Both the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves are coming off substantial losses over the weekend.
While the Thunder dropped a 125-110 game at home to a Lakers team that didn’t have LeBron or Anthony Davis, the Timberwolves fell by 30 on the road at Houston.
Though they each lost the last game they played, the two teams are trending in the opposite direction. Oklahoma City has been one of the hottest teams over the past five weeks and since beating the Timberwolves in overtime on December 6, the Thunder have gone 14-5 with wins streaks of four and five games.
The Wolves, on the other hand, went 2-12 in the month of December, struggling to find their way without Karl-Anthony Towns who has been sidelined with a knee injury.
The New Year has been slightly more kind to Minnesota, they’re 3-3 in games played in 2020.
However, the Timberwolves will still be without Towns on Monday. According to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, Towns’ absence against the Thunder is due to illness and not injury.
The last time these two got together it resulted in “Jersey-gate” when Chris Paul pointed out Jordan Bell’s untucked jersey as Bell was checking into the game in the final seconds.
That led a technical foul, a court-length pass, and buzzer-beater that allowed Oklahoma City to go on to beat the Timberwolves in OT.
Paul was then assessed two delay-of-game violations related to his uniform in OKC’s next game on Dec. 9 against the Trail Blazers.
