The Minnesota Timberwolves came into Tuesday night game on a four game losing streak and when the Chicago Bulls went up 21 points in the 2nd quarter it looked as though a 5th loss in a row was going to happen. Instead the Timberwolves where able to come all the way back to snap their losing streak with a 99-94 win.
This is the first time former Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau was facing his former team. Thibodeau coached the Bulls from the 2010-11 season until the end of the 2014-15 season. Thibodeau had a record of 255-139 with the Bulls and never finished worse than 2nd place in the Central division. Thibodeau also won NBA Coach of the Year in 2011 with the Bulls.
The 1st quarter was all Bulls as they put up 38 points in the quarter compared to Minnesota’s 22 points. After a 10-0 run the Bulls had a 26-6 lead with 5:16 left in the quarter. The Timberwolves where able to chip away at the Bulls lead a little, but still ended the quarter down 16 points; 38 to 22.
The 2nd quarter looked like it was going to be much like the 1st quarter. After a Doug McDermott lay up with 6:37 left to play in the quarter the Bulls had their biggest lead of the night; 21 points at 51-30. The Timberwolves then went on a 22-5 run to end the quarter and going into halftime Minnesota found itself down just 4 points at 56-52.
Minnesota tied the game with 7:41 left in the 3rd quarter at 61 all. The Timberwolves then took there first lead of the game on a Zach LaVine jumper going ahead 64 to 63. The game was tied three more times in the quarter the last tie being at 70 apiece. Minnesota finished the quarter on an 8-5 run and took a 78-75 lead after three quarters.
Now it was the Bulls turn to play from behind. Chicago tied the game at 85 all and then scored the next basket to take the lead at 87-85. Minnesota was able to build the lead back to 4 points, but Chicago battled back and tied the game at 91 all with 1:37 left to play. The Timberwolves went on to score the next 8 points in the game and even with Jimmy Butler hitting a 3-pointer with 8 seconds left it was too late for the Bulls and Minnesota had a 99-94 victory.
Minnesota was led by Zach LaVine with 24 points. Andrew Wiggins scored 23 points while Gorgui Dieng had 16 points. Karl-Anthony Towns and Rickey Rubio each had double-doubles in the game. Towns had 16 points and a game high 12 rebounds while Rubio scored 11 points and handed out a game high 10 assists. All five Minnesota starters played 35 minutes or more and they all reach double figures in points.
Jimmy Butler was the games high scorer with 27 points for the Bulls. Butler also had a team high 9 rebounds. Robin Lopez had 14 points, Dwayne Wade scored 12 points and had a team high 8 assists while Taj Gibson was the other Bulls player to score in double figures with 10 points.
The win was just the Timberwolves 7th of the season against 18 losses. Minnesota gets a few days off as they don’t return to the court until Friday night when they host the 18-7 Houston Rockets. The Bulls are now 13-11 with the loss. Chicago returns to action tomorrow (Thursday) night as they’ll make the short road trip to Milwaukee to face the 11-12 Bucks.
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