The Minnesota Timberwolves stopped a six-game losing skid with a dominant performance against the Los Angeles Lakers, winning by a final score of 107-83.
Minnesota Timberwolves win in a blowout over the Los Angeles Lakers
The Timberwolves got off to a great start, leading 11-4 early on. But, the team with a roster made up of nearly one-third future Hall-of-Famers were able to shut that down and pull away to take a 26-19 to end the quarter.
The Lakers continued to keep the Wolves at an arms distance in the second quarter. Still, with every run the Lakers went on, the Wolves did not entirely collapse and were able to keep the deficit reasonable. The Wolves headed into the break down by five points.
Not a single Wolves was in double digits after the first half; Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels led the way with nine apiece, and Naz Reid right behind them with eight.
Against the Warriors last time out, the Wolves had a season-high 30 assists, but in this one, they only had 11 at the half.
The Wolves went on a 25-3 run to start the third quarter, however, effectively putting the game away before the fourth quarter even began. When things looked chaotic on offense, Patrick Beverley stepped in and took it into his own hands. The energy of the Wolves was phenomenal in the third quarter, with the defense holding the Lakers scoreless for over seven minutes.
Ultimately, the Wolves won the third quarter by a 40-12 margin, building a 23-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Wolves built the lead up to as many as 33 before settling for a 24-point win after several minutes of garbage time to close things out.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Key takeaways from Wolves win over Lakers
Energy is contagious, so start Jarred Vanderbilt
Even when he doesn’t blow up the stat sheet, Jarred Vanderbilt is making such a huge impact.
Other players are just not on his level of intensity. The way Vanderbilt plays ignites the whole team; he is truly an Energizer Bunny. He needs to start more. Heck, get Towns even slimmer and play him at the three, I don’t care, just get Vanderbilt on the court at all times.
The Timberwolves have a rare problem of having three starting-caliber bigs in Towns, Reid, and Vanderbilt, and four if you want to include Jaden McDaniels, who shifted to the bench in this one for the first time this year.
Patrick Beverley Is everything the Timberwolves needed and more
The Wolves are known for not playing full games, and when the going gets tough, the team falls apart. And that’s exactly why a player like Beverley is so important.
During the third quarter dominance, even when the Wolves almost gave the Lakers opportunities to get out and run, Beverly would be right there to snatch up the loose ball and keep the throttle wide open.
Hey Timberwolves, let’s have some more team incentives…
During the first quarter, the Bally Sports North broadcast mentioned that the Wolves have an offensive rebound jar. It sounds sort of like a swear jar; for every offensive board a player gives up they put $100 in the jar. Then, whoever ends the game with the most offensive boards for the Wolves, gets to take home the money. This is brilliant.
Finch needs to keep these coming. (Maybe the next one can be something along the lines of whoever stops the flow of the offense has to put $500 in the jar. Keep that ball moving!)
Minnesota Timberwolves: Player grades from Wolves win over Lakers
Karl-Anthony Towns: A+
29 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, one block
After multiple games being held in check, Towns showed why he is a superstar. While Towns took some heat for only having one made shot inside the arc against the Warriors last game, he immediately went to work in this one. During a game where the rest of the roster took a while to show up, Towns didn’t let the hole mount too large in the first, and the pack was able to capitalize the rest of the way.
(By the way, after trailing in his all-time matchups against fellow former Kentucky Wildcat Anthony Davis, Towns knotted things up at seven wins apiece.)
D’Angelo Russell: B+
22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, +36 plus/minus
After a quiet start, Russell scored in spurts once again. Not too dissimilar from Andrew Wiggins on Wednesday, it was fair to expect something resembling a revenge game from Russell, and that is what we got.
Leading the team in plus-minus, Russell took over in short stretches hitting shot after shot to just deflate the Lakers in the third and fourth quarters. In a game in which Anthony Edwards was off, the Wolves couldn’t afford to have a second member of their Big Three not show up, and Russell made sure that didn’t happen.
Anthony Edwards: D
9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 32 Minutes
Edwards went from scoring a career-high 48 points last time out to completely fizzling out on Friday night. He is a young player that was challenged by head coach Chris Finch to be more consistent in Wednesday’s postgame comments, but he failed to deliver tonight.
Luckily for Edwards, 40-plus points were not needed against the Lakers. Finch sat Edwards for a stretch at the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters, but Edwards didn’t seem to react unfavorably to the decision.
The Timberwolves will face the LA Clippers in the same arena on Saturday night with another 9:30 p.m. CT tip-off.