How big was Minnesota’s win at Target Center over the Portland Trailblazers Wednesday night? A 120-109 victory over the team with the NBA’s best record is certainly the biggest win of the young season, and could right the ship for the Timberwolves, who are now back at an even record of 13-13.
Fox Sports North has this quote from coach Rick Adleman: “You’re trying to get your team to see the validation of when they play the way they’re capable of playing.”
ESPN pits the two best power forwards in the league against each other, noting that Kevin Love Love had 29 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists to outshine LeMarcus Aldridge in the victory over Portland.
Yahoo! Sports notes the big numbers put up by center Nikola Pekovic with 30 points and nine rebounds.
The Timberwolves played an efficient game offensively, shooting 46-93 (49.5%) from the field and turning it over just 10 times, reports Yahoo!, meanwhile, the defense of Portland continues to struggle forcing turnovers, with their opponents surrendering the fewest turnovers in the league (14.1%)
Canis Hoopus has this quote from Love on Pekovic:
“He sealed the guys the right way tonight and was able to get back to that left shoulder that everyone knows he loves but he’s so big that you can’t really stop it.”
Here’s a bit from another Canis Hoopus story: “The second quarter came, and the Wolves’ onslaught went from impressive to borderline unrealistic. Their lead got as big as 32 in that quarter, with their consistent defense and success on the fast break making it near-impossible for Portland to stop the Wolves.”
The Star Tribune’s Jerry Zgoda notes that “the Wolves withstood the Blazers’ fourth-quarter threats thanks in good part to a 72-34 advantage in points in the paint, many of which came from Pekovic’s scoring and ball movement created by the passing of Love, (Ricky) Rubio and others.”
Of course, someone has to be a Debbie Downer, and that job belongs to Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press.
“That’s one in a row,” Powers writes. “The Timberwolves really need to go on some type of decent winning streak here.”
