Just when you thought it was NOT safe to go into the water, the Timberwolves surprised you, right? Admit it. Surprised the hell out of me. The last time I wrote about the Wolves, they were goin' good and I allowed myself to get all optimistic. Bad idea. They had crawled back to .500, but then they lost 6 of 7 to find themselves in darn near a "must win" situation with, still, 4 of their next 5 on the road. So what do they do?
Well, they bring Jarryd Bayless into the rotation. With Derrick Rose and Jeff Teague both out, Bayless steps in as backup to Tyus Jones and the two of them scored 12 points with 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Nothing spectacular but, hey, better than Ricky Rubio. And Bayless hit a big 3 to give the Timberwolves a short-lived 40-28 lead early in the 2nd period.
From there, the Thunder outran the Wolves 38-18 in the 2nd period to take a 63-53 halftime lead. The Wolves responded with a 33-17 period of their own to lead 86-80 going into the 4th.
The Wolves still led 97-88 at 7:16 but you knew it was not over. In fact, Oklahoma City picked away and eventually tied things up at 104 at 2:45. Robert Covington hit a 3 and Taj Gibson a 1, but the Thunder tied it up at 108 at 1:24. Then, you know, you could really feel it slipping away when Steven Adams scored on a cutback for a 110-108 lad at :54 but Dario Saric answered with a 3. Michael Westbrook put the Thunder back up by one, but Andrew Wiggins scored to make it 113-112 at :14. Westbrook had fouled out in the meantime, and so Alex Abrinas took the 3 and missed. (Please, God, let the Thunder pick Alex Abrinas for this shot! Please!) Wiggins got the board, got fouled and made 1-of-2, but then Karl Towns grabbed the O-board to put an end to it.
Wiggins scored 30, Towns scored just 18 due to foul trouble, but Covington added 13 Gibson and Gorgui Dieng (you read that right) 11 each and Saric 10. The point guards added 5 and 7 but combined for 7 assists and just 3 turnovers. It was a great overall effort, with the defensive turning it around by allowing the Thunder just 9 3s on 25 attempts. Meanwhile, the Wolves made 14-of-27. End of story.
Still, the Wolves now are 2.5 games out of the playoffs but with Utah, Dallas, Memphis, San Antone and Houston ahead of them in the playoff pecking order. It's still early but, as I already said, they're darn near in must-win territory already. Early, after trading away the Cancer Man, they went 9-4. They'll need that kind of run again, and next time--if there is a next time--they're not going to be able to follow that with a 1-6.
Between now and the end of January the Wolves have 4 road games against teams with losing records, 3 road games against teams with winning record, 6 home games against teams with losing records, and 4 home games against teams with winning records. Win the home games against the losers, lose the road games against the winners, and split the rest. That adds up to 10-7 and 25-25 total. If the Wolves are worse than 25-25 on Feb. 1, it is all over. If they're 25-25, it might be all over. So let's win 11 of the next 17 and then go from there, what do you say?
Player of the Day--Andrew Wiggins
Team of the Day--Minnesota Timberwolves
Coach of the Day--I'm not aware of any other Minnesota coach who was active today, are you?
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