Minnesota Timberwolves: Wolves stay winless at home, fall to Grizzlies

It’s been over eight months since the Minnesota Timberwolves have won a home game, dating back all the way to March 7th of last season.

That home losing streak continued today when the Timberwolves fell to the Memphis Grizzlies by a score of 114-106. In addition to the home losing streak, the Wolves have now lost four straight games this season, each of which was without Ricky Rubio.

The Wolves were led in scoring by Zach LaVine, who tallied 25 points (8/15 FG, 4/7 3pt FG, 5/6 FT), although nearly half of his points were scored in the final couple of minutes when the game was already out of hand. Andrew Wiggins continued his solid play during the losing streak, putting up 21 points (8/14 FG, 1/2 3pt FG, 4/5 FT) and again playing solid defense. Despite the solid scoring production from the “Bounce Brothers”, the Wolves didn’t have enough firepower to match up with the Grizzlies tonight.

Ironically, the Grizzlies came into today’s game ranking near the bottom of the league this season in terms of points per game and field goal percentage. However, they were making shots at a high clip today, draining 40-of-71 shots overall (.563) and 9-of-17 (.529) from three-point range.

More from Minnesota Timberwolves

• Minnesota Timberwolves: how Robert Covington has become the T’Wolves’ glue
• Minnesota Timberwolves: did Jimmy Butler send a veiled diss to his former team?
• Minnesota Timberwolves: time to cease celebrating the Jimmy Butler trade
• Minnesota Timberwolves: enough is enough — Jimmy Butler has to go
• Minnesota Timberwolves’ Prince-inspired jersey leaked — should you buy one?

Mike Conley, Zach Randolph and Jeff Green all played big roles in the solid shooting performance for Memphis today, consistently hitting long jump shots all game long. Conley’s final stat line included 20 points (7/14 FG, 4/6 3pt FG, 2/4 FT) and 7 assists. Green recorded 21 points (7/12 FG, 1/3 FG, 6/6 FT), 4 rebounds and 3 assists while Randolph recorded 14 points (6/8 FG, 2/2 FT) and 8 rebounds.

Marc Gasol was brilliant in this game as well, scoring 16 points (7/10 FG, 2/2 FT) and grabbing 7 rebounds. Despite only recording 4 assists in the stat sheet, Gasol’s passing was truly a thing of beauty as he made a number of great finds after being double-teamed that led to points for the Grizzlies via a “hockey assist”.

Last thing before I get into my notes/observations: Kevin Garnett became the fourth player in NBA history to play 50,000 minutes today, which is simply incredible. Hats of to KG for that. Reading that statistic makes me tired.

Notes/Observations

— Despite the absence of Ricky Rubio, the Wolves were able to get some solid point guard play tonight from both LaVine and Andre Miller, who saw 34 minutes tonight as LaVine dealt with foul trouble. Miller tallied 8 points (4/8 FG) and 8 assists and ran the offense fairly well. Thus far, Miller has proven to be a very capable backup point guard in the minutes he’s seen with Rubio out.

— While much of the Grizzlies’ odd shooting performance was due to them just making shots, there is reason to blame the Wolves as well. Plenty of shots went uncontested or were created due to poor closeouts, giving Wolves fans everywhere a sour reminder of last year’s defense.

More from Sporting Sota

• Minnesota Twins bullpen will be their downfall
• Top 5 Minnesota Twins Pitching Prospects
• Kyle Rudolph signing gives stability to Minnesota Vikings offense
• Jake Odorizzi’s emergence fueling Twins starting staff
• Former Minnesota Twins player David Ortiz shot

— Nemanja Bjelica is tough for NBA teams to deal with. He’s still adjusting to the NBA, but yet he’s still making an impact in all areas of the game. We knew he could shoot the ball and had excellent court vision, but this kind of defense and rebounding wasn’t expected, at least from me.

— Karl-Anthony Towns had a so-so performance for his 20th birthday. He had a stretch towards the end of the third quarter where he made a number of impressive plays in a row, but was mostly held in check as he did battle with Marc Gasol all game. Overall, he put up 14 points (5/11 FG, 4/4 FT) and 9 rebounds. Oh, and he did this, which was pretty fun.

Onward

After the loss to Memphis today, the Wolves will embark on a mini-road trip to Florida where they’ll play against both the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. On Tuesday, they’ll square off with the Heat.

Next: Gophers Basketball Team wins opener

As always, check in with Sporting Sota on the daily for news and analysis on the Minnesota Timberwolves.