The Portland Trail Blazers were on a six-game winning streak before coming into Monday night's matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Target Center (Minneapolis) was fully packed once again with 15 thousand Wolves fans ready to support their young team and break Portland's win streak. Timberwolves are without any chance of making this year's playoffs, so they'll play the rest of the season without any pressure on their back. Portland on the other hand, is fighting with Denver for that final eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Karl-Anthony Towns owned the night with 34 points
It was a tight game all the way to the very end. Home team started of better, leading 29-23 after the first quarter, but it was the Blazers with the lead at halftime (57-49). Going into the fourth quarter the Wolves took a three point lead 86-83, and it came down to the last minute of the game. Home team managed to take the win in this one with their star big-man Karl-Anthony Towns scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter. He finished the game with 34 points and 12 rebounds. Andrew Wiggins had 29, and point guad Ricky Rubio finished the game with 11 points and 16 assists for the Wolves.
"I think we just played harder tonight, our pride kicked in." said Towns after the game.
Ricky Rubio added: "We're not going to quit, we have six more games to play and we'll continue to play hard."
Inefficient night for Blazers' star
Damian Lillard led the way again for the Blazers. He finished the night with 25 points, four rebounds and six assists but had an inefficient night shooting the ball. He was just 7-21 from the field and made only 3 of 11 attempted three pointers.
He had a chance to win the game on a stepback midrange jumpshot but it rimed off as time expired.
Al-Farouq Aminu was big for the Blazers of the bench. He had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists but it was not enough. Portland was outrebounded 43-35 in this one. Their head coach Terry Stotts had this to say after the game: "I thought both teams played well. It was a very competitive game, we had our chances to win the game."
Portland will face Utah at Vivant Smarthome Arena on Tuesday night for their final road game of the season.
