76ers vs. Timberwolves: Score, Highlights, Reaction from 2016 Regular Season
Thursday night's clash between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers was billed as a battle of some of the league's brightest up-and-coming stars, but it proved to be a one-sided affair.
In a showdown headlined by Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns and Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, the Timberwolves shrugged off the Sixers at Target Center, 110-86, to move to 4-7 on the season. The loss dropped the Sixers to 2-10.
Towns and Andrew Wiggins paced the Timberwolves offense, and the Sixers had no solution for the duo's scoring savvy.
In addition to recording 10 rebounds, the 2015 No. 1 overall pick finished with 25 points on 12-of-18 shooting, including a monster fourth-quarter dunk:
Wiggins posted a game-high 35 points, 10 rebounds and four assists while going 14-of-20 from the floor and 3-of-6 from three-point range.
Wiggins has topped 25 points in eight of 11 games this season after crossing that threshold 21 times last season, and the Washington Post's Tim Bontemps took note of his polished three-point stroke as the points continued to pile up:
Sports Illustrated's Rob Mahoney provided some more insight regarding Wiggins' evolution as a go-to scorer:
Embiid countered with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and a block, but he couldn't establish a rhythm with the Timberwolves double-teaming him at the point of the catch all night.
It didn't help that Embiid took a couple of scary tumbles in the first half that had him briefly grabbing at his left ankle.
The Associated Press' Jon Krawczynski noted even the Timberwolves faithful were on pins and needles when The Process hit the hardwood:
The Sixers kept the margin within single digits in the first quarter, but they unraveled shortly thereafter.
With threes clanging off the iron, turnovers abounding and Embiid largely a non-factor, Philadelphia didn't have a sustainable source of offense to turn to.
The Sixers were also lazy on the glass, as Zach LaVine's easy putback slam off a missed free throw demonstrated:
As a result of those deficiencies, the Sixers entered halftime down by 28 points.
That margin was so hefty that even the league's worst third-quarter team couldn't cough up the lead.
The Timberwolves entered Thursday night ranked dead last with a third-quarter point differential of minus-37 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com, but they held it together Thursday, when they were outscored by a single point in the frame.
With the third-quarter hurdle cleared, the Timberwolves were able to cruise to their fourth victory of the season and improve to 3-2 over their last five games. That's a welcome change for a team that started the season 1-5, and the recent offerings are likely more reflective of Minnesota's potential moving forward.
However, the rest of the month may not be smooth sailing for a team that expects to contend for one of the Western Conference's final playoff spots. Minnesota has seven games remaining in November, and that stretch includes showdowns against the Memphis Grizzlies, Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz.
The Sixers, on the other hand, will try to get back on track after squandering a chance to notch three wins in five games.
The good news, though, is that the Sixers' next five games will be at the Wells Fargo Center—which is where their only two wins this season have come.
A meeting against the Phoenix Suns looms Saturday, and the Sixers will then host the Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers the week of Thanksgiving as they seek to make amends for Thursday's flat effort and play competitive ball against some of the league's stronger clubs.
Postgame Reaction
"(Wiggins) is playing very well. He’s playing an all-around game," head coach Tom Thibodeau said, per NBA.com's Mitchell Hansen. "His defense is terrific. He’s letting the game come to him. He’s shooting when he should shoot, he’s passing when he should pass. That’s big for us. The pick and roll with (Wiggins and Towns) is very difficult to guard."
Speaking of Wiggins, Minnesota forward Gorgui Dieng noted the game's top scorer brought a different level of intensity on Thursday, per Krawczynski:
"Tonight, we had to get this one. We have let a lot of game get away and tonight we just needed to focus and do anything we could to get this win," Dieng added, per Hansen. "We just need to keep building and try and get better every game."
As for Philadelphia, head coach Brett Brown put things in perspective following a tough loss on the second night of a back-to-back.
"I think that they're a lot further ahead for all the obvious reasons, and it's not a lack of respect or disservice to our guys at all," he said, per Krawczynski. "This group that you're looking at played with each other all last year, many, many, many, many games together."
"They're young and they're still going to get better, and that's where we've got to get to," Embiid said, according to Krawczynski. "When you learn how to play with each other, it's easier to play."
