That was a game that never felt out of reach, yet never seemed like the Wolves had a prayer of winning. The Rockets have been mediocre all season, especially against opponents they deem to be below their status, but they kept this one locked up in a good team effort. The Wolves on the other hand had a bad team effort.
Rubio and LaVine both had rough games, but both ended the game hot, making their numbers look better than they played. Rubio was thoroughly outmatched by Patrick Beverly (18 points, 10 assists, five rebounds) and Harden pretty much got all he wanted against Minnesota’s wings, finishing with 29, 14 assists, and five rebounds. Dieng and Montiejunas each had well-rounded games, but DoNuts shot 8-12 compared to Dieng’s 3-11, and that’s that.
In fact, only KAT and Wiggins outplayed their opponents (at least statistically). Wiggins had 21 points on a tidy 8-12 shooting to go with five assists, two boards, and three steals. Towns had a monster 32 and 11 and helped limit Dwight Howard to 10 points on seven shots.
But yeah, make no mistake, this was a stinker. Don’t let the score fool you. It feels like the Wolves these days either lose crappy games or eek out crappy games. Maybe next season we’ll get some good wins.
Tankwatch: In your local tank news, the Wolves are now two games ahead of Brooklyn in the loss column and three ahead of Phoenix for the respective third and fourth picks. It seems unlikely they’ll beat out both those squads, but Phoenix has some nice vibes going right now (despite some ugly losses) and Bojan Bogdanovic has absolutely gone nuts the last few games. Everyone, cross your fingers and pray that he continues his recent success. Let’s get that #3 pick (in a two-star draft!).
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