Game Recap: New York Knicks Scorch Minnesota Timberwolves, 120-107
The Knicks offense was on fire and melted the icy Wolves despite Town's best efforts
The New York Knicks (5-5) went into the freezing city of Minneapolis last night to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the cold clearly didn’t bother them. The Knicks were so hot shooting and scoring the ball that they nearly set two franchise records in the first half of play. The Knicks went on to win 120-107 for their second straight road win and second win in three games.
Both teams were firing from deep to start the game. After going scoreless for the first three minutes and being down 5-0, Cam Reddish and Julius Randle each hit a pair of three-pointers. Suddenly, NY found themselves up 12-8 with 8 minutes to go in the first quarter.
Karl-Anthony Towns, as you would expect, went right after Jericho Sims (it was Sims’ first start of the season). In his first five minutes of playing time, Towns had 6 points and 5 rebounds. He scored on a three-pointer and an and-one over Sims. KAT played the whole first quarter and had 8/7/2 in those 12 minutes. Sims had 2 rebounds, 2 fouls, and a block in 7 min before being subbed out for Isaiah Hartenstein.
Julius Randle was electric from the perimeter. He hit back-to-back threes (including a step-back shot) to put NY up 22-17 midway through the first quarter. Randle finished the quarter 5/7 from the field, all 3-pointers.
Cam was aggressive early but couldn’t hit anything inside the arc. He was 2/6 from the field and wasn’t really involved on offense the rest of the night (ended the game 2/8, 2/5 from three). Reddish did however continue to play good defense by holding Anthony Edwards to just two points in the first half.
The Knicks scored 33 points before attempting their first free throws. Immanuel Quickley hit a three with 2 seconds left to cap off the big shooting quarter. The Knicks were 10/19 (53%) from deep in Q1 and led 38-29 at the sound of the buzzer. The Wolves shot well from deep too, they were 6/14 from three (43%), but turnovers hurt them badly (6 in Q1).
In the second quarter, the whole team contributed on both ends. Brunson was putting in work, and IQ (7 points in 6 min) and Obi Toppin (12 points in 8 min off the bench) continued to score after each of them hit a few baskets in the prior frame. Edwards began scoring as well. He finally got on the scoreboard with a layup off a great feed from Towns at around the 8-minute mark.
Halfway through, the Knicks had 23 points off turnovers while MIN had none. NY’s largest lead was 27 points when they were up 60-33. Former Knick Austin Rivers checked in with 2:28 left. He almost immediately went hard to the basket against Cam and drew free throws. He hit both, his first points of the season. RJ Barrett went coast to coast and made a highly contested layup to end the half and put NY up 76-52.
Towns continued to do damage but was the only guy who could really hurt NY. KAT had 13/10/4 while shooting 4/6 in 21 min. The Knicks were 13/29 from deep. They were just one point shy and one three-pointer made shy of franchise records (14 threes and 77 points are the Knicks records for the first half of a game).
Coming out of halftime, RJ opened the third quarter with a tough and-one and he made the free throw. This gave NY their second 27-point lead of the night. Minny went on an early 10-0 run, but it was broken by an off-balance three; this shot was also made by Barrett. He then hit another three out of a timeout a few minutes later.
Edwards came alive in the third, scoring 12 points in 7 minutes, but it didn’t do much. The Knicks’ starters did a good job of spreading the ball this quarter, and it was Barrett who was most rewarded among them; he had 11 points in Q3. NY maintained around a 20-point lead the whole quarter. An iHart slam was the exclamation point in the final seconds, putting NY up 103-80.
In the final 12 minutes, the Wolves nearly made it a game. Rivers helped MIN cut the Knicks’ lead to 14 with 9 min left and the crowd started to get involved. Thankfully, Randle and Brunson hit back-to-back threes a few moments later. The Knicks got sloppy at times and started missing shots more often, allowing for the Wolves to go on a couple of runs. MIN made it a 111-96 game with 4:49 remaining, forcing Tom Thibodeau to call a timeout.
It felt like NY was being outplayed, but they still managed to keep ahead of the Wolves by 15-20 points give or take throughout the final quarter. NY did so by taking shots deep into the shot clock and drawing fouls. This was mostly done by Barrett, who was relentlessly attacking the basket.
Randle tied his career high with his 8th three-pointer of the game just before the 3-minute mark. The step-back shot over Towns was effectively the dagger as the score was now 116-96. A few possessions later, MIN took out their starters; that was all she wrote.
Notes:
Clyde at one point mentioned Towns “called Edwards fat for eating too much Popeyes.” Breen corrected him, assuring the HOFer that Towns’ actual quote was tamer. This threw me off guard but made for a good laugh
Sims had a put-back dunk off an RJ missed a layup and a fast break slam all alone in this game. He also had 5 fouls in 17 minutes. I’m glad we got to see him get playing time, but he’s clearly got a long way to go if he ever wants to see a significant minutes load and compete against the league’s top centers
Derrick Rose shot 1/7 in the first half, and 0/4 from three. Randle was 6/9 from three, 6/10 with 20 points in the first half in 16 min
The star tonight was clearly Randle. He set the tone early with his three-ball and kept shooting and making jumpers all night long. His final stat line: 33 minutes, 31 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 9/15 from the field, 8/13 from deep, 5/6 on free throws
Brunson (23 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds) and Barrett (22/5/5, 3/7 from three, 5/6 on FT) were also fantastic from start to finish
Randle, Brunson, and Barrett each scored 20+ for the second straight game
Obi used to always hesitate on threes. But, lately, his first instinct has been to let it fly and it worked. He was 3/8 from behind the arc on the night. Final stat line: 26 minutes, 15 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals
NY finally wasn’t eviscerated by the long ball, in fact, it was the exact opposite. Knicks finished the game 19/48 from three (40%) and 23/25 from the free throw line (92%). The Wolves were just 11/41 from beyond the arc (27%). They seemed to defend it pretty well, so hopefully, this becomes a trend