The TWolves needed to score a season-high 127 points, but they were able to snap a nine-game skid vs. the Phoenix Suns. There wasn't much defense played by either team as it went back-and-forth-back-and-forth-back-and-forth...you get the idea! But Minnesota prevailed and stopped a red-hot TWolves team that was going for their 6th straight win at home and their 10th consecutive win over Minnesota. Kevin Love was absurd, Nikola was Pektacular, Derrick Williams was...good and Minnesota moved back over .500, now at 22-21 on the year. In their second game without Ricky Rubio and following a humiliating loss to New Orleans over the weekend, Minnesota's role players stepped up in a big way! We'll get to those stats in a moment though. It was close down to the final seconds, though some big threes from Kevin Love, some impressive passing from Luke Ridnour as well as some big shots from Luke...as well as Wayne Ellington, the TWolves escaped with a three-point W. Let's take a look at some statistics from tonight's key players on each team...
Clearly the Timberwolves got contributions from a number of different players. Kevin Love hit an absurd amount of threes (5 total) finishing with 30pts, all the while playing with a good deal of pain in his back. Pek mutilated Marcin Gortat down low and anyone else the Suns thought of throwing at him in hopes of stopping his onslaught. Then Luke finished with a near double-double as his play for the injured Rubio has been impressive! Then came the Wolves' bench, Wayne Ellington has seen a bump in minutes since Ricky went down and tonight played 34 off the bench and came up big with 15pts on over 50% shooting. Lastly, Beasley's 15pts all came in the first half as he didn't play at all in the final two quarters! It was hot shooting, all around for both teams! The duo of Dudley & Nash have been GREAT since the all-star break and tonight was no different as they combined for 53pts, 12reb, 11ast on 20-31 FG, 4-8 3PT & 9-9 from the line! Gortat was a big part of the Suns' win in the last meeting, but tonight he was limited to just 8pts, 4reb, 1stl, 4fls in 20 minutes on 3-of-6 shooting. Let's take a look at some team stats from tonight's game...
Minnesota had an incredible shooting night. 64% from deep is a season-high, 127 team points is a season-high and 30ast is a season-high. Incredible that 30ast was accomplished as a season-high without Ricky Rubio thanks in large part to 9 from Luke Ridnour, 8 from J.J. & 6 from Martell. The 52 bench points was also a big key, but perhaps most importantly: just 11 turnovers leading to 13 Suns' points.
The back-and-forth of this game was a lot of fun to watch and was VERY nerve-wracking. Minnesota prevailed and that means we all go home happy! What's that, you're a Suns fan?...1/2 of us go home happy. After tonight, do you think the TWolves need to make any moves before Thursday's Trade Deadline? Is Jamal Crawford or Ramon Sessions or Pau Gasol...or whoever, needed for the Wolves to make a legitimate push for a playoff spot, feel free to be heard in the comments section. Enjoy the win, the Wolves are back in action Thursday vs. the Utah Jazz. Thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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Cody D. AndersonA Wolves fan bringing you Gameday Recaps all season long! 2014-15 Game ArchivesGameday Archives
December 2015
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