Minnesota Timberwolves: Wolves beat Nets in first game without Jimmy Butler

The Minnesota Timberwolves stopped a five-game losing skid by beating the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night in their first game of the post-Jimmy Butler era.

Finally, the Minnesota Timberwolves and their fans can draw a deep breath. Jimmy Butler is gone, and with him much of the toxic cloud that had been hanging over the team.

Fitting enough, the Wolves won their first game sans Butler, despite not having any of the players who were acquired in exchange for the four-time All-Star.

Andrew Wiggins and Jeff Teague each returned to the lineup; Teague had misses six straight games with a knee injury and Wiggins had missed Friday night’s game with a quadriceps contusion. Without Dario Saric and Robert Covington available, it was important that Teague and Wiggins came back — and they not only returned to the court but played quite well in the victory.

The Timberwolves relied heavily on the trio of Teague, Derrick Rose, and Karl-Anthony Towns. All three scored north of 20 points and paced the offensive attack on a night that saw extremely sloppy play by both teams.

The Wolves trailed by one at the close of the first quarter but used a strong bench performance as a jumping off point for a good second quarter and a four-point halftime lead.

With just 3.7 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Brooklyn’s Caris LeVert attempted to block a shot attempt by Josh Okogie and came down awkwardly on his right foot, suffering a gruesome leg injury reminiscent of Gordon Hayward‘s broken leg from opening night last season.

LeVert was carted off the court and brought to a local hospital. We don’t know anything else about the injury as of this writing, but it was absolutely hard to watch and immediately triggered an outpouring of support from players around the league and changed the tenor of Monday night’s Wolves-Nets game.

The second half was mostly controlled by the Wolves, save for a late push by the Nets that had Wolves fans on edge. But strong play down the stretch from the aforementioned trio of Wolves starters was enough to put the game away in the final moments.

Video of the Night

Player of the Game

Karl-Anthony Towns: 25 points (9-11 FG, 2-2 3P, 5-6 FT), 21 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, one steal, 10 turnovers

Sure, Towns had an inauspiciousu “triple-double” with points, rebounds, and turnovers, but there were quite a few cheap turnovers in there.

From a couple of extremely weak offensive fouls to a pair of questionable traveling calls and at least one simple miscommunication with a teammate, that number should have been closer to five than 10. Not that five would be a great number either — Towns was absolutely careless with the ball at times on Monday — but it’s certainly a palatable number for a guy putting up a 20-20 game.

And that’s what Towns did. He put up 25 points on just 11 shots and grabbed 21 rebounds against a tiny Nets front, which is exactly what Minnesota needed from their lone remaining All-Star.

Notable Timberwolves Box Score Lines

• Jeff Teague: 24 points (8-14 FG, 0-3 3P, 8-9 FT), 11 assists, 3 steals, one rebound
• Derrick Rose: 23 points (8-18 FG, 3-5 3P, 4-4 FT), 6 assists, 2 rebounds, one steal, one block
• Taj Gibson: 17 points (5-8 FG, 7-8 FT), 9 rebounds, one steal, one assist, one block
• Andrew Wiggins: 13 points (5-12 FG, 2-3 3P, 1-2 FT), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, one steal, one block

The starting lineup was fantastic on this night that included a short bench for Tom Thibodeau. Gibson was great once again, scoring 17 points on eight field goal attempts and grabbing nine rebounds.

Teague was the runner-up for our player of the game award, scoring 24 points and dishing out 11 assists in his return from a six-game absence. He appeared to aggravate his injury a couple of times, so hopefully he’s no worse for the wear come Wednesday night.

Wiggins had a solid all-around game as he eased back into action after missing Friday’s game in Sacramento. He had a rare stat-stuffing game, pulling down six rebounds and logging three assists.

What’s Next?

The Timberwolves will play host to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN. It’s an important game, as the Pelicans are one of the many teams the Wolves can expect to be battling to squeeze into the playoffs come spring. It should also be the Wolves debut for both Saric and Covington, so be sure to tune in for this one.