Minnesota Timberwolves: Player grades from Wolves’ loss to the Pelicans
The Minnesota Timberwolves fell on Friday night to the New Orleans Pelicans in a game in which they should have won. Let’s look at the player grades.
69. Final. 117. 86. 122
This game felt all too familiar for Minnesota Timberwolves fans.
Before the season started, Jimmy Butler requested to be traded and was booed when he was on the court. Anthony Davis recently did the same thing to the New Orleans Pelicans and was met with a series of boos to start the game.
Davis played Friday night but was only in the game for 25 minutes — which was 25 too many for the Timberwolves. The Wolves came away with yet another loss on the road, falling by a score of 122-117. Put simply, this was a game they needed to win if they wanted to stay in the mix of the Western Conference playoff race.
Other than Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota didn’t receive a ton of great production. The two combined for 55 points and accounted for much of the rebounding and playmaking. The team as a whole shot 46-for-91 (50.5 percent) and 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from 3-point range.
Where things went south was allowing the Pelicans to get to the free throw line, where they shot 27-for-28. Additionally, Minnesota also didn’t take care of the basketball, committing 15 turnovers on the night.
A. Karl-Anthony Towns had himself another big game, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to come away with a win. He finished with 32 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and one steal. He was efficient shooting the ball, going 12-of-20 from the field and 4-for-5 from 3-point range.. Center. Minnesota Timberwolves. KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS
A. This was one of Andrew Wiggins’ best games of his career. No, it wasn’t a high scoring night, but it was efficient and he filled up the stat sheet. He finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two blocks. Wiggins led the team in rebounds and assists tonight, which is not something that happens very often. He had a great night and the Wolves will need more of this type of play from their max-player.. Guard/Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. ANDREW WIGGINS
C-. Josh Okogie had another poor shooting night, going 1-of-9 from the field and 1-for-6 from beyond the arc. He finished with three points, adding five rebounds, a block and a steal. Okogie is mainly used for his energy and defense and he brought that again tonight.. Guard/Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. JOSH OKOGIE
Power Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. TAJ GIBSON. C+. Taj Gibson played 23 minutes and per usual, he played efficiently and didn’t do too much. He finished with nine points, four rebounds and two blocks. Minnesota needed more out of him on the defensive end to at least slow down Davis, but it does not all fall on him, of course.
Minnesota Timberwolves. DARIO SARIC. B-. Dario Saric keeps delivering as of late and that has given fans an increased desire to see him in the starting lineup alongside Towns. He finished with nine points, but did the right things when he was on the floor. He finished with a team-high plus-minus of +13 in one more minute of playing time than Gibson. Moving forward, however, Saric deserves more than 24 minutes.. Power Forward
B. Luol Deng logged 31 minutes in Friday night’s action, the most off the bench, finishing with eight points and five rebounds. Deng had a key rebound and put-back late in the game to bring Minnesota within one. The guy who didn’t see any minutes early on is starting to see an uptick in playing time.. Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. LUOL DENG
Minnesota desperately needed Jeff Teague to play in this game. The Wolves can’t shake the injury bug, missing Tyus Jones, Derrick Rose and Jerryd Bayless in Friday night’s game. Teague didn’t start tonight and saw limited minutes, but he was solid in the time he did see. He went 6-of-7 from the field, adding 12 points, five assists and four rebounds in just 16 minutes of action.. Point Guard. Minnesota Timberwolves. JEFF TEAGUE. A
Minnesota Timberwolves. GORGUI DIENG. A. Gorgui Dieng has improved under Ryan Saunders, playing more fluently and freely despite limited minutes. He added nine points and eight rebounds off the bench. Dieng playing like this is important for Minnesota and it will help ease the tension on his contract. He only played 11 minutes and probably should have seen more time based off of how good he was.. Forward/Center
The rest of the players
After the trade deadline passed, Anthony Tolliver remained on the team. However, he was nowhere to be found, getting just three minutes. His shooting ability would have been nice to have tonight.
Isaiah Canaan received the start tonight with all the injuries the Wolves were suffering. On the last day of his 10-day contract, Canaan put up 12 points, five assists, two rebounds and two steals. It’ll be something to monitor if the team wishes to re-sign him to another 10-day.
Next. Wolves stand pat at trade deadline. dark
What’s Next?
Minnesota will have the rest of the weekend off, getting a home game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night at 7 p.m. CT. This is, once again, a must-win game as the Wolves have lost their last four games and have gone 0-4 in the month of February thus far.