Minnesota Timberwolves Hang On To Defeat Atlanta Hawks In Wild Game

“I told the guys whatever you do, don’t leave time on the clock because Derrick Rose and those guys are so explosive, ” Minnesota coach Sam Mitchell said. Through six games this year, Minnesota is fifth in the league with a defensive rating of 95 points per 100 possessions. It looked as if the Timberwolves’ inexperience might prove costly.

The Atlanta Hawks are streaking but the point spread in their game tonight against the Timberwolves looks inflated. Atlanta then kept up the comeback. We will never quite get a pulse on just how much his back spasms effected his poor performances in home losses to Portland and Miami last week, but his huge jump in production indeed coincided with the disappearance of his name on the injury report.

The Timberwolves are 5-1-2 against the spread in their last eight games in Atlanta while the road team is 10-3-2 against the spread in the last 15 meetings between these two teams. Nemanja Bjelica had a good game and claimed his first double-double of the season, recording 17 points and 11 rebounds. “We just got to stay together”. We just have to be consistent….

With Andrew Wiggins having back to back 30 point games (of varying efficiency), the internet did the thing it does and immediately brought things back to the Kevin Love trade. “That’s what I saw”. Head Coach Mike Budenholzer believed that Hardaway’s questionable shot selection and disinterested defense could actually be rectified if he bought into the Atlanta Hawks basketball system. “He did a little bit of everything”.

Doug McDermott scored 18 points and Pau Gasol added 16 points, nine rebounds and six blocked shots for the Bulls, who were without Joakim Noah because of a sore left knee.

“It’s how I made my name in this league, wanting to guard the best player or match up against the best player, ” George said. “But we made it a dogfight”.

The defending champions used a big run at the start of the fourth quarter to pull away from Detroit as reigning MVP Stephen Curry (22 points) had his lowest-scoring night of the season.

Atlanta is 2-5-1 ATS in its last 8 games when playing Minnesota. By February Splitter could be a rim protecting, rebounding machine and Hardaway Jr. could be a regular member of the wing rotation and shooting 40 percent from the corners.

Atlanta trailed 72-42 at the break and had allowed Minnesota to shoot 64 percent from the field in the first half. “Give them credit. They played well and they went after it. They wanted it more than we did”. Kyle Korver summed up the difference in the two halves quite well following the game.

Don’t be fooled by the second slow-motion replay in the Vine above: Teague catches Bjelica pretty hard, as you can see in the first real-time angle.