Minnesota Timberwolves: Player grades from loss to Warriors
By Ben Beecken
The Minnesota Timberwolves lost their fourth consecutive game after leading big early but falling to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.
86. 117. 41. Final. 107
Jeff Teague and Derrick Rose were absent once again and Taj Gibson came up lame with a calf injury in the first half as the Minnesota Timberwolves lost their fourth-straight game and broke what had been a six-game home winning streak.
The Wolves jumped out to an early double-digit lead before the Warriors were able to get hot from deep. And once they did that, the game felt over before the end of the first half, even though Golden State only led by 12 heading into the break.
Minnesota did use a third quarter flurry to pull even with the Warriors, but the visitors put the pedal to the metal once again and ran away with things, bumping their lead up to 20 in the fourth quarter before the Wolves got to within seven points to make things semi-interesting in the closing minutes of the game.
Karl-Anthony Towns was awesome once again, finishing with 26 points on 16 shots and pulling down 21 rebounds. He also handed out four assists but effectively canceled that out with a whopping seven turnovers.
The Warriors attempted to guard Towns straight-up with newly-signed Andrew Bogut for portions of the game, but when Bogut was on the floor Towns scored at will. When Golden State switched to a small-ball lineup, they double-teamed KAT hard and were largely successful. Minnesota’s shooters couldn’t knock down shots as the team shot 9-of-36 (25 percent) from beyond the arc for the game.
Towns is only docked for his turnovers, as there’s nothing to sneeze at about 26 points on 10-of-16 from the floor, 2-of-3 from beyond the arc and 4-of-6 from the free throw line, not to mention 21 rebounds. He did seem to be a half-step slow on defense, although it’s impossible to blame Towns for any of the Wolves’ failings at this point.. Center. Minnesota Timberwolves. KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS. A-
<a href=. Guard/Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. ANDREW WIGGINS. B-
Point Guard. Minnesota Timberwolves. TYUS JONES. C+. <a href=
Minnesota Timberwolves. DARIO SARIC. B. <a rel=. Power Forward
A. <a rel=. Guard/Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. JOSH OKOGIE
C. <a href=. Power Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. TAJ GIBSON
C. Once again, <a rel=. Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. ANTHONY TOLLIVER
KEITA BATES-DIOP. D. <a href=. Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves
The rest of the players
Jerryd Bayless had 10 points and two assists in 16 minutes as Jones’ backup. Cameron Reynolds played just eight minutes for some reason and missed both shot attempts. Here’s hoping he gets more of a shot as the season winds down. Gorgui Dieng played five minutes of garbage time and had two points.
Next. Remaining silver linings to Wolves' season.... dark
What’s Next?
The Timberwolves head to Charlotte to take on the Hornets at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday.