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Wolves Bench Comes Up Big In Win Over Lakers

It wasn’t necessarily how they drew it up, and it wasn’t with the players they expected, but the Wolves got a huge win in Los Angeles on Thursday night, defeating the Lakers 120-105. With the victory, the Wolves are back at .500 and took another step towards closing the gap between them and the West’s No. 8 seed.

With several notable players already out with injury, the Wolves were dealt another blow when Derrick Rose did not return for the second half after he began experiencing soreness in his recently-sprained right ankle. It’s another tough break for Minnesota on the injury front, but Rose’s injury turned out to be a chance for a few Wolves players who usually spend their games at the end of the bench to shine.

The Wolves’ reserves had a huge night. Minnesota got an early spark from backup point guard Jerryd Bayless, who reached double-digits in the first half. He also hit a layup at the second period buzzer to put the Wolves within three going into the break. In what ended up being the defining stretch of the game, the Wolves trotted out a lineup of Andrew Wiggins, Jared Terrell, Luol Deng, Dario Saric and Gorgui Dieng to start the fourth. That group went on an 8-0 run to and put the Wolves in prime position to finish out the game strong. 

The Wolves ended up out-scoring the Lakers 36-23 in the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to that bench group’s efforts. Terrell finished with 10 points including 2-of-3 shooting from three, Deng had seven and Bayless had an impressive 16 to lead the Wolves reserves. Minnesota’s second unit scored 41 points. That was a huge difference-maker tonight. 

The other big difference tonight was the Wolves’ relentlessness rebounding the ball. In what is becoming a very positive trend, Minnesota crushed the Lakers on the offensive glass, leading to 32second-chance points, a season high. Minnesota won the overall rebounding battle 55-39. Another positive statistic was the Wolves’ performance at the line, where they went 22-for 25. The Lakers were just nine-of-14 from the charity stripe.

Wiggins was excellent as well tonight, playing aggressively, crashing the boards and picking up primary ball-handling duties for the Wolves on multiple occasions due to their lack of depth at point guard. He finished with 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. It was a do-it-all type of effort from Wiggins that should do wonders getting him out of the slump he had been struggling with the last few games.

As usual, Karl-Anthony Towns was also fantastic, finishing with 27 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal. With that line, Towns tied Nikola Jokic for the most games with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists this season with a total of eight.

Good teams find a way to win, especially on the road, and the Wolves’ case to be considered a legitimate threat to break into the Western Conference playoff race is growing stronger by the game. Though they have been against lesser competition, the Wolves have now won three straight and are doing well to take advantage of a softer spot in their schedule. The Jazz await on Friday night—that will be a tougher test.