MINNEAPOLIS _ The Timberwolves will be without Karl-Anthony Towns for another two weeks at least, with the team saying it will again re-evaluate Towns' left wrist fracture in that time.
Towns looked as if he wanted to get on the court Friday, as he never sat down and was bouncing around after every positive Wolves play.
They likely could have used him against Orlando, which cruised to a 132-118 victory at Target Center.
There wasn't much wrong with the Wolves offense on Friday, outside of D'Angelo Russell playing his worst game in a Wolves uniform with just five points on 2-of-14 shooting. Despite that, they did shoot 47% for the game, 52% outside of Russell. Except Orlando shot 61% as the Wolves defense had one of its worst nights since the trade deadline. Wherever Orlando was shooting, the ball was going in. The Magic were up by 23 in the third quarter and kept that large lead into the fourth.
Timberwolves coach Ryan Saunders decided to rest Russell and Malik Beasley during the fourth quarter in part because the Magic had this one in hand. Orlando had a big night despite coach Steve Clifford being taken to a hospital after feeling ill during the third quarter.
Beasley had a big night offensively with 29 points, balancing out Russell's lack of production. The Magic had big nights from Nikola Vucevic (28 points, 12 rebounds) and Markelle Fultz (24 points, 11-of-14 shooting).
The Wolves frontcourt had some issues with Orlando's size in the teams' previous matchup. Friday started the same way, with both Juancho Hernangomez and Naz Reid picking up a pair of fouls in the first quarter. This meant the Wolves had to make due with James Johnson playing center off the bench. For the most part they did in the first quarter. They took care of the ball, only committing one turnover, and did their best to keep up with the Magic on the boards, also a bugaboo in the last matchup. The Wolves got some early help in that department from Beasley and Josh Okogie, who each had four rebounds in the first half.
The Wolves ended the first quarter down 29-24, but they got their offense in gear in the second quarter. Only problem was Orlando got its offense rolling too. Specifically, Ross started to catch fire. He hit all four of hit shot attempts in the second quarter. The Wolves kept within striking distance thanks to Beasley, even as Russell struggled to get going and the Wolves weren't as sharp from 3-point range as they have been of late. Beasley was in double figures by the half, and the Wolves trailed 65-55 at the half. Orlando put up 36 in the quarter and ended on a 7-0 run headed into the locker room. Fultz had 14 at the half on 6-of-8 shooting while Michael Carter-Williams was a perfect 4 of 4. He even got in a little jawing at Towns following one of his makes.
The Magic was able to carry the momentum into the third quarter and went on a 6-0 run in the first 93 seconds of the second half. That extended their lead to 16, 71-55, and the Wolves called timeout.
Beasley tried to will the Wolves back into it. After on layup, he motioned to the crowd to make some noise as the Wolves trailed by 13. But Gordon hit a few free throws, and Fultz got a three-point play to ignite a 13-2 Magic run that propelled it back to make 87-66 lead. That was the theme of the third quarter. Beasley scored at will _ so did the Magic. Beasley finished 19 points in the quarter, but the Magic had 37. They scored seemingly at will and didn't even hit a 3 in the quarter. The Magic made 56% of its shots, but was 0 for 6 from 3-point range. This surge in the third allowed the Magic to coast in the fourth, even without its coach and even as the Wolves cut it to 10 late.
