Karl-Anthony Towns propels Timberwolves to rout of Spurs
FILE–Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns. David Berding-USA TODAY Sports
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves cruised to a 115-90 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night in Minneapolis.
D’Angelo Russell added 22 points for Minnesota, which earned its second victory in as many nights. Malik Beasley scored 15 points off the bench while draining 5 of 11 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.
Devin Vassell led San Antonio with 18 points in 24 minutes off the bench. Dejounte Murray, the team’s leading scorer on the season, endured a rough night as he shot 2 of 12 from the field and finished with seven points.
clicked on offense and defense.
KAT – 25 pts. / 12 reb. / 5 ast.
DLo – 22 pts. / 5 ast. / 3 reb.
Beas – 15 pts. / 2 reb.
Ant – 13 pts. / 6 ast. / 5 reb.
Jaden – 13 pts. / 6 reb.
TP – 13 pts. / 3 reb. pic.twitter.com/kCt1JRvKwB— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) November 19, 2021
After losing six consecutive home games, the Timberwolves have won back-to-back contests on their home court. They prevailed Thursday despite the absence of forward Naz Reid, who sat out with a toe injury.
The Spurs dropped their fourth game in a row.
The Timberwolves led by double digits throughout the fourth quarter. Russell made it a 20-point margin with a jumper that increased the lead to 102-82 with 8:56 left.
The Spurs trimmed the deficit to 73-66 on a tip shot by Doug McDermott with 6:40 left in the third quarter. However, Minnesota responded with a 20-9 run to take a commanding 93-75 lead with 1:17 remaining in the period.
Minnesota led 66-53 at the break. Towns ended the half on a positive note for the Timberwolves when he drove hard to the rim and made a left-handed layup as time expired.
Despite playing 24 hours earlier, the Timberwolves surged to a 22-3 lead in the first seven minutes. Anthony Edwards scored seven straight points to open the game and assisted on a 3-pointer by Russell that made it 10-0.
San Antonio closed the first quarter on an 8-2 run to pull within 34-20. The Spurs closed the gap to four points in the second quarter before Minnesota regained a double-digit lead in the final two minutes before intermission.
Timberwolves forward Taurean Prince was ejected late in the third quarter after committing a flagrant-2 foul against Spurs forward Lonnie Walker IV.
