The Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Houston Rockets 139-132 on Sunday night as they continue to gain ground in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Timberwolves made short work of the Rockets, who came into the night with the second-worst record (20-58) in the NBA. Anthony Edwards made sure to eliminate the “trap game” narrative early, leading the Wolves with 31 points on the night.
please sit back and enjoy these 20 seconds of Ant's dunk 🤯 pic.twitter.com/3xCXxNKP9a
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 4, 2022
With Karl-Anthony Towns (28 points, 11 rebounds) and D’Angelo Russell (22 points, nine assists) also having big nights, Minnesota scored a season-high 80 points in the first half.
Even with the Rockets keeping pace, the Timberwolves blew the game open thanks to their bench. Josh Okogie emerged for 11 points off the bench and Minnesota raced out to an easy victory in Houston.
The win was huge for the Timberwolves, who have a new team to chase in the West. With the Denver Nuggets defeating the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, Denver leapfrogged the Utah Jazz for fifth place.
After Utah’s loss to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, they fell toward the Wolves, who are now just 1.5 games back of the sixth seed and an automatic playoff berth with three games to play.
The Timberwolves will look to gain more ground when they host the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night.
