The Wolves took down the Pacers in Indiana 119-111 on Tuesday night.
It was the Wolves’ second-to-last preseason game, and you could tell coach Ryan Saunders treated it a bit more like a regular-season game than some of the others. All five starters played 24 or more minutes. But with that, Saunders didn’t play any starter more than 28 minutes. Thus, still a preseason game.
Instead of a normal recap, I’m just going to unload a bunch of notes on all y’all because preseason is weird and it’s hard to tell what really matters.
Here are a handful of observations from the game:
- Jake Layman started alongside Jeff Teague, Andrew Wiggins, Robert Covington and Karl-Anthony Towns. It was Layman’s second start this preseason. Treveon Graham has the other two starts. Graham was injured in the first half and did not return. He left on his own power and we’ll get some sort of update as we approach Thursday’s game against the Bucks. I think there’s a good chance we’ll see those two get a handful of starts each this season.
- Towns straight-up had himself a game. Early on, he had Myles Turner’s number on both ends and then he absolutely destroyed rookie Goga Bitadze. In just 26 minutes, Towns finished with 33 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Bitadze was constantly out of position and it felt like Towns could have attacked him more had this been a regular-season game. Towns is going to have a crazy good season. “He��s talented and he’s doing a nice job of moving within the system,” Saunders said. “He’s moving to different spots and finding his spots on the court without feeling like he needs to just post up, which his points per possession when the ball goes in the post is very high. We know that’s going to be there, but we like where he’s getting his shots.”
- Defensively, the Wolves were great in the first half. That trailed off a bit in the second, but fans had to have liked what they saw from Minnesota’s first unit. The Pacers shot just 22.2 percent in the first quarter. We’ve talked a lot about Minnesota’s shot selection, but defensively, they are doing the inverse. The Wolves are just fine with teams shooting midrange jumpers or contested floaters, which was pretty much all the Pacers got in the first half. “Those are the shots we want from the other team and trying to run them off the three. And then for us, it’s just talking and rotating," Timberwolves rookie Jarrett Culver said. "That’s kind of the biggest thing we’re trying to learn in preseason. Just getting to know each other. Communication is huge for us.”
- As far as the second group goes . . . Josh Okogie was the first off the bench. Shabazz Napier and Culver took turns on being the lead ball-handler for that group. It works not only because Culver can handle the ball, but also because Napier (while undersized) can score like a shooting guard.
- Culver had this absolutely ridiculous Eurostep. He finished with 15 points off the bench. It was always clear his floor was really high. But his ceiling continues to get higher and higher.
- Going into the season, there were questions if Covington could play the 4. Those were probably silly questions considering he had played the 4 before, but they were questions nonetheless. Covington finished with 14 first-half rebounds and 19 total against a big Pacers frontcourt of Damantas Sabonis and Myles Turner. “People was talking about how that couldn’t work . . . I’ve been a 4 man before at some point in my career and I still have that knack to go and find rebounds,” Covington said.
- To the Pacers quick. Bitadze is going to struggle on defense, but he is crafty offensively and can really shoot. He finished with 14 points and was 2-for-3 from deep. Our guy Julian Andrews really liked him in the draft process.
- Jordan Bell had missed the team’s first three preseason games with a left calf strain. He played in this one, entering the game with 6:39 left. This is an injury that will take Bell a little time to get fully up to speed, but he looked good, finishing with four points and five rebounds and six minutes.
- With that second unit, we’re going to see a lot of Napier to Culver/Okogie/Layman cuts to the basket. That’s a very active group.
- The Wolves are back at it on Thursday night in Milwaukee to face the Bucks. They’ll then have six days off before their season opener against the Nets in Brooklyn.