Wolves 135, Bulls 119: Timberwolves Comeback in the Windy City

After the blowout win over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, the Minnesota Timberwolves hit the road again for another one-game road trip, this time against the Chicago Bulls.

Last game, the Wolves did a good job of containing LaMelo Ball, holding him to 19 points on 6-15 shooting. The Bulls present a similar matchup with Coby White. Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch talked before the game about how to best defend guards like Ball and White.

“Well, you’ve got to go back and make a play in front of you. I mean, both of them are really dynamic in the open four. Shoots from everywhere, shoots from deep. I personally think (White) is one of the most underrated players in the league.”

Chicago has a recent history of making a ton of 3-point shots against Minnesota. Going back to the 2021-22 season, the Bulls are 80-173 (46.2%) on 3-point shooting against the Wolves. That trend would continue to start this game as the Bulls would make six of their first seven attempts from deep and surge out to a 34-28 lead at the end of the first quarter.

With Wolves potentially looking for a defensive spark, Josh Minott got some early playing time in the first half, playing close to three minutes in the first quarter.

Chicago’s strong shooting would continue in the second quarter as they were consistently able to create open looks from beyond the arc and build a 12-point lead early in the period, leading to a Minnesota timeout.

Chicago would finish the first shooting 60 percent from the floor and 58.8 percent from long range, giving them a 65-56 lead at the half. Nikola Vucevic led the way for Chicago with 13 points.

Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards did the most offensively for the Wolves, scoring 14 and 13 points, respectively, with each player posting an identical 6-12 shooting line from the floor. They also each made one of their three 3-point attempts.

The Wolves defense would start to get some stops early in the second half, allowing them to cut into the Chicago lead on this beautiful alley-oop from Mike Conley to Rudy Gobert.

This five-point Bulls lead would hold for the rest of the quarter as they led 95-90 heading into the final frame of basketball.

Donte DiVincenzo would start heating up to start the fourth quarter and hit two 3-pointers to cut the Bulls lead to three.

The Wolves would go on to wear down the Bulls, who were playing Dallas Mavericks just last night when they would eventually take the lead with just under seven minutes left in the game, their first lead since the score was 3-0.

That would lead to an all-too-familiar scoring surge from Edwards, who would hit back-to-back 3-pointers, including this pull-up in transition, to put the Wolves up by seven.

The Timberwolves’ lead would only grow from there as they would end the fourth quarter with a 45-24 advantage, giving them a 135-119 victory in Chicago.

Edwards led the way for the Wolves with 33 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Randle scored 22 points with ten rebounds and three assists. Gobert was the third Wolves player with 20 or more points, scoring 21 along with nine rebounds and three assists.

Vucevic led the way for the Bulls with 25 points on 11-15 shooting. White was next in line for Chicago with 24 points of his own

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Key takeaway

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn photos

Three quarters of defensive tackles

For the first three quarters of this game, the Wolves defense appeared to be at a complete loss as to how to deal with Chicago’s offense. The Bulls had scored 95 points including 16 made 3-pointers on just 28 attempts.

They allowed Chicago to get anywhere on the field, which is especially troubling for a Timberwolves team that far outpaced every other team in defensive rating last season.

Finch spoke on the podium after the game about what went wrong with the defense in the first half of the game.

“They were a hot-shooting team and they got hot. They got a lot of good looks on us in the first half. I think they had 20 assists at halftime, so we definitely had to take the assists out of the match one way or another.”

Finch would continue what he felt changed in the fourth quarter that allowed the Timberwolves to limit Chicago to just 24 points scored.

Taking the threes out of the game. That’s what they do. They will try to take 50 of them in one night by any means possible. You’ve got to come back, you’ve got to guard them one-on-one.”

Conley added that in the locker room after the game, talking about the defensive change the Wolves made in the locker room at halftime to limit the Bulls’ 3-pointers by not helping the shooters.

“Honestly, we started playing guys one-on-one. We stopped helping at the rim. We stopped helping on drives. Because they just turned everything over when they ran the ball. Got deep penetration and kicked out to open shooters. So the first half it was a lot more help. The second half we just started to miss some. And we were able to capitalize.”

With roster shake-up this late in the season, the Wolves are still searching a little to find the same defensive strategy and intensity they had last year. For much of this game, it was a frustrating watch as a Bulls team that had struggled to score picked up the Wolves.

After the game, Gobert talked about how close he feels the Wolves are to playing 48 minutes of good defense.

– I think that the way we start the games will be better in the first half. Every time we sit down at halftime, we’re like, let’s start guarding. Hopefully we’ll have those conversations before the game.”

The hope is that what the Wolves showed in the fourth quarter defensively will be far more emblematic of who they are moving forward as they look to regain the defensive dominance they had a year ago.

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn photos

The ant dominates the fourth quarter

The Timberwolves struggled and scratched all night offensively to keep up with a Chicago team that wouldn’t stop scoring the ball. After going down by as many as 13 points, the Wolves were finally able to take the lead with less than seven minutes left in the game, their first lead since the first minute of the game.

When the Wolves took the lead, Edwards came through to shut the door on the Bulls, scoring 13 of his 33 points while also adding two assists in less than five minutes to extend the Wolves’ lead from just one throughout. up to 17 before the Bulls waved the white flag.

Ant has already shown many times this season the ability to close out games when the Wolves need someone to put the game away. He did it against the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets earlier this year and did it again tonight in Chicago.

Edwards spoke in the locker room after the game about his mindset both for this Wolves team and his career moving forward.

“I don’t want to be a team that’s like been in the playoffs a couple of times and then don’t go back. Or been to the WCF and don’t go back. I don’t want to be the guy that had a moment.”

Ant also touched on why defenses have struggled so much, especially early in games or when they have been ahead.

“I don’t know if we’d be tight or cold or whatever. Because I have no excuse. I don’t know why I’m not playing defense early in the game. But I’m part of it too. We all just have to get better.”

As is true with almost every NBA team, the Timberwolves will go as far as Ant is able to take them. Last year he was able to take them to their first Western Conference Finals in 20 years. If he keeps playing like he did in the fourth quarter tonight in Chicago, the sky is the limit for him and this Wolves team.

United Center House of Horrors

The Timberwolves have had a very hard time finding wins at the United Center the past few years. Tonight was Minnesota’s first road win against Chicago since Dec. 26, 2018, snapping a five-game losing streak in the Windy City.

Early on, it was shaping up to be a story similar to many of the other trips to Chicago, as the Bulls hit ten of their first 15 shots from long range and built their lead to as many as 13 points.

The Wolves would be able to break that cycle by limiting the Bulls to just five marks from beyond the arc, finally limiting Chicago’s shooting game for the first time in seemingly four seasons.

There are still aspects of the Wolves defense to worry about, the 65 points conceded in the first half and chief among them, but for a team still looking to find its identity in rhythm, any win is especially away from home, invaluable.

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Next

The Timberwolves return from their one-game sabbatical to the Windy City to face off Portland Trail Blazers at the Target Center. The game tips at 8:00 PM CT, airing on FanDuel Sports Network North.

It will be the first of three upcoming games against the Trail Blazers, with the two playing each other on back-to-back nights following the Wolves’ game against the Miami Heat on Sunday.

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Game highlights