MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 118, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 107
January 13, 2021
TIMBERWOLVES NOTES
Player Notes
• Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. He has now scored 25+ points in two of his four contests this season.
• Towns registered his 125th 25+ point/10+ rebound game of his career (second only to Kevin Garnett, 205) and his second 25+ point/10+ rebound game of the season.
• At the final buzzer, Malik Beasley had a game-high 28 points, six rebounds and season-high-tying five assists, securing his second career 25+point/5+ rebound/5+ assist game (both with Minnesota).
• Beasley connected on four shots from deep (4-of-11), his fourth-straight game with three or more treys. His longest streak of games with at least three triples made is six games (Feb.24, 2019- Mar. 4, 2019) In his 25th game with Minnesota, he has connected on three or more triples in 17 of his 25 games.
• To end the night, D’Angelo Russell finished with 25 points, three rebounds and a game-high eight assists. This marks his third 25+ point game of the season (ninth in a Wolves uniform).
• Off the bench, Naz Reid finished with nine points, and three rebounds in 13:35 minutes of play.
• Ricky Rubio contributed six points, two rebounds and six assists, his seventh game of the season with 5+ assists (fourth-straight).
Team Notes
• Led by D’Angelo Russell’s eight assists, the Timberwolves dished out 27 total assists, the fourth game of the season with 25+ team assists.
• Tonight is the 15th regular season game in which three or more Timberwolves had at least 25 points each, and the first time since Dec. 28, 2018 vs. Atlanta (Karl-Anthony Towns, Robert Covington, Derrick Rose)
Grizzlies Notes
• Jonas Valanciunas led the way for the Grizzles with 24 points and 16 rebounds, accounting for his ninth double-double of the season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
TIMBERWOLVES HEAD COACH RYAN SAUNDERS
On how the Grizzlies took them out of their rhythm…
“That is a confident group. Offensively they executed, they put pressure on the rim, they hurt our paint. We did a number of things that didn’t help our cause.”
On Memphis scoring 80 points in the paint…
“We gotta be more physical. That is a physical group over there. We gotta be more physical, plain and simple. Take pride in guarding the ball. Take pride in protecting the rim.”
On finding the right rotation for the start of the fourth quarter…
“We gotta come out with more of an aggression, especially with a lead. Playing to win and not playing not to lose. We tried to have DLo and KAT out there. We had to get some guys some rest too, so we would be ready to finish the game. That is definitely something that we have to take a look at.”
TIMBERWOLVES CENTER KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS
On stopping Memphis’ momentum when they got going…
“It is difficult. It is very difficult. They had it going. I think that it is no secret that we take floaters and 38 points shows a lot of floaters were hit so it is on us. We gotta contest. We gotta do better of making them stimulated on defense where they don’t feel comfortable shooting those floaters. At the end of the day it is about getting stops and we didn’t do that.”
On moving the ball inside more when they are down…
“I think 17 points is a lot more than just shot selection. I think it is about defensively, just letting them take the momentum of the game. We could have taken some different shots. I mean obviously, we can say that now after the game is over and we see the result of how it went. But in the moment it is not about the offense it is about the defense. We keep them to where we would like them to be in the fourth quarter around 27 points and we keep on at 17, we are going in to overtime, so it changes the difference. When you are playing defense, if we are not offensively great like we are in the fourth quarter but we get some turnovers, we get some stops, we get the momentum on our side, defense runs the machine. Then we are talking about scoring more than 17 points. We are going to get some foul calls, we are going to get some transition buckets, things like that. We didn’t do that. So with no transition buckets, a team that is number one in half-court defense, it is going to be very difficult to score in the fourth quarter especially when we aren’t shooting particularly well.”
TIMBERWOLVES GUARD MALIK BEASLEY
On closing out games…
“Well, you can’t get bored with success. I think we got bored with success. I think that we thought it was going to be easy. I think that we thought a 10-point lead going into the fourth would be good but it is the NBA, no matter who you are playing against. We knew coming in that they play hard, a lot of their wins are just off of hard work and toughness. That is what they are known for in Memphis. So, we have to be tougher, we have to grind it out throughout the whole 48 minutes, not just 36.”
On what was lacking in the fourth quarter…
“We didn’t finish the plays. We should have gotten a few rebounds that could have been in our hands and were 50-50 balls. Then they didn’t feel us like they did in the rest of the game. We gotta be more physical and let them feel us and get into a rhythm.”
(info courtesy of Timberwolves)