The Minnesota Timberwolves are going to have to beat inferior opponents — convincingly, when possible — if they are going to be a 50-win team this season. They did so on Saturday night, crushing the one-win Dallas Mavericks 112-99.
Karl-Anthony Towns had a 31-point, 12 assist night after scoring only 2 points on Wednesday, and Andrew Wiggins had 23 points. Minnesota outrebounded Dallas 48-31, and 11 of 13 players had at least a point and assist, but the Wolves had a lull in the fourth quarter that allowed the Mavs to close on a lead that grew as large as 28 at one point.
“I was obviously pleased with the win, but there’s things we have to work on,” said head coach Tom Thibodeau. “The rebounding was really good, I thought the unselfishness was very good. We have to take what we learned from this game, and there’s a quick turnaround to get ready for tomorrow.”
The Wolves bench buoyed the team in the second quarter, allowing the starters to play fewer minutes than they usually would. The Wolves play the Charlotte Hornets at home on Saturday.
“I thought our starters, Andrew’s up at 35 [minutes], but everyone else was down pretty good,” said Thibodeau. “And so, the better the bench plays, the longer they’ll play.
“But I like the way they’ve been playing, and it is a good problem to have when someone does get hot like that, to use that. And then the great value in a guy like Bjelly is he fits well with the starters, and he fits well with the bench.”
Nemanja Bjelica and Tyus Jones combined to go 5-for-5 from 3, and Jamal Crawford had 8 points off the bench.
“We see it every day,” said Thibodeau, referring to Bjelica’s shot. “We see it in practice, we see it in games. He’s in a great rhythm, and it opens up the floor for us.
“Tyus made a couple tonight too, so that’s a lot of pressure on the defense.”
This game went according to plan, in general. The bench kept the starters from having to play heavy minutes, everyone got in on the scoring and the Wolves blew out an inferior team.
The more they can do this against a team like Dallas, the better their odds are of not only making the playoffs, but pushing to get into the top-five in the West.
Here is the FSN feed of Thibodeau’s press conference:
Butler insists that all he cares about is winning, but so far he has been unselfish. Thibodeau was fine with his 4-point night because he had seven assists and played good defense.
“If you’re open, I’m going to pass it to you,” Butler said. “If I think that you’re going to make the shot, I’m going to pass it to you. If it’s the right play, I’m going to pass it to you. If I feel like it’s the right time to shoot, I’ll shoot it.”
Towns said that it was not a bounce-back game for him. “I just wanted to go out there and get a win,” he said. “I was feeling really good last game, so it didn’t feel like a bounce-back game to me. It just felt like another game.”
And Jones talked about his 3-point shooting and how he’s able to score immediately after coming off the bench:
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