Wolves impress in road win over Nets

Our Timberwolves beat the Brooklyn Nets tonight by the final score of 98 to 91, and in the process showed Wolves Nation that there’s a bright future ahead and plenty to look forward to this season.

After getting off to a quick 17-2 run to start the game, Brooklyn battled back with an 11-0 run of their own. The quarter ended with a 24-21 score in the Wolves favor.

In the second, the Nets expanded their lead as part of 34-13 run, and it looked like they were about to blow the game open. The Wolves hung tough, however, and with a little help from Joe Johnson and his first half foul trouble the Wolves were able to go into the break only down one point, 48-47.

For the first time this season Andrew Wiggins made his presence known early in the game. He scored 9 first half points, and tantalized fans with his jumper, his ability to get to the cup, and most enjoyably with his insane hang time.

Wiggins continued his strong play in the third quarter as well, scoring 8 points in the frame. He continued his varied assault on the basket and showcased his ability to take and make shots that the average player wouldn’t even think about. And he made it look all too easy.

Kevin Martin also was a big help in the third. He scored 7 of his game-high 26 points in the opening minutes of the quarter, and his consistent play throughout was key to the Wolves offensive attack.

The Wolves held a 72-66 lead over the Nets by the end of the third, but the strong play didn’t last. They struggled to start the fourth. Their sloppy play and poor effort combined with improved performance by the Nets were the perfect ingredients for the 16-4 Brooklyn run to start the quarter.

Joe Johnson who struggled with foul trouble for most of the night, bounced back in a big way in the fourth. He finished with 22 points on 9-17 shooting and for a large stretch in the fourth he was unstoppable with the ball in his hands.

Half way through the quarter the Wolves were down 82-76, and Brooklyn had reclaimed all of the momentum. At that point it looked like the Wolves were going to completely fall apart, like they’ve done so many times in the past.

But strangely, it didn’t happen.

The Wolves rallied back and took the lead on a clutch corner three by Kevin Martin to go up 89-88. Moments later with the game tied at 91, Nikola Pekovic converted a big-time three-point play the old-fashioned way to put the Wolves up for good.

With the impressive road win the Wolves move to 2-2 on the season. They play in Orlando on Friday against the magic.

Quick Takes

• Fun Fact: Kevin Garnett was drafted by the Timberwolves in 1995—the same year Andrew Wiggins was born. That’s just crazy. Garnett, a legend in Minneapolis and future first-ballot Hall of Famer, had a quiet game on offense, scoring only 2 points. He did grab 11 rebounds, however.
• Rubio messes around and almost gets the triple-double. Ricky is not the perfect point guard, but he’s invaluable to this team. His consistent effort and leadership are stats that can’t be quantified, but his numbers aren’t bad either. Tonight his stat line looked a little something like this: 14 points, 12 assists, and 8 rebounds–two shy of the highly respected triple-double. More impressive though was his shooting line: 6 0f 11 from the field.
• Kevin Love trade looking pretty good right now. I’m not bashing on KLove here, but Andrew Wiggins’ performance tonight was so promising that Wolves fans can’t help but be happy with how the trade turned out for us. Wiggins scored 17 points, but it’s how he got them that gives me so much hope. He makes the difficult look easy. Anybody else think they were watching Kobe Bryant for moments at a time tonight?