Minnesota Timberwolves lose preseason opener to Oklahoma City Thunder
Sure, the Minnesota Timberwolves got blown out in the preseason opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but there were some positives to be taken away from the 122-99 loss for the Wolves.
Karl-Anthony Towns looked pretty good for his first NBA outing. Towns tied for the game lead in points with Gorgui Dieng with 18 points. That means towns scored more than Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in his first game action. No big deal.
The getting rid of Anthony Bennett makes even more sense now. Nemanja Bjelica dropped 11 points in his first preseason game in 21 minutes of play. The NBA rookie was one of only three Wolves to be positive in the plus/minus. Bjelica was +2, Shabazz Muhammad was +6 and Andre Miller was +5.
Also, in a buying the lead moment on my part, Miller is sporting cornrows.
The old man crew didn’t play a whole lot. Miller played nine minutes scoring four points. Kevin Garnett played eight minutes and didn’t score a point. Tayshaun Prince did not play in the game.
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To the very new Wolf that we have yet to mention, Tyus Jones got the start with Ricky Rubio sitting out due to injury. Jones played 24 minutes on Wednesday and notched four assists, but scored nothing in his outing up against one of the best point guards in the league in Westbrook.
Sam Mitchell played 14 Wolves on Wednesday night. Prince, Rubio, Nikola Pekovic and Kleon Penn were the only Wolves listed as a DNP. Even Nick Wiggins saw some action, two whole minutes of action.
Zach LaVine scored eight points in 29 minutes in his first game since being named starting shooting guard. Kevin Martin scored nine points in 11 minutes off the bench.
The Thunder had seven different players score in double-digits. Andre Robinson was the only Oklahoma City starter not to reach double-digits. Serge Ibaka lead the Thunder with 18 points. Durant had 15. Westbrook put up 14.
The Wolves have six more preseason games to go before the real day begins. The next game is Saturday against the Chicago Bulls. The game will be at the MTS Centre up in Winnipeg. Tipoff is set for 7:00 center and can be seen on NBATV.
Next: It's right to start LaVine!