyed the game.”
Beringer still has a lot to learn about the NBA and many areas of his game can and will grow, but it cannot be anything but encouraging that a 19-year-old rookie came into his first real rotation minutes in the NBA, shook off any nerves, and put up 13 points and a plus-minus of +30, while consistently making the right plays on both ends of the court.
“Hustle plays.” That’s what Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch identified as the best aspect of what Beringer brought to the game. “Just energy plays, hustle plays. He challenged everything, loose balls, everything at the rim was contested. From where he was before he went to the G-League to now, you can just see he’s figured out the kind of like composure of how he needs to play and how to use his energy within that.”
For as encouraging a win as it was for the Wolves, it was equally as discouraging for the Bucks, who fell to 17-23 as they sit outside the Eastern Conference’s Play-In tournament at the 11th seed. While there have been plenty of frustrating nights for the Bucks the past season or two, this game against the Wolves felt like a turning point, at least from an outsider’s perspective.
Boos from the fans at Fiserv Forum rained down at multiple different points in the game, leading to Giannis booing them right back, something he often does when he gets booed.
The performance from the Bucks was that of a team that has let go of the rope. They lack talent outside of their top player, they didn’t play connected as a team, they missed rotations all game long, they provided little to no fight on the defensive end of the floor, and overall, they just didn’t seem close to a team ready to dig themselves out of the hole they dug themselves in the first half of the season.
While Giannis over and over has expressed and shown loyalty to both the Bucks and Milwaukee, it’s hard not to wonder if his patience is growing thin, as the frustration has seemingly started to chip away at the former Finals MVP.
It made sense for the Bucks to hold on to Antetokounmpo in the offseason. In an injury-depleted Eastern Conference, there was still a chance that an imperfect roster with one of the best players in the league could make a run at the Finals. Forty games into the season, and the Bucks have been far from good enough to meet that relatively low bar, and it appears now it’s time for Milwaukee to start preparing for the trade of their franchise icon.
The Bucks have not gone gentle into that good night, and for good reason. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left Milwaukee in 1975. It would be 40 years until the Bucks franchise saw another player of that caliber, and it may be another 40 years until one is back. That is just how good Antetokounmpo is, a true generational talent.
Raging against the dying of the light was, and maybe still is, the prudent thing to do, but at a certain point that darkness will arrive, and the only thing left to do will be to embrace it, get as much of a trade haul as possible, and appreciate the memories of old.
Edwards and the Timberwolves are still chasing what Giannis and the Bucks achieved back in 2021. The Bucks are both an inspirational story and a cautionary tale of what a small-market team can achieve and how quickly it can fade away.
Tuesday’s game between the two teams was a perfect encapsulation of where both franchises currently stand. While the Wolves may be building on a golden era in their franchise’s history, the Bucks may be departing one of their own.
