By Sam Perley, hornets.com
Another early double-digit deficit couldn’t keep the Hornets down as they used a big second-half surge to pull out a 115-108 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday, Nov. 15 in Minneapolis. Following a sloppy second quarter, Charlotte found itself down 12 points at halftime but came alive in the third, outscoring the Timberwolves, 36-17, to open up a seven-point lead at the end of the frame. The victory marked the Hornets’ sixth-consecutive win over the Timberwolves and also snapped a two-game losing streak.
Trailing 108-105 with just under a minute to go, the Timberwolves gambled at the top of the key by going for a steal on Cody Zeller, coming up empty and allowing the Hornets center to stride to the basket for an easy wide-open dunk and put Charlotte up by five. After Andrew Wiggins knocked down a free throw at the other end, Nicolas Batum found Frank Kaminsky all alone underneath the basket for an easy alley-oop to put the team up 112-106 with 29.3 seconds remaining in the game. Karl-Anthony Towns missed a three-pointer on Minnesota’s next possession and the Hornets ran out the clock down the stretch to seal the victory.
Frank Kaminsky exploded for a season-high 20 points (17 in the second half), to go along with four rebounds and five assists in 27 minutes off the bench. This was the third 20-point game of Kaminsky’s career and first since Dec. 30, 2015.
Third-year forward Andrew Wiggins notched a team-high 29 points on 10-of-24 shooting, two rebounds, three assists and two blocks in the loss. Wiggins has now scored 25-or-more points in four of his last five games for the Timberwolves.
Kemba Walker became the fourth player in franchise history to record at least 30 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals in a single regular season game, joining Baron Davis, Raymond Felton and Kendall Gill… Nicolas Batum chipped in 16 points, five rebounds, a team-high seven assists and three steals and also tied a season high with four made three-pointers… Cody Zeller came up just short of a double-double, finishing with 14 points and a team-high nine rebounds… Marco Belinelli added 12 points off the bench… The Hornets outscored the Timberwolves in the paint, 50-28.
“I had more energy than I’ve had recently. Coming off the last game against Cleveland, I was terrible. I wanted to come here and prove what I can do and just help our team win. I knew we needed a win to end this five-games-in-eight-days stretch.” -Frank Kaminsky
The Hornets return home to take on the Atlanta Hawks at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18 in Charlotte. The game can be seen on FOX Sports Southeast or heard on WFNZ or on the official Charlotte Hornets mobile app.
