Short-handed wolves give western-donners a fight, but only come up briefly

The Minnesota Timberwolves showed a lot of fight, but they were a little too short too short.

The wolves were unable to reproduce their last breathtaking performance against the western Oklahoma City Thunder and fall 130-123 in the Target Center in Minneapolis on Sunday evening in the first of back-to-back games against Oklahoma City.

The Chet Holmgren, born in Minneapolis, scored a 33 seconds before remaining thunder (46-10) with 6 minutes and 33 seconds and they never covered from there. The Timberwolves (31-27) had two shots the next property, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander met a few possessions later, then Alex Caruso met a 3 and Jalen Williams added another from the whole range.

Suddenly a two-point wolves did not turn into an 11-point deficit Minnesota.

“They were able to loosen a square square and strike 3s,” said Timberwolves coach Chris Finch.

Gilgeous-Alexander scored 37 points with high-playing high. Holmgren added 19 points, 10 of which played game in the first quarter.

Jaylen Clark, who started his second career, probably put together his best performance of the season until a scary fall in the third quarter took him out of the game. Clark built up on his impressive performance, which Gilgeous-Alexander defended in front of her last matchup, kept him cold early and forces Oklahoma City to make a number of sales. But Clark struck his head on the floor in the third quarter, entered the changing room and was later excluded.

Clark ended his night with 14 points, four steals and a rebound, and he had a plus 20 plus 20 in 18 minutes. His presence was clearly missed after implementing the rest of the third the rest of the wolves by 14 points.

“We missed his stubbornness out there, his shot finding,” said Finch.

The wolves gathered to recapture the lead in the fourth quarter, but the shots did not fall and they simply went out of gas.

Clark was in the starting line -up with Donte Divincenzo (Toe), Julius Randle (bar) and Rudy Gobert (back), all of whom were still based on injuries. He got the nod on Sunday evening over Nickeil Alexander Walker, who played a crucial role in the comeback efforts and scored Key 3S in the fourth quarter. Alexander Walker ended with 18 points, two rebounds and two assists from the bank.

Anthony Edwards almost had a triple double and led the wolves with 29 points, 10 rebounds and seven templates. But he also recorded a technical foul in the first half, his league on the 14th of the season. Edwards is now two technical fouls from one-game suspension, since every player who receives 16 in a single season is issued an automatic suspension.

The wolves were up to 19 points in the first half, but they closed half in a 23: 7 run to bring a lead of 63: 61 into the half-time break. This swing rolled again and again until Clark’s third quarter fell, and the wolves finally stuttered late.

Naz Reid was a force in the post and often pulled doubles that he could masterfully navigate. Reid ended with 22 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks and two steals. Jaden McDaniels scored 17 points, 13 rebounds and a template.

The two teams meet again on Monday evening in Oklahoma City at 7 p.m.

“I know that I was built for (back on back),” said Reid. “I know that a lot of people are built here, so I think it is not something that we have to overreact. We will go out and compete there. This is only what we are, we won’t just turn around . ”