The Minnesota Timberwolves were defeated by the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday afternoon, 88-78. The loss marks second consecutive home game in which the Wolves failed to score more than 80 points. Having scored less than 90 points in four of the previous five matchups, each of them losses, the Wolves will hold practice Monday before flying out to Oakland for a matchup against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.
After making his first six field goal attempts, Andrew Wiggins finished the first half with 15 points (6-of-8 FG) to go with the seven points, six assists and 13 rebounds that were tallied by Karl-Anthony Towns. Still, Dallas entered the third quarter with a 41-40 lead thanks to (you guessed it! Ok, maybe not): JJ Barea, who finished the first half having scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Dirk Nowitzki made just three of his first 10 attempts from the field en route to eight first-half points.
Mavericks Salah Mejri keeps a list of the All-Stars he has blocked this season, such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Damian Lillard and Andre Drummond. Although he has not yet been named to an All-Star team, Karl-Anthony Towns might be the latest name added to Mejri’s list.
Vaya tapón de Mejri https://t.co/2bQKHjWYjN
— Miguel (@hijosa16) April 3, 2016
Unlike Towns, Wiggins, though he isn’t an All-Star, either, managed to keep himself off of the list. In fact, he put Mejri on the wrong end of a Vine (in the past, this sentence would have used the word, poster) with this emphatic jam during the first half.
Not nice, Andrew Wiggins. Not nice at all. https://t.co/s6xKyn5hGv https://t.co/edBCeOBEtl
— SB Nation NBA (@SBNationNBA) April 3, 2016
Notes
Dallas grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and finished 8-of-15 second chance opportunities. The Wolves were outscored 20-2 in points of the second chance variety.
Barea scored 21 points. It was the third consecutive game in which he has put up at least 20 points, a career-high streak. Barea is now 22-0 all time in games against the Timberwolves. Dallas is 6-2 when he scores 20+ points this season.
Matthews finished with 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting (6-of-13 3PT).
Wiggins finished with 30 points on 12-of-21 shooting, his ninth 30+ point game of the season and second in his last four games.
Towns posted season highs in both rebounds (21) and assists (9) while scoring 11 points. He has posted a double-double in each of the last 12 games, and 48 throughout his rookie season. But as he would mention after the game, the statistical accomplishments mean nothing because the Wolves were unable to win the game.
“I don’t feel good about having stats like that and not winning,” Towns said.
“They had a lot of tapouts, offensive rebounds and I think [they] got 20-somethin’ points off of it, six 3’s off of it,” Wiggins said.
“That right there, the game changes.”
