It was less than two minutes into Thursday's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves and both John Henson and Tony Snell knew they had messed up defensively.

So when Sterling Brown and Thon Maker went to the scorer's table, both Milwaukee Bucks starters knew they'd be headed to the bench momentarily.

"It was my fault," Henson said. "Me and Tony didn't blitz (Jimmy) Butler and it was the game plan. We talked about it two minutes before we got on the court and we need to execute. Rightfully so, we had to come out. Needless to say, I didn't not blitz him again, so it worked."

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Henson and Snell were the first of multiple Bucks to get a hook from head coach Jason Kidd on Thursday night. It was something that ultimately worked out and the players appreciated as they battled back from a 20-point deficit to earn a 102-96 win at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

“They just made a mistake and we just needed to talk about it, and I thought they fixed it after we talked about it," Kidd said. "Understanding what the game plan was and they didn’t execute it right away. Being pros those guys responded in a positive way and that just shows the maturity. Hopefully, that group is growing up, the guys that did get pulled."

Those two starters hit the bench with 10:05 remaining the first quarter and point guard Eric Bledsoe joined them just over a minute later. On successive possessions, Bledsoe hurt the Bucks with an obvious lack of intensity.

First, he threw a lazy, poor pass that was easily stolen by Butler. The next time the Bucks got the ball, Khris Middleton lost control of it and it squirted out toward half court. Bledsoe, who was the closest Bucks player to the ball aside from Middleton, never made any attempt to help Middleton corral it and didn't help chase down Minnesota's Tyus Jones, who scooped up the loose ball and put in a layup over Middleton on the break.

Maker missed a shot and then Timberwolves guard Andrew Wiggins knocked down a three-pointer, prompting a timeout from Kidd. When the Bucks returned to the court, Matthew Dellavedova was in for Bledsoe, with the swap coming just over three minutes after tip-off.

"I feel like that's just great coaching," Bledsoe said. "We go over stuff, go over situations. The way they prepare us during shootaround and we come and (mess) up time after time in the game, you gotta try something new.

"And he did a great job pulling guys that were (messing) up and I thought we did a great job responding when we got back in."

With three starters on the bench, the Bucks scuffled through the first quarter. Down by six when Bledsoe joined Snell and Henson on the bench, the deficit ballooned to 14 points before Bledsoe came back in late in the quarter.

Milwaukee went over 5 1/2 minutes without a field goal, with some of that time coming after Bledsoe's return. Brown, Maker, Dellavedova and Terry combined to log 23 first-quarter minutes, and Giannis Antetokounmpo was the only starter to play the whole period.

While he stayed in the right during the opening half, Kidd made it clear shortly after halftime that even Antetokounmpo — Milwaukee's star and one of the NBA's top players — isn't immune to getting the hook.

"Even Giannis can make mistakes and understanding we’re a team, there is no favorite," Kidd said. "He made a mistake, he understood the mistake, and he moved on.”

Those mistakes came on the defensive end where Taj Gibson opened the third quarter with a pair of buckets inside that Antetokounmpo played a role in failing to stop. Malcolm Brogdon, who barely saw the court in the first half, was summoned off the bench about a minute into the third quarter with the Bucks down by 13. He replaced Antetokounmpo.

“I love it," Antetokounmpo said three times. "If you’re not doing the right thing, you’ve got to sit your butt on the bench. I think Coach did a great job pulling guys out and teaching them a lesson. I was one of them. He pulled me out and he told me, ‘You’ve got to play harder.’

"I came back in, played harder. I love that. (For) a coach to do that, that means he really wants to win and he really cares about his team. We’ve got to appreciate that as players.”

By the time Antetokounmpo got back in, the Bucks were on the brink of an embarrassing loss. They were down, 74-54, with 7:13 left in the third and the sellout crowd at the Bradley Center was booing at what they were seeing.

But like the other players who had been pulled earlier, Antetokounmpo responded. He battled on defense and made big plays down the stretch — collecting 22 points and 10 rebounds — to help lead the comeback.

"Me as a player and I know everyone on this team appreciates that," Antetokounmpo said of Kidd's decision to bench him. "No one gets no special treatment. We’re just here to win. Whoever wants to play hard is going to play, whoever doesn’t want to play hard is going to sit on the bench.”

Bledsoe upped his intensity after his early malaise, powering the Bucks on their final push, a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter. He had a hand in 10 of those points, coming through on four straight possessions.

He knocked down the go-ahead three-pointer, curled into the lane for a layup through a foul, hit Antetokounmpo down low for a layup then found Henson for an exclamation-point dunk with 36.2 seconds left.

Bledsoe finished with a team-high 26 points, six assists and five steals. Henson, who scored Milwaukee's first eight points out of halftime, played a big role as well, finishing with 14 points and being lauded by Kidd postgame for his pick-and-roll defense, especially when it came to making things difficult for Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns in the fourth quarter.

"It's cool," Henson said. "I love to be held accountable because it allows other teammates to be held accountable and it trickles on down and everybody does their job. That's part of building a winning culture and it was good for us tonight."