The 2017-18 campaign saw the Timberwolves win 47 games and land the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Let’s rank the top five individual performances by Wolves players during the season.
The Timberwolves went from 31 wins in 2016-17 to 47 in 2017-18. Adding Jimmy Butler had a lot to do with the ascension, of course, but there was absolutely measurable growth from their other All-Star, Karl-Anthony Towns.
That means that our list of the top five individual performances of the season includes more than just Butler, although there is plenty of Jimmy G. on the list, too.
There wasn’t rigid criteria for this list, just simply a solid and diverse stat line to go along with a Timberwolves win. And while Butler is much more the type of player to always be solid on both ends of the floor than to drop 45, 12, and 10, Towns is certainly the eye-popping numbers kind of guy.
And because we couldn’t just pick five, we’ll kick things off with an honorable mention game — call it No. 6 on our top five list. Let’s get into it with the lone Andrew Wiggins performance on this list.
The Timberwolves only had two individual scoring performances north of 40 points this season. Somewhat surprisingly, zero of them belonged to Jimmy Butler, and one of them belonged to Andrew Wiggins.
Butler had just missed a Saturday night victory over the eventual Eastern Conference No.1 seed Toronto Raptors, and a West Coast letdown seemed to be a real possibility without their superstar in the lineup.
But Wiggins stepped up, scoring 40 points and knocking down a trio of triples to go along with six rebounds. Jeff Teague drained 16 of 17 free throw attempts and scored 30 points of his own while Towns only made a single field goal and scored just 11 points on the night.
The game was close throughout but was sealed in part due to a pair of big rebounds from Wiggins down the stretch. It was a solid all-around game at a time when the Wolves needed just that from their third fiddle.
The Timberwolves traveled to Portland on Dec. 18 holding just a half-game lead over the Trail Blazers in the Northwest Division standings. They had just lost two out of their last three games, including a loss to the lowly Suns just 48 hours prior that saw Jimmy Butler hobbled due to back spasms.
Enter Jimmy Butler, proven scorer and defensive force. While the Blazers star backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum combined to shoot just 16-of-35 for 37 points while committing eight turnovers, Butler put up 37 points while not turning the ball over a single time.
The Wolves trailed by double-digits in the fourth quarter and had been relying on Jamal Crawford, who scored 23 points in 23 minutes off the bench, to carry the scoring load. But Butler reentered the game down the stretch and scored in a variety of ways, including hitting a series of huge free throws down the stretch.
This was another example of Butler filling the box score and contributing in every facet of the game in what was an important divisional matchup.
Way back on Oct. 22, Andrew Wiggins knocked down a buzzer-beating 3-pointer near halfcourt to defeat the Thunder in Oklahoma City. The Wolves improved to 2-1 on the young season, but then followed that encouraging victory with a pair of horrible losses, at home to Indiana and on the road in Detroit.
The 2-3 Timberwolves returned home to face a Thunder squad who was just 2-2 themselves and trying to find their footing in a world with all three of Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony on the same team.
While Jimmy Butler was ultra-efficient in his return from a two-game absence due to illness (25 points on 7-of-10 shooting with seven assists and five rebounds), but the Wolves were led by Karl-Anthony Towns’ dominance over OKC’s frontcourt.
Towns swatted away four Thunder shots in this game and only committed one turnover while shooting 50 percent from the field en route to 33 points. His 19 rebounds were 11 more than any single player on the Thunder managed to grab, and yours’ truly noted this about KAT’s defense after the game:
"Towns has been much-maligned for his defense of late, and for good reason. He struggled defensively early on this night as well, but stepped up his game in a big way beginning in the third quarter against the Thunder. Whether it was switching onto Carmelo Anthony on the perimeter and holding his own or helping in the paint to the tune of four blocked shots, KAT was huge."
Going up two games to zero in the season series against a team like the Thunder was huge, and the Wolves ended up with a 3-1 edge against OKC. Towns stepped up big and put up enormous numbers in the win.
Jeff Teague didn’t put up many eye-popping stat lines in his first season with the Timberwolves, but amidst the peaks and valleys, he managed to have some notably high highs.
The overtime win in Miami came just three days after the Towns-led win over the Thunder at Target Center. Butler struggled in his second game back after an illness, scoring just 16 points on 13 shots. Teague’s 23 was a team-high, but it wasn’t just putting the ball in the basket that gave Teague the third-best individual performance of the Wolves season.
Teague grabbed six steals as Heat point guard Goran Dragic stumbled to six turnovers while Dion Waiters committed five of us own. Teague was opportunistic and seemingly everywhere as he turned the Heat miscues into Wolves points. The 11 assists and five rebounds are nothing to sneeze at, either.
Minnesota was ahead by four points with just 38 seconds remaining but failed to answer as Waiter scored four points in the final half-minute and sent the game to overtime. But with momentum against them, Teague scored seven points and dished out two assists in the extra session to cement a difficult road victory.
Coming off of a Christmas Day victory over the Lakers that had given the Wolves their fifth straight victory, Jimmy Butler and Co. were looking to improve to 22-13 on the season and 2-0 against divisional rival Denver.
The Wolves jumped out to a 35-23 lead after the first quarter, led by 13 point at halftime, and appeared to be about to cruise to an easy win. But a horrible third quarter and a miserable start to the final frame meant that things were going to come down the wire.
With the Wolves clinging to a one point lead with only 13 seconds left, Jeff Teague suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury in a scramble for a loose ball. (Teague ended up missing a handful of games with a knee sprain, but in the moment it looked as though it could have been a season-ender.)
Then, Taj Gibson made one of two free throws, leaving the door open for the Nuggets to tie it up and send it to overtime. But then, it was Jimmy G. Buckets time.
Butler scored 12 of the Wolves’ 14 points in overtime and assisted on the other basket, a mid-range jumper from Jamal Crawford that gave Minnesota a lead they wouldn’t relinquish with 17 seconds left in the extra period.
Butler was unstoppable, and this is perhaps the clearest example from the Wolves season that includes a superstar simply willing his squad to victory. That’s exactly what Butler did on this night, and the Wolves followed the win by holding their next eight opponents under 100 points, ultimately winning 12 of 15 games during a stretch spanning mid-December into early January.
When the Timberwolves lost Jimmy Butler to a knee injury in late February, they were clinging to a top-four seed in the Western Conference playoff picture, but only a couple of games separated them from being out of the playoff hunt entirely.
Indeed, the Wolves went just 9-9 in Butler’s absence, but entered the final two weeks of the season needing to win at least five of their final seven games in order to get to postseason play.
Perhaps more importantly, Minnesota was coming off of the worst loss of the season against a tanking Memphis team just 48 hours prior. The Wolves needed a jolt, and KAT gave it to them in a big way.
Towns put up a franchise-record 56 points, knocking down six of his eight 3-point attempts and putting the pedal to the floor down the stretch as a bad Hawks team tried to hang around and ruin the Wolves season.
And while the Hawks were a terrible team on both ends of the court in 2017-18, a 56-point game is nothing to sneeze at, and especially not under the circumstances that the Wolves were facing. Following this win, the Wolves squeaked past the Mavericks two nights later before dropping two straight and needing to win three consecutive games to make the playoffs.
Next: Is Karl-Anthony Towns upset with the Wolves?
Butler returned for the final two games, and the two All-Stars dragged their squad across the finish line to cement the Wolves’ first playoff spot in 14 years.