In a much-needed road victory, the Timberwolves played the role of the Grinch and stole Christmas from the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 114-112 win on Sunday night.
It goes down as Minnesota’s first road win against a team with a winning record this season, and just their third overall. The Wolves were an ugly 2-13 on the road entering the game, with their only victories away from Target Center coming against the Nets and Cavaliers, who own the worst record in the NBA.
Andrew Wiggins led Minnesota with 30 points, including the go-ahead layup with 14 seconds left in the game, but also coming up big in the fourth quarter were the two key players received in the Jimmy Butler trade: Robert Covington and Dario Saric.
Covington scored nine of his 13 points in the final quarter, including a huge 3-pointer with exactly two minutes to play that proved to be a huge answer to a game-tying 3 hit by Paul George just 45 seconds earlier.
Then, with the Wolves trailing 110-108, Saric checked in for Taj Gibson and immediately buried a 3 with 37.8 seconds left to put Minnesota on top 111-110.
Russell Westbrook then scored on a driving, right-handed layup from the left side of the rim with 23 seconds to go, which Wiggins answered with hanging, right-handed layup with 14.3 ticks left.
It was a big night for @22wiggins in OKC!
“I’m very proud of this team.” pic.twitter.com/iipOJPX74x
— FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) December 24, 2018
Overall, the game was back-and-forth from the start. Minnesota led by 10 after one quarter, the Thunder outscored the Wolves 38-18 in the second and then got outscored 33-17 in the third quarter before a tightly contested final frame.
Oklahoma City had won 12 of its previous 13 games at home before the loss.
The Thunder play at Houston on Christmas Day while the Wolves get a couple of days off before playing at Chicago on Wednesday.
