Los Angeles Clippers vs Minnesota Timberwolves Recap 11/29
- Updated: November 29, 2015
Los Angeles got off to a slow start Sunday afternoon at Staples Center but it did not take long for the Clippers to catch on against the young and upcoming Minnesota Timberwolves team led by former number one draft picks Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. The Clippers would pull out a tightly contested 107-99 win behind the shooting of Blake Griffin and J.J. Redick.
Chemistry might have been the issue early on for the club as rarely seen Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was given his first start at small forward this season in an effort to thwart Minnesota’s star Wiggins offensively.The Clippers would win the first quarter 23-19 despite struggling to score in the first six minutes due to a strong performance by Griffin.
The second quarter would be a strong one for the Clippers as the bench, most notably Lance Stephenson, looked great heading into the half. Stephenson would end the first half with 7 points and even draining the hardly seen three from the struggling shooter in 13 minutes of play. Andrew Wiggins would do his best to keep the Timberwolves in the game, leading his club in points by the end of the half and making things difficult for new starter Mbah a Moute. Los Angeles would head into the halftime break leading 48-37.
The Wolves would come out scorching hot in the third quarter cutting the Clippers lead that once stood at 16, down to 4. Wiggins, Towns and UCLA’s own Zach LaVine whom started at point guard for the Wolves Sunday would lead the charge. Los Angeles would start to find their rhythm again before the end of the quarter and regain their comfortable lead over the Wolves who seemed overwhelmed with the Clippers firepower coming mainly from Griffin, Redick and Chris Paul. Heading into the fourth quarter the Clippers would hold a 10 point lead over Minnesota. Through three quarters of play Redick would lead the Clippers in scoring with 15 points while Wiggins led all scorers at this point with 18. Kevin Garnett, the resident veteran for Minnesota, would struggle mightily against Los Angeles having a resounding 0 points heading into the final quarter and would end the game not playing again. The Wolves also had no fast break points through three, which makes scoring that much more difficult against a defense like Doc Rivers’.
The Clippers would pull away to start the quarter but Minnesota would come roaring back. Wiggins and LaVine would help the Wolves back into the game with a hot shooting streak mid quarter and with just under five minutes to go Los Angeles would hold a shaky 88-82 lead while the Wolves held momentum. Minnesota would continue to hang around despite the fantastic performance from Griffin, who would end the night with 26 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Paul and Redick each ended the game with 18 points while Paul reeled in 9 assists to go with those points and DeAndre Jordan pulled in 9 rebounds and 9 points. New starter Mbah a Moute would not do the greatest job of shutting down Wiggins allowing the young small forward to drop in a team-leading 21 points while he himself ended the game with seven.
The Clippers were able to get a key win that would put the team over .500 again as the team’s record currently sits at 9-8. Minnesota did a good job testing Los Angeles’ resolve and making the Clippers work for this win by using the hack-a-DJ strategy whenever possible but the Clippers never budged. Overall a solid win against a young, wiry T-Wolves team that will be a force to be reckoned with in a few years time. Go Clips Go!!
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