Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 takeaways from Wolves win over Trail Blazers

A balanced offensive attack

As mentioned, Andrew Wiggins led the team with 23 points. And while it took 21 shots for him to get there, he was solid after a cold start to the field in the first quarter.

There were a pair of made threes late in the game that were laced with the type of confidence that we don’t always see from Wiggins, and that matters. He also defended with purpose and notched one of those exciting chase-down blocks that fans saw a handful of times last season.

Towns wasn’t utilized often in this one. He did get off 15 shots, but he didn’t get all that many post touches and many of his attempts were off of offensive rebounds (he had three of those) or outside the arc (four 3-point attempts, knocking down two).

Newcomers Covington and Saric weren’t shy, launching a combined 11 3-point attempts. RoCo was 4-of-6 while Saric only made one of his five long-range attempts.

Rose was great off the bench once again, scoring 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Strangely, he only attempted one 3-pointer, which he missed.

Even their 28 assists were evenly distributed, with Teague (seven), Rose (six), Gibson (five), and Wiggins (four) leading the way. Saric had an impressive line of nine points, seven rebounds, and two assists in 27 minutes off the bench and showed himself to be a creative passer on more than on occasion.

Look for Towns to be more involved moving forward and Wiggins to continue in more of a high-usage role as a cutter and spot-up shooter. Covington and Saric are both effective spot-up shooters who can slash to the rim and create when needed.

And the Tyus Jones and Derrick Rose-led bench is a clear upgrade over last year’s league-worst unit. Turns out, ball movement and 3-point shooting is superior to ball-stopping and contested jumpers (cough, Jamal Crawford, cough).

This was a fun one. Enjoy it, Wolves fans.