MINNEAPOLIS —One night after a listless loss to Atlanta, there was life. A day after dysfunction on both ends of the court the Timberwolves were determined.
There was energy.
And there was a victory: 120-110 over New Orleans at Target Center.
In a game in which both teams badly needed a win, the Wolves (4-11) played like they wanted it more. Already without Karl-Anthony Towns and Juancho Hernangomez due to COVID-19 protocols, the Wolves also started the game without D'Angelo Russell, who got a planned day of rest on the back end of back-to-back games.
They ended it by winning for just the second time in 13 games by getting contributions from up and down the lineup.
Jarred Vanderbilt had a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double. Center Naz Reid scored 20 points.
And the bench: Anthony Edwards with 18, Jarrett Culver with 15, Jordan McLaughlin with 10. The Wolves bench finished with 47 points, a season high.
Down a point at the half, the Wolves came out in the third quarter and shut down the Pelicans (5-10), holding them to 14 points on 5-for-24 shooting, building an 87-78 lead entering the fourth.
Then the Wolves opened the fourth on a 6-0 run and didn't look back. The Wolves built an 18-point lead with 6:27 left and hung on for the win.
The point guard duo of Ricky Rubio and McLaughlin combined for 20 points and 11 assists.
Brandon Ingram scored 30 for New Orleans. Eric Bledsoe scored 28 and Zion Williamson added 19 foe the Pelicans.
The Wolves struggled to 39.3% shooting in the first quarter, missed layups left and right, while the Pelicans spent the quarter shooting nearly 74%.
And yet the Wolves, down as many as eight in the first 12 minutes, were within three after Ingram hit a jumper at the end of the quarter for a 31-28 Pelicans lead.
How?
The Wolves had a 6-0 edge on points off turnovers and a 9-2 edge on second-chance points. So the Wolves, who got seven points from Reid and five from Edwards off the bench, were able to keep pace with a Pelicans team that got 12 points from Ingram and nine from Bledsoe.
In a fast-paced, intense, back-and-forth second quarter the Wolves took two leads and forged four ties.
It began with the Wolves bench — which scored 16 second-quarter points. With 7:28 left in the half McLaughlin's 3 gave the Wolves a 39-38 lead.
The rest of the half was back-and-forth. With Reid and Culver — who each scored seven in the quarter — the Wolves stuck with the Pelicans the rest of the way.
The Wolves took a 50-49 lead on Vanderbilt's dunk with 2:54 left, tied it on Malik Beasley's 3 with 1:59 left in the half and tied it at 56 on Vanderbilt's layup. With 7.3 seconds left in the half Rubio drove for a layup to put the Wolves up a point. But Bledsoe — who scored 10 second-quarter points — hit a jumper at the half's end to make it 64-63 Pelicans.
The Pelicans made the first bucket of the second half to go up three.
Pretty much the rest of the quarter belonged to Minnesota.
The Wolves responded with an 18-5 run that put them ahead 82-71 on Culver's 3-pointer. With 1:39 left in the quarter, Edwards hit a 26-foot 3 that put the Wolves up 13, their biggest lead of the game, before New Orleans ended the quarter on a 6-2 run.
Still, in a 24-14 quarter the Wolves held the Pelicans to 5-for-24 shooting.
