A spirited comeback attempt fell short on Tuesday night as the Wolves took a 111-122 loss to the LA Clippers. Minnesota rallied from being down 25 and narrowed the deficit to just six in the fourth quarter, but the Clippers took control in the game’s final minutes and came away with the win.
The culprit for the Wolves was a bad start. Led by Danilo Gallinari’s three-point shooting the Clippers jumped out to a 42-23 lead at the end of the first quarter. Though the Wolves defense improved in the second they still couldn’t make up much ground and went into halftime down by 20.
A lot of things worked for the Wolves in the third quarter and the first part of the fourth. They limited the Clippers’ attack well. While LA still shot a decent percentage, the Wolves did a great job of forcing turnovers and making the Clippers play out of position. However, it wasn’t enough as the Clippers got back on track in the closing minutes of the game.
In the first half, Karl-Anthony Towns uncharacteristically struggled to score, but he got loose in the second and finished with a team-high 24 points and 13 rebounds. Andrew Wiggins was almost the opposite, picking up the slack early on and playing extremely aggressively, but he faded a bit down the stretch. Wiggins finished with 22 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
It was the Wolves’ bench that took them on their third-quarter run. Keita Bates-Diop didn’t have an extremely high scoring night, but it seemed like he was everywhere during the best portions of the game for Minnesota. It was certainly encouraging to see Minnesota’s reserves keep battling and put together a nice run despite the disappointing outcome.
The Wolves were doomed by free-throw shooting tonight. They got to the line 33 times but knocked down just 20 of those attempts. The Clippers on the other hand only took 14 shots from the line but made them all. LA did their damage from three, going 16-for-32 from range. They were led by Gallinari and Lou Williams who had 25 and 20 points, respectively.
Minnesota is back in action on Friday taking on the Warriors in what should be another competitive contest. After that they face the 76ers on Saturday. It should be a fun weekend.