In Monday night’s overtime win over the Heat, Wolves point guard Jeff Teague had his best game as a member of the squad, putting up 23 points, 11 assists, six steals and five rebounds.
“He was terrific. Not only offensively, [but] the six steals,” Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “I thought he had us organized. He and Wig [Andrew Wiggins] have developed great chemistry."
“I think he was good,” Andrew Wiggins echoed. “I think he played really good on both ends of the floor. Got the whole team involved, he scored, he did everything.”
Teague joined the Wolves this offseason after seven seasons in the East, making an All-Star game in 2014-15 while participating in the playoffs each season.
The Wolves signed him this offseason in hopes that he could be the team’s general on the floor, teamed with Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins for the foreseeable future. But the chemistry wasn’t going to happen overnight.
In his first two games with the Wolves, Teague averaged 10.5 points and five assists per game. That wasn’t the Teague the Wolves, fans, or Teague himself was expecting.
In Teague’s last two games, he's averaged 20 points, 10.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting 50 percent (5-for-10) from the 3-point line. In related news, the Wolves have won two-straight games.
“When Jeff is playing like that, we’re always going to be at another level,” Karl-Anthony Towns said.
The odds are Teague will continue to play how he has recently, rather than how he did earlier in the season just given his track record. The team had just two preseason games and already in the regular season, the team has been without Butler for two games. While the work to get solid chemistry going will be worth it, it won’t be easy.