Dunking With Wolves is back with its weekly installment of the Power Rankings. Charting the best players for the Minnesota Timberwolves over the last four games.
Despite the Minnesota Timberwolves raising their overall record to 38-26 (fourth place) after three wins and a single loss since the last power rankings edition, any sort of sweet taste in the mouth of Wolves fans was quickly soured when superstar Jimmy Butler went down with a meniscus injury.
After having surgery this weekend, his timetable until the return has been set at 4-6 weeks, just in time to return in the last knockings of the season or early in the playoffs if Minnesota can hold on without him.
The power rankings games started before the All-Star break, however, with the Timberwolves pulling out a 119-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on a night where Target Center remembered and honored the passing of the late, great Flip Saunders.
The Lakers looked good early, but they were halted quicker than this Isaiah Thomas layup when it came to the final quarter of the night:
"The backboard is your friend." - @KarlTowns (probably)
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 16, 2018
❌❌❌ pic.twitter.com/kktql9KKRp
Next up was the night all fans (except maybe Houston’s) will want to forget. The Wolves lost Jimmy Butler and the game against the red-hot Rockets, falling 120-102 in a bitter night.
With the bad news barely behind them, the Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins led Timberwolves trounced the Chicago Bulls in Zach LaVine‘s return to the Target Center, outscoring the Bulls 62-42 in the second half to run away with a 122-104 triumph.
Winning games against the league’s worst teams is crucial now without Jimmy G. Buckets, and they did that again with the 118-100 win over the Sacramento Kings on the back of 48 combined points by Wiggins and Towns.
Let’s check out who made the ship float and who made it sink!
*All Players must play 15 total minutes, stats provided by NBA.com*