Ryan Saunders hasn’t had the luxury of taking it easy in the final minute, or
the finals seconds for that matter, in any of his first three games to start his
tenure as Timberwolves interim head coach.
But he’s done quite well in those games and led the Wolves to a huge 110-106 win
at Target Center over the Pelicans on Saturday night. It was Saunders’ first win
at home. He moved to 2-1 overall.
Considering this was on the second night of a back-to-back (the Wolves lost a
thriller to the Mavericks on Friday night), it makes it all that more
impressive.
The star for the Wolves was far and away Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns finished with
27 points, a career-high 27 rebounds to go with four blocks, three assists and
two steals. His 27 rebounds is an NBA season high in 2018-19.
It’s obvious when watching Towns go up against fellow Kentucky alum Anthony
Davis, it’s a matchup he takes personal. Davis got his, finishing with 30 points
and 14 rebounds, but Towns outperformed him and fittingly blocked a Davis
3-point attempt in the final two minutes.
27 pts26 rebone very, very clutch block pic.twitter.com/xLhlV1H0y3
The Pelicans led by as much as six points in the first quarter, and the Wolves
flipped that to a Minnesota 12-point lead in the second quarter. But the second
half was back and forth. We saw 15 lead changes and 18 ties.
Andrew Wiggins added 18 points and seven rebounds. Josh Okogie tied a
career-high with 17 points and five rebounds. Dario Saric and Tyus Jones
finished with 14 points each, while Taj Gibson added 10.
TYUS TOO SMOOTH pic.twitter.com/Kl6eWRoiEq
Jrue Holiday finished with 25 points and seven assists for the Pelicans. Julius
Randle added 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Elfrid Payton scored 10.
It’s a huge win for the Wolves with both teams coming into the game with a 20-22
record.
The Wolves are 11th in the West, two games back from the eighth seed. The
Pelicans fell to 13th.
HOW, @KarlTowns?!? pic.twitter.com/jjCgbL7Q6p
A few quick observations from the game:
The Wolves are back at it on Tuesday in Philadelphia against the 76ers. It’s the
first game against a certain someone. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on Fox Sports
North and 830 WCCO.
Player: Taj Gibson
Player: Tyus Jones
Player: Josh Okogie
Player: Dario Saric
Player: Karl-Anthony Towns
Player: Andrew Wiggins
Media Content:
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Media Keywords: NBA, Sports, Minnesota Timberwolves, Taj Gibson, Tyus Jones,
Josh Okogie, Dario Saric, Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Ryan Saunders,
Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans
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