Ant Man rocks early in Timberwolves first game on the road

The Minnesota Timberwolves played two games at Target Center, but their third game, and second game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, is on the road.  The Timberwolves are 1-1 this year, and that lone victory came at the expense of the Thunder in the season opener.  The Thunder enter this game at 0-2, but they have shown no signs of getting blown out.

While they’d lost their first game to the Minnesota Timberwolves by a score of 115-108, they were even closer in their second loss to the Denver Nuggets, losing by a score of 122-115.  But style points are not awarded in the NBA, and the Thunder want to put a W in the victory column for their first home game of the season.

Of course, that’s not an easy matter, as the Timberwolves once more open the game with a complete beatdown, leading by as much as 18 points in the first quarter before a late Oklahoma City Thunder rally closed the scoring game to 13 points to end the quarter.

The Timberwolves have outscored their opponents in the first quarter by a score of 107 to 66. But that all flipped around in Q3, as the Timberwolves have been outscored by a margin of 68 to 54.

Can the Minnesota Timberwolves change that bad habit on the road? Let’s hope so. Anthony Edwards has absolutely dominated so far. He scored double digits in the first quarter:

He’s up to 18 points with 7 rebounds in the first half.

But what about Rudy Gobert in this one? Well, he’s up to seven points and 11 rebounds already in one half.

But how was his defense?

But winning is more than rebounding. The Timberwolves, even in the lead, continue to have troubling tendencies. The Minnesota Timberwolves have committed 10 turnovers, and 10 personal fouls, and are only shooting 15.3 percent from three-point range. Unfortunately, those marks are all much worse than that of the Thunder at the half.

The one area of significant improvement is in rebounds, where the Timberwolves hold a two-to-one advantage over the Thunder.

Will the Timberwolves hold on to claim this win? We’ll soon find out

At halftime