Minnesota Timberwolves: Rubio fuels comeback win over Lakers
The Minnesota Timberwolves opened their 2015-16 campaign playing with heavy hearts after the death of their coach and team president, Flip Saunders, Sunday afternoon. The Wolves traveled to Staples Center to take on the Los Angeles Lakers to open the season. When it was all said and done, the Wolves escaped with a comeback victory by a score of 112-111 as Lakers guard Lou Williams’ running floater hit the back iron as time expired.
There’s no way Flip Saunders was going to let that shot fall.
The Wolves opened the game by getting out to a 17-10 lead in the first quarter behind some strong play from the starters, most notably Ricky Rubio (more on him in a bit). Then, head coach Sam Mitchell threw the second unit in and the Lakers grabbed the lead quicker than you can say “Zach LaVine isn’t a point guard” (more on that also in a little bit). Suddenly, the Wolves were down 38-28 midway through the second quarter, and Mitchell STILL had his second unit in the game.
A strong finish to the second half ignited by a technical foul by Kevin Garnett (no, seriously, this gave the Wolves the spark they needed) helped the Wolves cut the lead to 60-51 at halftime. Rubio’s rock solid first half showed a stat line of 14 points and eight assists, while first overall draft choice Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 10 points and three rebounds in the half.
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The third quarter began with the Lakers stretching their lead to as much as 15 points behind some hot shooting from Kobe Bryant, who played as if he hasn’t aged a bit. However, the Wolves crawled their way back towards the end of the third quarter behind a strong performance from Kevin Martin, who repeatedly found unorthodox ways to get to the free throw line. At the end of three quarters, the Wolves trailed 95-89.
Minnesota dominated the fourth quarter on both ends of the floor, outscoring the Lakers by a score of 24-16 and holding the Lakers to 5/26 shooting in the quarter. Rubio was a scoring machine (not a typo), taking Lakers’ first round draft choice D’Angelo Russell to school often. Nemanja Bjelica also played some big minutes in the fourth quarter, blocking a couple of shots and hitting a huge three-pointer down the stretch.
In the end, the Wolves get a huge comeback win to begin the season. Considering the circumstances and what this team has dealt with these past few weeks, this is a very impressive victory.
Quick Notes
— Ricky Rubio is this team’s most valuable player and it isn’t even close. I mean, it’s easy to say that after he puts up 28 points and 14 assists, but still. This guy can play, and this team can compete with anybody when he’s on the floor.
— Kevin Garnett only played 13 minutes, but they were 13 really good minutes. He registered a +/- of +12 for the night. That’s, like, really impressive.
— Kevin Martin, while he can’t guard a goldfish on defense, is a pretty savvy scorer. He’s as good as anyone in the NBA at drawing fouls, and it was on display tonight as he made 10 of 12 free throw attempts. He wound up with 23 points on the night (6/15 FG, 10/12 FT).
— The Wolves’ big fourth quarter run came with the lineup of Rubio, LaVine, Wiggins, Bjelica and Towns on the floor. I wouldn’t mind if Mitchell went to this lineup a little more often in the future.
— Adding onto that last point, Zach LaVine is much better suited for the shooting guard position. This is an issue that Wolves fans talk about constantly, but there’s truth to it. I’d much rather prefer Andre Miller or Tyus Jones at the backup point guard spot and let LaVine play two-guard.
— Karl-Anthony Towns had a stellar NBA debut, finishing with 14 points on 6/10 FG and 12 rebounds. It’s just one game, but Towns appears to be a solid addition to the team on both ends of the floor.
— Andrew Wiggins seemed to struggle, but he also appeared to have been dealing with some sort of shoulder or neck issue. Regardless, he was still effective down the stretch during the comeback and played excellent defense on Bryant in the fourth quarter.
— Despite a rather poor defensive effort as a whole through three quarters, the Timberwolves really stepped it up defensively in the fourth quarter. The Lakers were only able to shoot 5/26 from the floor and the Wolves made it difficult for them to get good looks the entire quarter.
Player of the Game
Ricky Rubio
No brainer here. Offensively, Rubio came out aggressive and firing on all cylinders, taking D’Angelo Russell to the cleaners. Defensively, Rubio was savvy all game, creating turnovers and wreaking havoc constantly.
Rubio’s final stats – 28 points (10/17 FG, 2/4 3pt FG), 2 rebounds, 14 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover
Onward
The Timberwolves’ next action will be on Friday night as the Wolves travel to Denver to take on the Nuggets. That game will start at 8:00 PM CST. As always, check with us at Sporting Sota for news and analysis on the Timberwolves.
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