Taj Gibson and his teammates knew the Minnesota Timberwolves' four-game homestand was going to be tough.
After all, New Orleans, Cleveland, Oklahoma City and
New York were coming to town. Well, three games in, Minnesota has
answered the challenge and demonstrated how much it has grown this
season.
Jimmy Butler scored 26 points, grabbed seven rebounds
and had eight assists for the Timberwolves in a 104-88 win against the
Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.
''We were shaking our heads and just hoping that we
can do well,'' Gibson said. ''But the way we've been playing, we have a
lot of confidence.''
Andrew Wiggins added 19 points, and Karl-Anthony
Towns had 18 points and 12 rebounds as Minnesota pulled away in the
second half to win its third game in a row and 10th in its last 13
overall.
Taking the season series 3-1 from division foe
Oklahoma City capped a stretch in which the Timberwolves beat New
Orleans by 18 points and Cleveland by 28. Minnesota led by at least 34
in each of those games.
Wednesday proved to be a bit tougher against the
physical Thunder, but the Wolves outscored Oklahoma City 29-19 in the
third and led by as many as 16 in the fourth.
''Guess we're, I don't know, growing a little bit,''
Butler said. ''For us to go out there and guard the way we did, do what
we talked about in shootaround and the day before in practice, it's huge
for us. We're growing as a unit.''
Russell Westbrook had 38 points and 10 rebounds, but
the rest of the Thunder had a tough time shooting. Westbrook was 15 of
23 from the field, while his teammates were 17 of 56 (30.3 percent).
Carmelo Anthony scored 15 points on 5-of-19 shooting,
while Paul George finished 5 of 14 for 13 points for Oklahoma City,
which has lost five of seven.
''We've got to lock in and get a win,'' Westbrook said. ''That's all I can say.''
George scored just two points in the first half.
''We were getting good looks,'' George said. ''I
thought we got shots that we'd been shooting all season. A lot of
catch-and-shoot opportunities. It's like that. I think personally, I
should've tried to play around the basket a little more, just to get
something early, see the ball go down and work my way up.''
The Thunder shot 28.6 percent in the third quarter (6 of 21). Meanwhile, the Wolves hit 62.5 percent (10 of 16) to take control.
No comments:
Post a Comment