The Timberwolves rallied from 19 points down to beat the Houston Rockets 103-91 at Target Center on Monday night.
The come-from-behind victory was far from expected. Not only have the Rockets owned the Wolves of late, including eliminating them from the playoffs in five games last season, the Wolves had yet to comeback from a double-digit deficit to beat a playoff-bound team.
But Minnesota turned a 19-point into a resounding 12-point victory by holding the Rockets to just 29 points in the second half – just nine points in the final quarter.
“We came in here and we made it clear we’ve got to change things and we’ve got to be the team that wants it more,” said Karl-Anthony Towns of what was said in the locker room at halftime, according to ESPN. “I think everyone in the building saw that we came out with an edge to us and a fire to us to get back in the game.”
Towns finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds.
Holding the Rockets to 29 points in a half is insane. It’s the same team that scored 38 points in the second quarter and put up 50 on the Wolves in one quarter during last year’s playfofs.
“It just shows how good we can be defensively,” said Robert Covington, who finished with 13 points, two blocks and two steals. “Everyone that stepped on the court was really engaged in the second half defensively, and that’s what allowed us to hold them to that.”
Minnesota has held seven of 10 opponents under 100 points since acquiring Covington in the trade that sent Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia.
Andrew Wiggins also played well, finishing with 16 points and three blocks.
The victory gets the Wolves back to .500 on the season at 12-12. Minnesota hosts the Hornets on Wednesday before going on a four-game West Coast road trip starting Saturday at Portland.
