With Jimmy Butler off to Philadelphia and the players Minnesota traded him for not yet in action, there were plenty of opportunities for usage on Monday night at Target Center.
Derrick Rose and Jeff Teague lapped them up.
The backcourt duo combined for 47 points and 17 assists as the Timberwolves pulled away late for a 120-113 win over Brooklyn.
In his first game back from a left knee bruise, Teague finished with 24 points and 11 assists. Thibodeau said Minnesota needed the veteran guard’s downhill play and all-around game. Rose added 23 points and six assists as the two fluently ran the Wolves’ offense.
“I thought (Teague) and Derrick put a lot of pressure on them,” Thibodeau said.
That might need to be the case moving forward. Although the Wolves should have Dario Saric and Robert Covington in the lineup on Wednesday, losing Butler means Minnesota has one fewer shot creator. That should open more opportunities for Rose and Teague to be aggressive.
Teague always talks about wanting to get Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns good looks, but the offense always seems to be at its best when he’s attacking.
“We always want him to be aggressive,” Towns said. “When he has a chance to get to the basket, when he has a shot available, we want him to take it. He’s just doing what he usually does. He’s a great scorer. When he’s rolling like that, it really helps our team a lot.”
And there were still plenty of points to go around. Towns finished with 25 points on 9-for-11 shooting to go with 21 rebounds as bullied Brooklyn’s much smaller front line. The all-star center finished with a triple double, if you include his 10 turnovers. It sounds like Towns received a little jeering about that after the game.
“Yeah, I mean everyone is talking about it,” Towns said with a smile. “It’s not like something I’m proud of. It’s not like I’m going home like, ‘Yooo, what’s up?’ ”
In many ways, the Wolves’ win wasn’t pretty. They turned the ball over 23 times and surrendered 19 offensive rebounds.
But the fact is, they won. They snapped a string of five consecutive losses, all on the road. Minnesota (5-9) is now 5-1 at Target Center this season and 0-8 on the road. Luckily for the Wolves, they’re at home for much of the rest of November. This could be a time to make hay.
Teague didn’t seem to be 100 percent with that knee Monday and tweaked his ankle when he stepped on an opposing player’s foot. But he kept playing, because he knew how valuable it would be for the Wolves to get back into the win column.
“I wanted to get out there and try to help as much as possible,” Teague said. “I’m just glad we were able to get a win tonight.”
And now that they did, maybe the tide will turn back in a positive direction.
“Whenever you win in this league, no matter who it’s against, it gives you a little bit of a boost,” Anthony Tolliver said. “Just how momentum can go negative, it can go positive, as well. We go get a win on Wednesday, especially if it’s a good win and we play well, who knows, maybe we rip off five in a row. It’s just kind of a roller coaster of a league, and you kind of have to limit the losing streaks and maximize the winning streaks.”
SCARY INJURY
The game stopped late in the first half when promising Nets wing Caris LeVert suffered what appeared to be a gruesome right ankle injury after falling awkwardly.
Brooklyn said LeVert was taken to a Minneapolis hospital. Many Timberwolves players expressed their concern.
“We compete at a high level as professionals every night against each other, but at the end of the day we’re all a part of the same profession and all a part of this brotherhood,” Towns said. “We all felt for him when he had that injury.”