Timberwolves Wrap: Wolves beat Kings with ease

The Timberwolves withstood a furious third quarter rally to win comfortably on the road Monday night in Sacramento.

After a disappointing loss in Houston on Saturday night, the Timberwolves landed in Sacramento to face the Kings on Monday night trailing the Denver Nuggets by three games for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Kings are just a game back, with Portland and Dallas also standing less than three games behind as well.

Yes, the Wolves are just one of five teams (six, if you count New Orleans) battling for a single spot in the West, and with it the right to be defeated in the first round by Golden State. But for Minnesota, the first playoff berth in 13 years would mean a lot.

And the Kings are one of the teams that stand in the way, albeit without superstar DeMarcus Cousins, who now resides in New Orleans, for a Pelicans team trailing the Wolves in the standings. But it’s a Kings team that the Wolves still need to beat in order to reach postseason play.

On this night, the Wolves rode a monster, 40-point first quarter and a strong close to the third frame to cement a relatively easy, double-digit win.

Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns were both fantastic, per usual, and much of the rest of the roster was solid. The Kings rag-tag bunch was far from dynamic, and the Wolves didn’t need to do much other than not allow the sloppiness that plagued them in Saturday’s loss in Houston from cropping up once again.

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Towns was a beast on the glass, cleaning up misses from his teammates and himself alike, padding his rebounding stats in a necessary and effective way that Timberwolves haven’t seen since Kevin Love‘s heyday. KAT grabbed 17 rebounds, including a whopping eight of the offensive variety.

Wiggins scored with a variety of difficult, turnaround jumpers that often seemed ill-advised until they went down, almost reminiscent of a Kobe Bryant-type scoring night in a way.

The Wolves defense was actually fairly solid in this one; a few tough, contested jumpers by the Kings from the perimeter that happened to go down kept them within shouting distance when it seemed as though Minnesota might be able to hold a 20-plus-point lead for an extended period of time.

But overall, the rotations were much tighter than they have been of late for the Wolves and the Kings punch-less offense was held to 88 points on the night.

Tweet of the Night

Star of the Night

Karl-Anthony Towns: 29 points (13-19 FG, 1-1 3P, 2-5 FT), 17 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, 2 turnovers

Towns was magnificant. He scored nearly all of his points in the paint or from the post, with a couple of Dirk Nowitzki-esque, one-legged jumpers and a single three-pointer from the top of the key to lead-off the second half as the obvious exceptions.

His work on the glass was yeoman-like as he absolutely dominated the Kings’ big men. Only Kosta Koufos managed double-digits in rebounds with 11, and nobody else managed more than six in a Sacramento uniform.

The activity level on the glass from KAT over the past few games is unlike anything we’ve seen in terms of rebounding to this point in Towns’ young career. It’s a sight to behold and if it continues, we’ll continue to see gaudy numbers from the reigning Rookie of the Year.

Notable Timberwolves Lines

• Andrew Wiggins: 27 points (10-22 FG, 1-3 3P, 6-8 FT), 4 rebounds, 4 steals, one assist, zero turnovers
• Ricky Rubio: 9 points (3-8 FG, 1-1 3P, 2-2 FT), 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, one block, 2 turnovers
• Nemanja Bjelica: 10 points (4-15 FG, 2-8 3P), 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 35 minutes
• Gorgui Dieng: 2 points (0-8 FG, 0-1 3P, 2-2 FT), 10 rebounds, one assist, 2 turnovers

Wiggins was very good, although the degree of difficulty on his shot attempts was a bit too high. He did have a number of savvy defensive plays, especially in the first half.

Rubio was very good, although his mid-range jump-shot appears to be ever-so-slightly broken once again. But his vision on offense and activity on defense and on the glass was much needed.

Bjeclia played one of his better games of the season, despite his unsightly shooting line. He was extremely effective rebounding the ball and was seemingly all over the floor. In 35 minutes (Gorgui Dieng’s horribly shooting night earned him just 20 minutes of playing time in this one), Bjelica did not turn the ball over a single time.

Next: No Activity For Timberwolves At Trade Deadline

Who’s Up Next?

The Timberwolves head east over the state line to face off against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday evening at 8:00 p.m. as they look to continue their ascent into the playoff picture in the Western Conference.