MILWAUKEE _ Television networks paid the NBA $24 billion for the rights of such things as ABC's Saturday night game of the week in which Golden State's Steve Kerr rested four of his remaining healthy stars and San Antonio played without two of its own stars.
They should have just shown the Minnesota Timberwolves' 102-95 loss at Milwaukee across the country instead.
In a meeting of some of the NBA's greatest young stars, the Wolves lost for just the second time in six games and the third time in nine games to a Bucks team that now has won six consecutive games, dating to a loss at Denver on March 1.
Bucks first-time All-Star starter Giannis Antetokounmpo was one of six Bucks players to reach double-figured scoring and his 18-point, 7-rebound performance helped counter young Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns' 35- point, 14-rebound game as well as Ricky Rubio's 22-point, 8-assist game.
Tony Snell led the Bucks with 19 points on a night when the Wolves stepped back from their pursuit of the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff spot.
After beating the league-leading Warriors 103-102 Friday night, Rubio called the Wolves' overtime loss at San Antonio and victories over the L.A. Clippers and Golden State the "best week we have played basketball all year."
He also said: "But that doesn't mean nothing if we lose tomorrow. We just keep going."
They kept going right on to Milwaukee, where the Bucks built an eight-point lead early in the fourth quarter and the Wolves just never could quite catch up when they went completely cold in the game's final 2{ minutes.
The Bucks led 85-77 with nine minutes left and 91-83 with 6{ minutes left before Rubio scored seven consecutive points for his team to get the Wolves within 95-93 with 2:39 left.
But those were the last points the Wolves scored until Nemanja Bjelica scored just before the final buzzer. Antetokounmpo's two free throws just 13 seconds later pushed Milwaukee into a 97-93 lead and the Bucks finished by making their free throws from there after the Wolves were forced to foul.
While Kerr elected to sit Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala in addition to injured Kevin Durant far away in San Antonio, the Wolves and Bucks put on a display of some of the game's greatest young stars, most notably Antetokounmpo and the Wolves' Towns-Andrew Wiggins tag team.
"There's a lot of young talent," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said before the game. "Minnesota is playing extremely well and Thibs has them playing at a very high level. They're playing for something. You have two teams playing to get into the playoffs and to continue to have their season go into April and May."
Towns' 35-point, 14-rebound night was his 20th consecutive game of 20 or more points. It is by one game the franchise's longest such streak, one more than Wiggins' 19-gamer that ended exactly a week before at San Antonio.
Thibodeau, meanwhile, sent a variety of defenders at Antetokounmpo, all in an effort that limited the first-time All-Star Game starter last month to those mere 18 points and seven rebounds on Saturday.
Wiggins defended him. So did Bjelica.
Even 6-4 point guard Kris Dunn got his chance briefly at times.
"When you're dealing with a player like that, you don't stop them," Thibodeau said before the game. "You try to make them work for their points and you can't give them a steady diet of anything. You may give different looks, matchup-wise. You may use different schemes. You're trying to get them to read and react to what you're doing. I think a steady diet of anything, they're too good.
"They've seen all the defenses there are. So you want to try to give them different looks."
The Wolves led 5-0 after 90 seconds, trailed 23-19 by first quarter's end and went into halftime tied with the Bucks after Rubio and Milwaukee's Matthew Dellavadova traded three-pointers to end the half.
