MINNEAPOLIS _ They play big minutes, score the bulk of the Timberwolves points. As has been the case since this season started, each night they play the Wolves will only go as far as Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine will take them.
Monday at Target Center, the Wolves Big Three took the fans for a nice ride in a 104-90 victory over Atlanta.
Against a Hawks team healthier than the one the Wolves beat in Atlanta last week, Towns had 22 points and 11 rebounds, Wiggins and LaVine scored 21 each.
Towns had 15 points in the first quarter, LaVine had eight in the second and Wiggins 12 in the third as the Wolves build a 24-point lead through three quarters. Then, when LaVine opened the third with a corner three, the Wolves were on their way.
It was the fourth time this season that each of the three has passed the 20-point mark in the same game, and the eighth overall. The Wolves in those games are 3-1 and 6-2, respectively.
Wiggins (4-for-6), Towns (3-for-3) and LaVine (6-for-9) combined to hit 13 of the Wolves' 15 3-pointers. The Wolves got 14 points and seven rebounds from Gorgui Dieng and Ricky Rubio racked up 10 assists while running his string of time without a turnover to 67:40. Shabazz Muhammad scored 12 points off the bench.
The Wolves had 26 assists on 37 baskets while holding the Hawks to 42.2 percent shooting. Dwight Howard _ who missed the Wolves' victory in Atlanta last week, had 20 points and 12 rebounds. Thabo Sefolosha had 13 points.
But, after the Wolves out-scored Atlanta 66-40 over the second and third quarters, Minnesota was in control the rest of the way; coach Tom Thibodeau was able to empty his bench down the stretch, allowing the Hawks to make the final score look better than it should have.
The Wolves finished the first quarter within two points of the Hawks only because of Towns. He went 5-for-5 _ including three 3-pointers _ for 15 points with three rebounds. And the Wolves needed every bit of that. Because the rest of the Wolves team shot just 2-for-12 for eight points. The Hawks, meanwhile, got 3-pointers from three different players.
In the second quarter it was the Wolves bench that kick-started a nice run. Down two early in the quarter, a lineup of mostly reserves _ the exception being LaVine _ the Wolves went on a 14-4 run to take a 39-31 lead on the second of consecutive 3-pointers by LaVine.
Back in the game, the starters kept it going. Up four, the Wolves went on a 15-6 run that included 3-pointers by LaVine and Wiggins and a three-point play by Towns with 1:05 left in the half that put the Wolves up 54-41 before Dennis Schroder scored twice in the closing seconds to cut the lead to 54-45 at the half.
The third quarter was almost like one long, extended, defense- and ball-movement-induced Timberwolves run.
Early in the quarter consecutive treys from Wiggins pushed the lead to 13. The Hawks cut it to nine, then Rubio had a 3-pointer and a three-point play and the lead was 17 with just under 7 minutes left.
And it didn't stop.
Howard had a three-point play, then Dieng hit a jumper and Wiggins a shot clock-beating 3-pointer _ his third of the quarter to push the lead to 19. That lead would grow and grow, ultimately to 28 when Muhammad hit a 3-pointer for an 86-58 lead in a quarter in which the Wolves recorded assists on 13 field goals.
