It’s finally over! Minnesota has at last won an NBA game. A losing streak that spanned more than a month came to screeching halt on Tuesday night as the Wolves gritted out a 110-101 win over the Indiana Pacers. Minnesota, however, didn’t just win the game — it did so in quite possibly the most improbable way imaginable. Here’s a look at how it happened:
IT’S HIS WORLD … WE’RE JUST LIVING IN IT
Umm … OK. While the Wolves were struggling to find wins in the midst of a tough season, Mo Williams came into Indiana doing stuff like this:
That unbelievable shot was a microcosm of the whole game. Williams could do absolutely no wrong last night en route to a franchise-record 52 points. You really need to think about that for a second for it to fully sink in. No player in franchise history has scored more points than … MO FREAKING WILLIAMS. Not Kevin Garnett. Not Kevin Love. Not even Corey Brewer (who had a just as unlikely 51 points last season). Williams went an astonishing 19-for-33 from the floor on the night and played 44 minutes. It was truly game for the ages. We’ll have more on Mo Williams later this afternoon.
WIGGINS STILLING DOING HIS THING
Mo Williams was the story of the night last night — and rightfully so. That said on any other night the performance Andrew Wiggins poured in would have been the talk of town. Wiggins finished with 20 points on 7-for-16 shooting and he also was a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. Wiggins also hit CJ Miles with this nasty spin late in the game to pad the lead.
You can see in this clip that Miles actually rakes the eyes of Wiggins, which prompts the rookie to grab his face in midair, and he still finishes the layup. That’s a special move from a special player, though it’s a move that will undoubtedly go unnoticed because of the show put on by Mo Williams.
PACERS PLAGUED BY FRUSTRATION IN LOSS
In a game that clearly wasn’t going its way, Indiana lost its cool on multiple occasions in the loss to the Wolves. In the second half, with the game still up in the air, Roy Hibbert dragged Gorgui Dieng to the deck and was subsequently ejected. Though that foul was more of a boneheaded play, than a frustration foul, it put the Pacers in a precarious situation moving forward without its best interior defender. As far as the David West ejection late in the game, that was purely based on frustration. West was called for a foul with less than 30 seconds left in the game and was ejected after arguing the call with officials. Frank Vogel also earned himself a technical foul in that time, though he wasn’t ejected. In the grand scheme of things the David West ejection and the Frank Vogel technical foul didn’t determine the outcome of the game, though it did exemplify the feelings of frustration that come with losing to a team that had lost 15 straight games.
MORE WINS ON THE HORIZON … LET’S HOPE SO
Minnesota finally got the monkey off its back with a win over the Pacers. That, however, doesn’t mean the schedule is getting any easier. It will go to battle with the Phoenix Suns on Friday night before closing the month with matchups against the Denver Nuggets, the Charlotte Hornets, the Dallas Mavericks, The New Orleans Pelicans, the Atlanta Hawks, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Boston Celtics, and the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. That’s a pretty tough stretch, and it’s really tough to see the Wolves being favored in any of those games. So while they will enjoy this win for what it’s worth, it’s right back to work starting Wednesday afternoon.