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

After a stunning 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.

In the last game, the Wolves did a good job 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 spoke before the game about how to best defend guards like Ball and White.

“Well, you have to come back and play in front of your eyes. I mean, both of them are really dynamic in the open foursome. Shoot from anywhere, shoot from deep. I personally think so [White] is one of the most underrated players in the league.”

Chicago has made a ton of 3-point shots against Minnesota recently. Based on the 2021-22 season, the Bulls are 80-173 (46.2%) on 3-pointers against the Wolves. That trend continued in this game as the Bulls made six of their first seven attempts from deep to take a 34-28 lead at the end of the first quarter.

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

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

Chicago finished the first game shooting 60 percent from the floor and 58.8 percent from distance, giving them a 65-56 halftime lead. Nikola Vucevic led Chicago with 13 points.

Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards were the Wolves’ most offensive players, scoring 14 and 13 points respectively, with each player having an identical shooting range of 6-12 from the floor. They also each made one of their three 3-point attempts.

Early in the second half, the Wolves defense got a few stops, allowing them to cut Chicago’s lead with this nice alley-oop from Mike Conley to Rudy Gobert.

The Bulls held that five-point lead for the rest of the quarter as they took a 95-90 lead into the final basketball.

Donte DiVincenzo really started to get hot early in the fourth quarter, hitting two three-pointers to cut the Bulls’ lead to three.

The Wolves would continue to wear down the Bulls, who played the Dallas Mavericks just last night, as they would finally take the lead with just under seven minutes to play, their first lead since going 3-0.

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

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

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

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

Key to take away

Three quarters of the defensive battles

For the first three quarters of this game, it looked like the Wolves defense was completely confused about how to handle the Chicago offense. The Bulls had scored 95 points on just 28 attempts, including 16 made 3-pointers.

They allowed Chicago to get anywhere they wanted on the court, which is particularly worrisome for a Timberwolves team that was far superior to all other teams in defensive rating last season.

Finch spoke at 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 really good looks at us in the first half. I think they had 20 assists at halftime, so we definitely had to take the assists out of the game somehow.”

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

Take the threes out of the game. That’s what they do. They will try every possible way to get 50 of them in one night. You have to go back, you have to guard them one by one.”

Conley expanded on this in the locker room after the game, talking about the defensive change the Wolves made in the halftime locker room to limit the Bulls’ 3-point shots by no longer helping the shooters.

“Honestly, we started playing one-on-one with the boys. We stopped helping on the sidelines. We stopped helping with rides. Because they just knocked everything over when they hit the ball. Got penetrated deep and kicked out to open shooters. So it was a lot more helpful in the first half. In the second half we just stayed at home a bit more. And eventually they started missing some. And we were able to capitalize on that.”

With the roster shakeup coming so late in the season, the Wolves are still looking for the same defensive strategy and intensity as last year. It was frustrating for most of this game as a Bulls team that struggled to score gave the Wolves the lead.

After the game, Gobert talked about how close he thinks the Wolves are to playing great defense for 48 minutes.

“I think the way we start games, we have to be better in the first half. Every time we sit down at halftime we think: Let’s start with guarding. Hopefully we’ll have those conversations before the game.”

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

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Ant dominates the fourth quarter

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

After the Wolves took the lead, Edwards came through and finished off the Bulls, scoring 13 of his 33 points and adding two assists in under five minutes to extend the Wolves’ lead from just one to as much as 17 , before the Bulls waved the white flag.

Ant has proven many times this season that he is capable of finishing games when Wolves need someone to put the game away. He did this earlier this year against the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets and again tonight in Chicago.

Edwards spoke in the locker room after the game about his attitude towards both this Wolves team and his future career.

“I don’t want to be a team that’s been to the playoffs a few times and then can’t come back. Or went to WCF and don’t go back. I don’t want to be the guy who had a moment.”

Ant also touched on why the defense struggled so much, particularly at the start of games or when they were in the lead.

“I don’t know if we would be tense or cold or what that is. Because I have no excuse. I don’t know why I don’t play defense at the start of the game. But I am also a part of it. We all just have to get better.”

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

United Center House of Horrors

The Timberwolves have had a very difficult time getting wins at the United Center in recent years. Tonight was Minnesota’s first road win against Chicago since December 26, 2018, ending a five-game losing streak in the Windy City.

Early on, it was a similar story to many other trips to Chicago, as the Bulls hit 10 of their first 15 shots from long range to extend their lead to as many as 13 points.

The Wolves would be able to break this cycle by limiting the Bulls to just five plays from beyond the arc, finally limiting Chicago’s shooters for the first time in what seemed like four seasons.

There are still aspects of Wolves’ defense to be concerned about, most notably the 65 points given up in the first half, but for a team still searching for its identity in rhythm, Every win, especially away from home, is invaluable.

Next

The Timberwolves return to the Windy City from their one-game sabbatical to take on the Portland Trail Blazers at Target Center. The game begins at 8:00 p.m. CT and will air on FanDuel Sports Network North.

It will be the first of three upcoming games against the Trail Blazers, with the two facing off on consecutive nights following the Wolves’ game against the Miami Heat on Sunday.

Game highlights