The Minnesota Timberwolves continued their dominance at Target Center in front of celebrity fans in for the Super Bowl with a 118-107 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. They ambushed the Pels, who were coming off a back-to-back, early and never relinquished their lead.
“They were coming off the back-to-back,” said Tom Thibodeau after the game. “The start of the game was critical for us.”
The win was Minnesota’s 12th home win in a row, two shy of the team record of 14 in a row from Dec. 16, 2003 to Feb. 6, 2004. Its 37 points in the first quarter marked a season-high.
While Anthony Davis led a charge midway through the first quarter and finished with 38 points, the Wolves dominated New Orleans with a balanced effort.
Jimmy Butler had 30 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Karl-Anthony Towns recorded his league-leading 47th double-double with 22 points and 16 rebounds. Andrew Wiggins finished with 15 points, and Taj Gibson had 12 and nine.
“Taj had a lot of good plays defensively for us, and ran the floor great,” added Thibodeau. “There’s a lot of subtleties to what Taj does out there too. He’ll seal in transition, and guys can drive the ball to the basket.”
Their 22 home wins are tied with San Antonio for a league-high, but their 12-16 road record is keeping them from wrestling the No. 3 seed in the West away from the Spurs. That includes road losses to struggling Eastern Conference teams like the Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets.
The Wolves have two road games that will be on ESPN next week: Feb. 7 vs. Cleveland and Feb. 9 vs. Chicago.
The Cavaliers lost to the Houston Rockets 120-88, and the Bulls are the No. 13 seed in the East with an 18-34 record. So naturally, the question is how to translate the success at home to wins on the road.
“The biggest thing is we have to do everything we do here; get our reps and make sure that we’re fully prepared for the game,” said Towns.
“Our coaches do a great job of preparing us and we have to go out there and execute. I think sometimes we get a little too complacent on the road and we relax a little bit too much.”
“You just got to go about it the same way. You’ve got to wake up for every game the same way — probably even more so on the road because it’s so much more difficult,” added Butler.
“We’re heading on the road for some good challenges. Guard, get some turnovers, get out into the open floor and we’ll see where we end up.”
For those of you on Tyus Jones watch, he played 20 minutes, scoring 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, but was a minus-10. Jeff Teague had five points on 2-of-7 shooting, but was a plus-23 in nearly 27 minutes.
Jones says that he’s taking open shots when he sees them more, but is still looking to pass and facilitate the offense.
“I just want him to make the right play, and sometimes he’s almost too unselfish,” said Thibodeau. “When he’s open, I want him to shoot. On a pick-and-roll, he’s the first option. And then once you make him defend that, then other things will open up.”
The Wolves won on Saturday in front of celebrities like Sting, Guy Fieri and Floyd Mayweather. In Cleveland and Chicago, they will have an entire ESPN audience watching them. Protecting home court is important, but winning on the road would help them take over the No. 3 seed in the West and get a more favorable playoff matchup and home-court advantage, the latter of which seems very important right now.
