Pelicans Take Over in Second Half, Down Wolves 122-106

The Pelicans came into town tied for 12^th in the Western Conference with the home team. Many view these two teams as the future of the West due to the fact that KAT and Anthony Davis are probably the two best young big men in the conference (although Nikola Jokic may have something to say about that in the near future). The Pelicans are slightly further along in terms of development than the Wolves, AD is a couple years older than Towns and has already gotten some playoff experience. However, Minnesota has far more young talent than the Pelicans do. Beyond AD, the only other interesting young player for the Pelicans is Buddy Hield, who has had an up-and-down rookie year (and is older than the Towns, Lavine and Wiggins). While neither team has lived up to expectations this year, and neither is likely to find their way into that 8^th playoff spot out West, this is an intriguing matchup that could evolve into a rivalry over the years. The Towns-Davis matchup could potentially turn into something akin to Duncan-KG, but hopefully a little less one-sided than that one turned out.

The Wolves got off to a crazy hot start in this one, dropping 40 in the first quarter, 19 coming from Towns. That hot start and subsequent lead dwindled quickly in the second quarter when the bench unit was in. The broadcast noted this fact a few teams, the Pelicans are 5^th in the league in percentage of points that come from the bench, while the Wolves are dead last. That really showed in the early portion of the second quarter. The starters came back in and held off the charging Pelicans to take a 4 point lead into the half.

The Wolves’ third quarter woes, which had been dormant recently, reared their ugly head again as the Pelicans flipped a four-point deficit into a nine-point lead. The Pelicans steadily built their lead in the fourth and with about six minutes left this game was over. The defense just was not up to snuff for the final three quarters of this game, the Pelicans ended up shooting an absurd 60% for the game and were lights out from beyond the arc going 12/25.

The Davis-Towns matchup was fun to watch. Davis matched KAT in the first half, hitting 10 of his first 11 shots and ending up with 24 to Towns’ 25. Davis continued his stellar play in the second half where Towns tapered off a little. Davis seemingly made every little floater he was presented and was able to find holes in the Wolves defense for easy dunks. Davis finished with 42 points and 13 boards while Towns had 36 points and 8 boards. Towns always seems to get up for matchups against his fellow young big men, having great performances against Jokic and Joel Embiid this year, but Davis was the superior player tonight.

Quick Hitters

• We got to see the number 5 and 6 picks from the most recent draft on the same court tonight. The Wolves passed on Buddy Hield to take Kris Dunn and without Zach Lavine tonight the Wolves sure could have used what Hield brought to this game. Buddy scored 17 on a very efficient 7/10 shooting while Dunn didn’t do much in his first game back from a hand injury.

• The second game of the Lance Stephenson era did not go as well as the first with the blowout loss. Lance was on the court for much of the second quarter run that brought the Pelicans back into the game. He had one point and was a -19 for the game.