Jerry Holt, Star Tribune
San Antonio 107, Minnesota 96 // 32-6 // 1st in the West
After another dizzying 20-20 performance from Kevin Love but another tight victory from the Spurs, I’m happy to be done with the Timberwolves this year. Some teams, regardless of record, just match up well with you, and the TImberwolves are one of those teams. Great rebounding teams can get give us fits, and the W0lves, with Love, are certainly that. By the game’s end, the rebounds were about even. But the Timberwolves held the edge for most of the game. They also ended the game with 11 more shots than us, a nice margin that can keep any team in a game.
For the season series, we were outrebounded 45-53, 37-59, 48-50, and 46-47, for a grand total of 176-209, or about 8 more per game for the Wolves. Notice that we did much better in these last two games as rebounding certainly became a point of emphasis for the team. Shots wise, for each game, the splits went like this: 93-89, 75-94, 78-96, 79-90, for a total of 325-369. On average, the Timberwolves shot 11 more times per game than we did. Give any team 11 more shots per game and that’s an additional 8 to 15 more points, assuming an average shooting percentage. No wonder we had such a hard time beating this team.
But we did beat them. 4 times. Call it luck, veteran savvy, execution under pressure, talent, or whatever you want. But we swept the season series again.
And now we don’t have to play against the Timberwolves or Kevin Love again for the rest of the season. Thanks be to God.
