The Minnesota Timberwolves will look to expand on a two-game winning streak and stay atop the Western Conference standings when they travel to San Antonio to play the reeling Spurs on Saturday.
Minnesota heads to Texas for the third of a four-game road trip and on the heels of a 96-94 victory in Brooklyn on Thursday. Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves with 27 points and dished out an assist to Rudy Gobert for the tiebreaking dunk with 58.1 seconds left in the win in the second game of a road back-to-back for Minnesota.
Towns was 12-of-15 shooting in the victory and also took 10 rebounds as Minnesota won for the sixth time in its past eight games.
“I was just aggressive in my scoring and my playmaking,” Towns said. “I just kept finding gaps that I could dribble the ball through and be aggressive in my finishing at the basket. It was just utilizing my size and strength and trying to use my finishing and touch around the basket to try to help us win this game.”
Anthony Edwards added 24 points while Gobert racked up 10 points and 13 rebounds. The Timberwolves survived despite committing eight turnovers in a ragged fourth period that allowed Brooklyn to contend until the horn.
“This is our fourth quarters of late. We just turn it over at a high volume and they came in pretty typical ways,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said afterward. “You put some iffy shot selection on top of it and that’s why things are snowballing against us. We’ve got to fix that or we won’t be able to take the next step as a team.”
Minnesota and Oklahoma City are tied atop the West standings with identical 32-13 records.
Saturday’s game is the second of a home back-to-back for the Spurs that began with a 116-110 win over shorthanded Portland on Friday in a contest between the two worst teams in the West.
Jeremy Sochan poured in 31 points and took a career-high 14 rebounds in the win, which snapped a two-game losing streak for San Antonio. The Spurs took a 10-point advantage into the final period and scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to go up 96-78. Portland never got within single digits the rest of the way.
“My last game wasn’t the best so I just came out, you know, free and it was a good game,” said Sochan, San Antonio’s “other” 20-year old star player. “It’s just staying aggressive and having a solid body. At times I sometimes go up and I forget how athletic I can be. Sometimes, I get a little bit weak and I get pushed around so the emphasis recently has been to just go in strong and finish.”
Victor Wembanyama, the 20-year-old rookie phenom from France, added 23 points and 12 rebounds. According to the Spurs PR department, it’s just the second time in NBA history that two teammates under 21 had 20/10 double-doubles in the same game.
Keldon Johnson produced 21 points and a season-best 16 rebounds and Devin Vassell hit for 15 points for San Antonio, which was playing the second of a seven-contest homestand.
–Field Level Media