Timberwolves 118, Magic 111: A Fourth Quarter Avalanche Saves Minnesota

The Wolves trailed by as many as 11 points in the fourth quarter before a 15-1 run flipped the script for Minnesota’s seventh straight win.

Home sweet home. After a season of long road trips and crazy travel, the Minnesota Timberwolves returned home for their first extended homestand in over a month, taking on the Orlando Magic. The Wolves now play their next five and seven of their next eight games at Target Center.

The Wolves’ offense has been humming since Julius Randle returned on March 2. Randle has been playing the best basketball of his Minnesota career to this point and Friday night against the Magic was no exception.

Randle led the Wolves in first half scoring and playmaking with 17 points and 4 assists. The Wolves forward was able to get to his shot, find shooters out of the post, and made fantastic cuts for easy baskets.

The Magic were able to keep themselves in the game with some hot 3-point shooting, going 9-17 from beyond the arc in the first half. Long-range shooting has been a struggle for Orlanda the entire season. They are dead last in 3-point percentage this season at 30.8 percent. The last team to make less than 31 percent of their 3-point shots was the Timberwolves during the 2012-13 season.

The third quarter saw more of the same for Orlanda, as they made three of their six shots from deep, but Minnesota’s offense hit an oil spill. The Wolves scored just 16 points in the quarter, going 6-19 from the floor while adding in six turnovers.

The Magic were able to build their lead to as many as 11 points early in the fourth quarter before a 15-1 run by the Wolves completely turned the tide of the game.

The Wolves consistently were forcing Orlando into missed shots and turnovers on one end while reclaiming the ball movement from the first half that disappeared in the third quarter.

The Magic would recover to tie the game at 98-98 before a 5-0 scoring-burst from Anthony Edwards put the game away for the Wolves. Minnesota would go on to win 118-111 with Edwards leading the way with 28 points, four rebounds and five assists.

---

Key Takeaway

Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Flipping the Script of the Season

There have been many games this season that have played out very similarly to the one tonight. A game where the Wolves played well in spots, probably should have taken a bigger lead and found themselves staring down a potential loss to a lesser team.

Early in the season, the Wolves would have let their emotions spiral into a close loss where they were unable to make enough plays down the stretch of the game. Tonight, the exact opposite happened, despite an awful third quarter and a double-digit fourth quarter deficit, the Wolves made enough plays late in the final quarter to get the victory.

A play that stands out as significant was the putback dunk by Randle. It is the exact type of hustle play that had been largely non-existent for this Minnesota team in the first half of the season.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch talked about that dunk and what has changed since the beginning of the season.

““I think we’re making more little plays. I think like the Julius putback dunk, maybe earlier in the season we don’t run that down and dunk it. It’s just kind of making the extra pass and getting on the floor and multiple efforts in and around the boards. It was just a lot of little things. The bigger things take care of themselves, but really the little things are what we’re doing a better job of.”

Randle spoke in the locker room after the game and echoed the sentiment from Finch about how they came back and won this game.

“I mean, we’ve been in a lot of these games, to be honest, so we’ve been in these positions and we’ve been figuring out how to win these games. So we know it’s just taking a possession at a time, a stop at a time, just get good offense on the other end, and I mean we’ve felt like no disrespect, we just felt like the better team. We knew we just had to trust in what we do every single night and just execute.”

The confidence that he is talking about was not there from the Wolves much at all early in the season. They often seemed to get into their own heads late in games, especially against opponents they probably knew they should have easily beaten.

Randle specifically has looked far more confident during this 12-game win streak in games he has taken the floor. He has looked like a completely different player both when things are going well and especially when it’s not. There were times early in the season when Randle would let the negative aspects of the game affect his play and his attitude, but that has been non-existent of late.

Donte DiVincenzo talked about how the Wolves have changed since early in the season.

“We’ve matured as a team. We’re still maturing as a team. Collectively, we’re able to have those conversations. We’re more comfortable with each other and what everybody’s good at. Understanding that one mistake or one bad play from somebody is not the end of the world. It’s all about staying together. Tonight, everybody stepped in.”

Winning games like tonight is important for any team, but especially for the Wolves who look to finish as a top-six seed to get out of the Play-in Tournament. In a game where the worst shooting team in over a decade made 12 of their first 23 shots from beyond the arc, the Timberwolves were able to roll with the punches and overcome their own stretch of poor play.

The Wolves’ schedule the rest of the way remains incredibly favorable in terms of both opponent and travel. They will need to continue stringing together performances like tonight to build on what has now become a seven-game win streak.

---

Up Next

The Wolves continue their five-game homestand with a matchup against the team at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, the Utah Jazz. The game begins at 6:00 PM CT, and fans can watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network.

---

Game Highlights