The Minnesota Timberwolves continued their improbable and unexpected turnaround. After a truly dreadful start at 4-9, they won tonight for the 8th time in 11 games to get back to .500 at 12-12. They're just 0.5 GB 8th place and a spot in the Western Division playoffs.
In order to do that, they had to turn things around tonight against the Houston Rockets, too. Houston outscored the Wolves 38-24 in the 2nd period to lead 62-48 at the half. Their biggest lead was 62-43 at :36 of the 2nd. From there, Tyus Jones and Robert Covington scored the last 5 points of the 1st half. Then the Wolves went on a 38-20 tear in the 3rd quarter as they grabbed 8 offensive rebounds--Taj Gibson 5 of them--and shot 13-of-24 from the field including 7-of-10 3s. A pair of 3s by Jeff Teague tied things up, then gave the Wolves the lead, and another 3 by Dario Saric, off a Teague assists, gave the Wolves the lead for good.
Meanwhile the Houston offense went cold and stayed cold with just 9 points in the 4th quarter, and the Wolves extended their lead from 86-82 after 3 to the final of 103-91. James Harden almost scored his average with 29 but he was not allowed to go crazy (8-of-17 shooting), while Clint Capela added 24. The 2 of them shot 19-of-31. Everybody else shot 13-of-43 (30%).
Karl Towns led the Wolves with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 3 steals. Andrew Wiggins added 16 with 3 blocked shots. Taj Gibson had a great game with 15 points and 11 boards. Covington scored 13. Derrick Rose failed to score but had 5 assists, and Tyus had 5 points and 3 steals. We shot a creditable 44/50/71%. Well, 50% (11-of-22) is more than creditable from long range--Saric and Wiggins made 5-of-7. 44 is creditable. 71 is barely creditable from the line, where Wiggins made just 2-of-5.
Against all odds, the Wolves have become a terrific defensive team, at least for the time being. I don't honestly know how they're doing it, but they're doing it. And, the offense is good enough. This team was built around Towns. Butler proved to be a massive distraction from that. Now the Wolves are back to doing what they do and being who they are, and it suits them well.
Player of the Day--Karl Towns
Team of the Day--Minnesota Timberwolves
Coach of the Day--Jeff Buffetta, Mountain Iron-Buhl girls, who tripled up a good Bloodwood team 69-23 tonight
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