MINNEAPOLIS _ No matter how hard they may try or how much interim coach Ryan Saunders preaches the importance of defense, its effectiveness evades the Timberwolves.
The Wolves were trying to for the season sweep of Oklahoma City on Sunday and when they needed stops to try and secure a late victory, all they gave the Thunder was the green light.
The Thunder came away with a 132-126 victory as Russell Westbrook had a triple double with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists. Paul George added 27.
Karl-Anthony Towns had a big second half, scoring 25 of his 35 points to go with seven rebounds and Andrew Wiggins continued to strong play against Oklahoma City with 24 points on 9 of 15 shooting, but the defense wasn't enough down the stretch. The Thunder scored on four of their last five possessions to get the win.
The Wolves fell behind early as Oklahoma City scored the first seven points of the game and trailed by as many as 14 in the first half, but they came back on the strength of Wiggins, Josh Okogie and solid bench minutes. Gorgui Dieng continued his solid play with eight first-half points while Keita Bates-Diop provided five and solid defense. Okogie had a few highlight-reel dunks and was active defensively while Wiggins made plays against the Thunder, as he typically does. Wiggins entered the afternoon averaging 29.3 points against Oklahoma City this season on 49 percent shooting.
The Wolves took a brief lead in the second quarter 50-48 on an Anthony Tolliver basket, but Oklahoma City took a 62-60 lead into halftime.
The Wolves took a 10-point lead in the third quarter thanks to the sharpshooting of Dario Saric, who caught fire from three-point range. Saric hit all four of his 3-point attempts in the quarter as the Wolves outscored Oklahoma City 37-33. One of Saric's 3s came during a 12-1 run that propelled the Wolves to a 93-83 lead. Towns got going in the quarter after a slow first half when he was just 1 of 5 from the floor with six turnovers. But the Thunder made a run to close the third as the Wolves bench had trouble holding off Westbrook and George, who cut the lead to 97-95 by the start of the fourth.
Saunders stuck with the bench early in the fourth and Oklahoma City took advantage, opening up an eight-point lead by the 8:26 mark. Oklahoma City scored 15 of 17 points over that span.
The Thunder built the lead in the fourth and despite Towns' best efforts to bring back the Wolves, they couldn't complete the job.
