The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Brooklyn Nets 132-118 Saturday night. Karl-Anthony Towns led the team with 28 points. Andrew Wiggins finished with 26, Zach LaVine with 21 and Ricky Rubio had a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists.
“Ricky and Zach and Andrew and Karl and G, those guys set the tone by being aggressive early,” said interim coach Sam Mitchell after the game. “They got us out to a lead, and we just kept building on it.”
Nets coach Tony Brown sat Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young. Markel Brown led Brooklyn with 23 points off the bench. All five Nets starters were in the minus; all five Wolves starters were in the plus. Gorgui Dieng was the only Minnesota starter who did not record a double-digit point total.
“I just thought offensively we were really good, moving the ball, setting screens,” said Mitchell.
The Wolves set a franchise record for shooting percentage:
“Man, it felt like every time we looked up when the guys let the ball go it was going in,” said Mitchell. “I just felt like our guys were really focused.”
Towns’ 14 field goals made were a career-high, and it was his 23rd 20-plus point game of the season:
Wiggins finished with 26 points and had a game-high plus-21 rating (he speaks quietly in this video):
LaVine scored 21 points, his fourth game with 20-plus points. He has shot 41-of-94 (43.6 percent) from three-point range over his past 25 games:
Rubio recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 assists and has shot over 40 percent from the floor and from three in the past 12 games:
And finally, Muhammad added 15 points off the bench on 4-of-8 shooting: