Wolves point guard Ricky Rubio continued his hot streak with an exclamation point in Monday night’s win over the Washington Wizards at the Target Center.
Rubio tallied 22 points while shooting an efficient 8-for-15 from the field, 2-for-5 from the 3-point line and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Yes, getting 20 points from the pass-first Spaniard is obviously a huge plus. But despite the team names, Rubio was the wizard of the night, dishing out a team-record 19 assists, 10 coming in the first quarter.
“Some nights you see things a little different and things get easier,” Rubio said after the game. “Tonight, in the first quarter I really saw different things out there and I was trying to set the tempo from the beginning in being aggressive.”
It was Rubio’s 17th double-double of the season and his second consecutive 20-point game, the first time he’s done so since March 12-13 of 2013.
Rubio is playing his best ball when the Wolves have needed him most. The Wolves are clawing for the eighth seed in the West and over his last nine games, Rubio is averaging 14.9 points, 11.8 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 45.5 percent from the field, 39.1 percent from the 3-point line and 85.4 percent from the free-throw line.
The Wolves are 6-3 in those games, which is not a coincidence. When Rubio plays like this, the Wolves can beat anyone, proven by Friday night’s home win over the Golden State Warriors.
And after his game on Monday night against John Wall, Rubio has now outperformed three All-Star point guards in his last four games including Chris Paul and Stephen Curry.
“We are playing great basketball against great teams right now,” Rubio said. “We aren’t just competing, we’re winning games. That’s what this team was supposed to do. It’s a great feeling when you go out there and you know you can beat anybody.”
It doesn’t get any easier for Rubio and the Wolves as they’ll go up against Isaiah Thomas and the Celtics in Boston on Wednesday night. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. on Fox Sports North and WCCO 830-AM. As of Tuesday morning, the Wolves, 28-38, sit 3.5 games from the Denver Nuggets for the eighth seed in the West with 16 games remaining.