Mitchell HansenWeb Editorial AssociateTwitter
From the first game of the season against the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 26 to game No. 63 against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves have made strides in improving on both ends of the ball this season.
The Wolves recognized that probably the most on Wednesday night in a dominating win over the Clippers at Target Center.
“We are just working. The energy is great,” Gorgui Dieng said after practice Thursday. “I think we are getting better from even where we were last year to this year. We are progressing. We aren’t where we want to be yet, but we just need to keep working.”
The win over LA marked the seventh win for Minnesota in its last 11 games and helped the Wolves move to 2.5 games behind the Denver Nuggets for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
“I think it’s improvement. The teams we have played and have shown that we can play defense against shows a lot about us and our maturity and development,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We still have a long way to go, but we have a lot of things that are going well for us right now and we want to keep that up in our games.”
Minnesota will get another tough test on Friday night, when the Golden State Warriors come to Minneapolis.
“The core of the team, they’ve been together and have done great things before Kevin (Durant) even got there. Then you add Kevin to the mix and it goes to a completely different level,” Thibodeau said. “Having been around those guys in the past, Steph (Curry), Klay (Thompson) and Draymond (Green), that’s a lot to deal with right there. We know how good they are and we are going to have to play great.”
The Wolves and Warriors square off at 7 p.m. Friday night at Target Center. The game will be aired on Fox Sports North and 830 WCCO.
Stephenson Happy To Be Back
Lance Stephenson, who signed a second 10-day contract with Minnesota on Wednesday, said it feels good to be back on the court with his Wolves teammates.
“I felt good. . . I didn’t feel tired at all and I’m just glad we won the game,” he said. “You just have to be solid and don’t make too many mistakes and just try to make the right play.”
Stephenson said he is glad to be back and it meant a lot that the Wolves waited for him while he recovered from an ankle injury. In his first game back on Wednesday night, Stephenson finished with four points, three rebounds and two assists in 15-plus minutes.
“I thought he did very good in the first half. In the second half, I think fatigue was a little bit of a factor, which is to be expected,” Thibodeau said. “But overall, he did good things.”