Timberwolves defeated the defending champion Bucks 138-119 today, and won four consecutive victories.
Towns performed very well today, playing 31 minutes in the whole game, making 6 of 12 shots, 4 of 6 of 3-pointers, 9 of 11 free throws, scoring 25 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, with a plus-negative value +26 being the highest in the game. In the last three games, Towns scored a total of 115 points, and broke the record for the highest total score in the Timberwolves history that he has maintained by himself. Towns scored a career-high 60 points against the Spurs and scored 30 points against the Lakers.
Edwards played 33 minutes today, shooting 9 of 16 shots, 5 of 10 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, contributing 25 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, with a plus-negative value of +17. He made 5 of 7 shots in the first quarter and scored 12 points in a single quarter.
Today's game is the second time the Timberwolves defeated the Bucks this season. They defeated the Bucks 113-108 on October 28, 2021. For the Timberwolves, this is their first sweeping opponent since the 2013-14 season, and Antetokounmpo was still a rookie at that time. However, Antetokounmpo did not appear today.
After the All-Star, the Timberwolves achieved a record of 11 wins and 2 losses, and lost only to the Magic and 76ers. After today's game, the Timberwolves have won 42 wins this season, which means that their win rate has exceeded half of the season , and there are 10 games left this season. This is the 9th time in the Timberwolves' 33-year team history that the winning rate is more than half. The last time they did this was in the 17-18 season (47 wins and 35 losses), and they also made it to the playoffs at that time.
Timberwolves currently rank 7th in the Western Conference with 42 wins and 30 losses, is only half a win behind the sixth Nuggets, so they may also move to the top six and avoid the play-offs. Even if they want to participate in the playoffs, the Timberwolves are likely to enter the playoffs this season, because they currently lead the Clippers by 7 wins and the Lakers by 12 wins . Logically speaking, they should enter the playoffs directly and should not participate in the playoffs again.
Timberwolves ranked first in the league in many statistics this season, ranking first in the league in scoring (115.2 points) per game, second in the league in three-point shooting (14.7) per game, third in the league in blocks (5.8) per game, fourth in the league in steals (8.8) per game, fifth in the league in offensive rebounds (11.4) per game, fifth in the league in this game, which shows that they are indeed very capable.
