The Minnesota Timberwolves won their third consecutive home game on Thursday night after dominating the Portland Trail Blazers at Target Center.
The Minnesota Timberwolves continued their recent stretch of strong play with a 14-point win over the Portland Trail Blazers that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicated.
The Blazers jumped out to a six-point lead after the first quarter, but Minnesota clamped down defensively in the second frame, holding Portland to just 13 points while putting up 31 of their own.
The Wolves’ perimeter defenders dominated the middle two quarters of the game, with Josh Okogie, Robert Covington, and Jarrett Culver taking turns shutting down the Blazers’ dynamic wing players.
Damian Lillard shot just 6-of-17 and C.J. McCollum was a game-worst -31 in the plus-minus column. Plus, starting wing Kent Bazemore was 0-of-8 from the floor and Carmelo Anthony finished with just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting.
After dominating the paint in the first quarter, Hassan Whiteside was a non-factor for the final three quarters. He pulled down 14 rebounds, but nobody else on the Blazers had more than four boards.
On the offensive end of the floor, the Wolves got hot from deep during the middle stages of the game and finished a fantastic 13-of-32 (40.6 percent) from beyond the arc. Andrew Wiggins was fantastic, putting up 23 points on 15 shots and dishing out a season-high eight assists. Jarrett Culver had 12 points and six assists as well, continuing his strong recent play.
The Wolves led by more than 20 points for most of the third and fourth quarter before a late run from the Blazers made things look a bit closer than they were. Nobody on the Wolves needed to play more than 30 minutes, and they came away with their fifth win in their last eight games.
Player Grades
Other Players
The Wolves’ defense was great in this one. Naz Reid was scoreless after missing five shots in 17 minutes but grabbed six rebounds.
Noah Vonleh was great, finishing with eight points and six rebounds in 13 minutes. Josh Okogie was fantastic on defense and effective on offense, too, with eight points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks in just 25 minutes. He made his only two shot attempts from the field and made both of his free throw attempts, too.
Jordan Bell played five minutes in garbage time and Treveon Graham was deceng in 15 minutes in his first game in over a week.
Up Next
The Wolves have the next couple of nights off before heading to Houston to take on the Rockets at 4 p.m. on Sunday.