The Timberwolves could have taken the easy way out Monday night. They could have rested any number of their top players like Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards against Houston.
The Wolves were playing on a back to back with travel to Houston and perhaps they could have used that as an excuse to rest players, a process some like to refer to as "tanking," in order to improve their draft lottery odds.
All currently healthy Wolves outside of Malik Beasley were available to play. No one rested as the Wolves beat Houston 114-107.
As coach Chris Finch made clear before the game, the Wolves have been too injured and need to figure out what they have around Towns and Russell more than they need a few extra percentage points to keep their pick in the top three of the lottery or else surrender it to Golden State.
"We told the team and certainly our core, key guys that we weren't going to go into the stretch run here with the mentality of resting anybody unnecessarily because we're trying to establish chemistry, establish identity, establish a rhythm," Finch said. "Take into the offseason a body of work that we can really assess and that's more important than anything else for us right now."
If anyone was worried the Wolves would suddenly morph into one of the best teams in the NBA after beating Utah twice, the Wolves alleviated their fears with an inconsistent night in Houston despite the win, which marked the first time the Wolves have won three consecutive games.
Towns had 31 points but had to sit out the final 2 minutes, 21 seconds after he fouled out with the score tied 102-102. But thanks to some heady plays by Jarred Vanderbilt, who had a tip in and steal to lead to a Russell layup, the Wolves scored the next eight points to clinch the win.
The Wolves built an early lead through the first after forcing eight Houston turnovers and led 28-23 after one.
The Wolves made a surge and pushed that lead to double digits thanks to their second unit. Juancho Hernangomez (22 points), playing the small forward position alongside Naz Reid and Jarred Vanderbilt, hit his first three threes of the night and had 16 points in just 11 minutes during the first half. That helped compensate for Russell's slow start, as he went 1-for-8 in the first half. The Wolves led 38-29 before Houston made a 6-0 run to pull within three.
The starters came back for the Wolves and pushed the lead to as much as 12 before Wood hit a three to cut it to 59-50 at the half.
Houston wasn't going away, and as the third quarter went on the Rockets kept attacking and making shots while cutting down the turnovers. Finch called a timeout after the Rockets took a 72-69 lead with 5 minutes, 1 second to play. Houston held the Wolves to just 19 points and shot 11 of 21 in the quarter to take a 79-78 lead into the fourth.
Towns and the Wolves woke up in the fourth with an 8-0 run that allowed them to re-take the lead 90-85. Another Towns bucket, a dunk from Edwards and a reverse layup from Hernangomez pushed that lead to 98-89 as the Wolves restored order.
But then Towns picked up his fifth foul and momentarily went out of the game, allowing Houston to tie the game at 102. Towns fouled out on an offensive foul with 2:21 remaining and the Wolves had to try and win without him. They would. It helped to be playing Houston.
