MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns had 29 points and 16 rebounds, and Juancho Hernangomez had 19 points off the bench as the Minnesota Timberwolves came back to beat the Houston Rockets 107-101 on Friday night.
Minnesota trailed by as many as 19 in the second half, but closed with a 22-0 run to stop a four-game losing streak a day after standing pat at the trade deadline. Towns had 14 points during the final stretch as the Timberwolves won for the fourth time in 15 games under new coach Chris Finch.
“We won the game. It’s great, but we didn’t deserve it,” Towns said. “I can tell you right now there was no cheering or jubilation in that locker room. That was a very disappointing night for all of us.”
John Wall had 14 points and a season-high 15 assists for Houston. Christian Wood scored 24 and Ben McLemore added a season-high 21 points on a season-best seven 3-pointers for the rebuilding Rockets.
Houston went scoreless the final 7:31 of the game and shot 3 of 22 in the fourth quarter.
The teams continue a back-to-back set in Minnesota on Saturday.
After being held to three points in the second and third quarters, Towns came back to pull Minnesota ahead. He added eight assists.
“I thought a great job of just kind of putting away all his frustrations,” Finch said of Towns. “There were many frustrations throughout the game and he just kind of came in, he hit those two 3s early, sparked the run back for us and just really did a good job of playing tough, playing through all the hits and rebounding. He really got some big rebounds for us.”
Comments