Monday night’s game in Sacramento was the last before a stretch of seven games that could define the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 2017-18 season.
It was an opportunity to play a Kings team that entered the night tied with five other teams for the fewest wins in the NBA, a team the Timberwolves handled with relative ease in the two previous meetings this season. It was an opportunity to squeeze out another win without the injured Jimmy Butler.
Minnesota turned in a quality performance, one of their better games in recent memory, and cruised to a 118-100 victory.
All points that follow this come with this caveat: Sacramento is one of the worst teams in the NBA, and tonight played without their two veteran cornerstones, Vince Carter and Zach Randolph.
They are in contention for the worst record in the NBA and the first overall draft pick in next summer’s talent-filled draft. The Timberwolves should have won this game comfortably, and while they’ve struggled against similarly pathetic teams recently, this win was exactly what they should have done, even without Butler.
With that said, Karl-Anthony Towns was the leader of a quality team effort tonight, turning in an absolutely dominant performance.
He led all players with 26 points and 17 rebounds, and the Timberwolves’ 42-31 overall victory on the glass was largely due to his strength and aggressive positioning. Neither Willie Cauley-Stein nor Kosta Koufos could hope to defend him or take him out of position tonight, and he made full use of his interior skillset.
The Timberwolves looked like they might let this game turn into another close game in which their superior talent would drag them over the line in the fourth quarter, like Saturday’s game against Chicago.
They led by only three at halftime, and while they had pushed their lead to as many as ten in the first half, the bad defense that has plagued the team all year kept letting Sacramento sneak back in.
That changed in a stellar third quarter effort, which saw Minnesota double Sacramento up 34-17, with much-improved defense and continued quality offense from every member of the team.
While Towns was key, all five Minnesota starters finished the game scoring in double figures, including Nemanja Bjelica in his sixth start of the year replacing Butler.
Andrew Wiggins was unleashed, aggressively taking advantage of Kings players who could not hope to defend him, and his 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting were the kind of play Minnesota will need moving forward.
Jeff Teague continued his recent renaissance as well, scoring 20 points for the fourth time in the last five games while adding seven assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Teague’s scoring was trending up before Butler’s injury, and the increased need to replace Butler’s points appears to have spurred Teague on. He actually had the worst shooting night of the starters, going only 4-of-14 from the field, but his aggressive and decisive play is reflected in his team-high 12 free throw attempts.
Teague and Bjelica both filled up the secondary stats. Bjelica had just 12 points, but was second on the team with seven rebounds and added three assists and four steals, with noticeably improved defensive effort in his new role.
In Bjelica’s starts this season, he continues to appear like a player who becomes more comfortable on the floor the more minutes he receives, which is not a surprise, but is important to note especially given he is playing a different position than he has for most of the season starting at the 3.
The win leaves the Timberwolves with eighteen games left in the regular season.
The next seven are crucial and difficult: back-to-back games at Portland and Utah on Thursday and Friday, which would clinch head-to-head tiebreakers over both teams should the Wolves manage to win both games.
Then a six-day break before Boston and Golden State come to Target Center, a trip to Washington, and back-to-back games at San Antonio (which will clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker for the game’s winner) and against Houston at home.
They enter these games well-placed: they moved back ahead of San Antonio by half a game for the third seed in the West with tonight’s win, and the Spurs have a difficult game against the Pelicans, winners of six straight games, on Wednesday. However, New Orleans themselves are only two games back of Minnesota, as are Portland and Oklahoma City.
The Timberwolves did what they needed to do tonight to keep their noses ahead of the pack. Now the year’s biggest challenge begins, as March enters with a roar.
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