Wolves 135, Bulls 119: Windy City Comeback

The Timberwolves were down most of the game, but a 45-24 fourth quarter surge gave them their first win in Chicago since 2018

Following the blowout win over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, the Minnesota Timberwolves headed back out on the road for another one-game road trip, this time against the Chicago Bulls.

Last game, the Wolves did a good job of containing LaMelo Ball, holding him to 19 points on 6-15 shooting. The Bulls present a similar matchup with Coby White. Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch talked pre-game about how to best defend guards like Ball and White.

“Well, you gotta get back and make a play in front of you. I mean, both of them are really dynamic in the open four. Shooting from everywhere, shooting from deep. I personally think [White] is one of the most underrated players in the league.”

Chicago has a recent history of making a ton of 3-point shots against Minnesota. Dating back to the 2021-22 season, the Bulls have 80-173 (46.2%) on 3-point shots against the Wolves. That trend would continue to start this game as the Bulls would make six of their first seven attempts from deep, surging out to a 34-28 lead at the end of the first quarter.

With the Wolves potentially looking for a defensive spark, Josh Minott got some early playing time in the first half, playing close to three minutes in the first quarter.

Chicago’s strong shooting would continue in the second quarter as the were consistently able to generate open looks from beyond the arc and build a 12-point lead early in the period, leading to a Minnesota timeout.

Chicago would finish the first have shooting 60 percent from the floor and 58.8 percent from long-range, giving them a 65-56 lead at the half. Nikola Vucevic led the way for Chicago with 13 points.

Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards did the most offensively for the Wolves scoring 14 and 13 points respectively with each player having an identical 6-12 shooting line from the floor. They also each made one of their three 3-point attempts.

The Wolves defense would start to get some stops at the beggining of the second half, allowing them to cut into the Chicago lead on this pretty alley-oop from Mike Conley to Rudy Gobert.

That five-point Bulls lead would hold the remainder of the quarter as they led 95-90 heading into the final frame of basketball.

Donte DiVincenzo would begin to heat up to start the fourth quarter, hitting two 3-pointers to cut the Bulls lead to three.

The Wolves would continue to wear down the Bulls, who played the Dallas Mavericks just last night, as they would eventually take the lead with just under seven minutes left in the game, their first lead since the score was 3-0.

That would lead to an all-too-familiar scoring surge from Edwards who would hit back-to-back 3-pointers, including this pull-up in transition, to put the Wolves up by seven.

The Timberwolves’ lead would only grow from there as they would finish the fourth quarter with a 45-24 advantage giving them a 135-119 win in Chicago.

Edwards led the way for the Wolves with 33 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Randle scored 22 points with ten rebounds and three assists. Gobert was the third Wolves player with 20 or more points scoring 21 along with nine rebounds and three assists.

Vucevic led the way for the Bulls with 25 points on 11-15 shooting. White was next in line for Chicago with 24 points of his own

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Key Takeaway

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Three Quarters of Defensive Struggles

For the first three quarters of this game, it looked like the Wolves defense was completely lost with how to handle Chicago’s offense. The Bulls had scored 95 points including 16 made 3-pointers on only 28 attempts.

They were allowing Chicago to get anywhere they wanted on the court, which is especially concerning for a Timberwolves team that far-outranked every other team in defensive rating last season.

Finch talked on the podium after the game about what was going wrong with the defense in the first half of the game.

“They were a hot-shooting team and they got hot. They got a lot of really good looks on us in the first half. I think they had 20 assists at halftime so we definitely had to take the assists out of the game somehow.”

Finch would continue with what he felt changed in the fourth quarter that allowed the Timberwolves to limit Chicago to only 24 points scored.

Taking the threes out of the game. That’s what they do. They are gonna try to take 50 of them in a night in all sorts of ways. You have to get back, you gotta guard them one-on-one.”

Conley added to that in the locker room after the game, talking about the defensive change the Wolves made in the halftime locker room to limit the Bulls’ 3-pointers by not helping off of shooters.

“Honestly, we started playing guys one on one. We stopped helping at the rim. We stopped helping on drives. Because they were just knocking down everything when they drove the ball. Got deep penetration and kicked out to open shooters. So the first half, it was a lot more help. Second half, we just kind of stayed home a little bit more. And eventually, they started missing some. And we were able to capitalize.”

With the roster shakeup so late in the season, the Wolves are still searching a bit to find the same defensive strategy and intensity they had last year. For much of this game, it was a frustrating watch as a Bulls team that had struggled to score carved the Wolves up.

After the game, Gobert talked about how close he feels the Wolves are to playing 48 minutes of great defense.

“I think the way we start games, the first half we got to be better. Every time we sit down at halftime, we’re like, let’s start guarding. Hopefully, we have those conversations before the game.”

The hope is that what the Wolves showed in the fourth quarter defensively will be far more emblematic of who they are moving forward as they look to regain the defensive dominance they had a year ago.

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Ant Dominates the Fourth Quarter

The Timberwolves battled and scratched all night offensively to keep pace with a Chicago team that would not stop scoring the ball. After going down by as many as 13 points, the Wolves were finally able to take the lead with less than seven minutes to go in the game, their first lead since the first minute of the game.

Once the Wolves took the lead, Edwards came through to shut the door on the Bulls scoring 13 of his 33 points, while also adding two assists, in a less than five-minute stretch to increase the Wolves lead from just one, all they way up to 17 before the Bulls waved the white flag.

Ant has shown many times already this season the ability to close games when the Wolves need someone to put the game away. He did so against the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets earlier this year and did it again tonight in Chicago.

Edwards talked in the locker room after the game about his mindset both for this Wolves team and his career moving forward.

“I don’t want to be a team that’s like been to the playoffs a couple times and then don’t go back. Or been to the WCF and don’t go back. I don’t want to be that guy that had a moment.”

Ant also touched on why the defense has struggled so much especially early in games or when they’ve been ahead.

“I don’t know if we’d be tight or cold or what it is. Because I have no excuse. I don’t know why I don’t play defense early in the game. But I’m a part of it too. We all just got to be better.”

As is true with almost every NBA team, the Timberwolves are going to go as far as Ant is able to take them. Last year, he was able to take them to their first Western Conference Finals in 20 years. If he keeps playing like he did in the fourth quarter tonight in Chicago, the sky is the limit for him and this Wolves team.

United Center House of Horrors

The Timberwolves have found it very difficult in the past few years to find victories at the United Center. Tonight was Minnesota’s first road victory against Chicago since Dec 26, 2018, breaking a five-game losing streak in the Windy City.

Early on it was shaping up to be a similar story to many of the other trips to Chicago as the Bulls hit ten of their first 15 shots from long range, building their lead to as many as 13 points.

The Wolves would be able to break that cycle by limiting the Bulls to only five makes from beyond the arc, finally limiting Chicago’s shooters for the first time in seemingly four seasons.

There are still aspects of the Wolves defense to worry about, the 65 points given up in the first half chief among them, but for a team still looking to find its identity in rhythm any win, especially on the road, is invaluable.

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Up Next

The Timberwolves return home from their one-game sabbatical to the Windy City to face the Portland Trail Blazers at Target Center. The game tips off at 8:00 PM CT airing on FanDuel Sports Network North.

It will be the first of three games upcoming against the Trail Blazers with the two playing each other on back-to-back nights following the Wolves game against the Miami Heat on Sunday.

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Game Highlights