Declan Goff wrote about this on Saturday, but it’s worth mentioning again how dominant Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns have been of late. More specifically, they’ve been scoring machines since Zach LaVine tore his ACL on Feb. 3.
In 10 games since LaVine’s injury, Wiggins is averaging 30.2 points per game – up from 22.1 point per game before, a 36.7 percent scoring increase.
Towns meanwhile is averaging 29.1 points per game, up from 23 before LaVine’s injury. That’s a 26.5 percent scoring jump for him.
Even more impressive is that Towns is shooting a gaudy 60.8 percent and Wiggins is hitting on 52.3 percent of his shots.
In addition, they’re consistently scoring in all four quarters.
- Wiggins points per quarter: 10.2 | 4.2 | 9.4 | 5.8
- Towns points per quarter: 8.2 | 6.2 | 6.8 | 7.9
It’s become increasingly rare for both to be off the floor at the same time.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau has Wiggins playing nearly every second of the first quarter and literally every second of the third quarter. Yes, Wiggins is literally playing 12 minutes per third quarter since LaVine’s injury. He’s on the floor for six minutes of the second quarter and just over seven minutes of the fourth.
Towns, meanwhile, is never off the floor for more than three-and-a-half minutes of any quarter. He plays about 11 minutes in quarters one and four, and about eight-and-a-half minutes of the middle quarters.
The result has been a 5-5 record in 10 games without LaVine, with four of those wins in the last six games.
The true test begins Wednesday when Minnesota plays at Utah, one of the best defensive teams in the league. It’s also the start of the final stretch run in which 14 of the Wolves’ 22 remaining games are on the road.
Here are two other numbers worth noting.
- Ricky Rubio pre-LaVine injury: 8.6 points, 8.2 assists
- Ricky Rubio post-Lavine injury: 11.2 points, 10.6 assists
