Tim Duncan stars as San Antonio Spurs decimate Minnesota Timberwolves – NBA Recap
On Wednesday night San Antonio Spurs continued their hot streak in the Western Conference despite shedding players on the way. This time they lost Tony Parker in the match against Minnesota Timberwolves to an injury, and Spurs out gunned Wolves 116-100
at AT&T Center.
Tim Duncan delivered another dazzling performance as he had his 724th career double-double with 21 points and 15 boards. Kawhi Leonard barely missed his double-double with 16 points and 9 rebounds while Gary Neal was also in the mix with 16.
Stephen Jackson, who was recently reunited with the team netted 16 and was all praise for Tim Duncan.
"This is the Tim I have always known. He's moving great. From watching him from last year to now, he definitely looks like the old Tim Duncan. To get to where we want to be, we're going to need him to play like that."
Daniel Green and reserve Tiago Splitter chipped in with 14 and 11 points respectively as Spurs banked their 30th victory of this season. Parker was forced to leave early in the 2nd quarter after suffering a left hamstring strain; he could only
score 2 points and 6 assists.
Minnesota stepped inside the arena without their lead scorers Nikola Pekovic and Michael Beasley, as the big Pekovic is healing a sore left ankle and Beasley was attending his left big toe sprain.
Wolves received a major boost from their reserves as Jose Barea tallied 18 and dished out 11 assists while Kevin Love chipped in with 17 and 12 rebounds. Anthony Tolliver and Wayne Ellington collected 16 and 15 respectively. Martell Webster poured in 11
points.
San Antonio was at the helm of affairs throughout the game as they didn’t allow a single tie or lead change.
Spurs claimed an early 18-11 advantage in the opening frame, Webster inched Wolves back with a layup 18-13 but San Antonio pulled off a 14-3 run and capped of the segment after taking a double digit 32-16 lead.
Minnesota opened the 2nd stanza with an11-5 spurt and trimmed down the lead to 37-27, but the lead hosts took in the 1st haunted them throughout the frame. Spurs cruised past the segment and entered into half time with a 56-47 advantage.
With 56-48 and 11:23 to expire in the 3rd, Spurs raced away after pulling an 18-6 run to enjoy a 20 points margin 74-54 midway through the frame. Minnesota tried to harness the lead but they could only come as close as 91-71 by the end of 3rd
quarter.
San Antonio’s victory was never in doubt but they decided to punish Wolves some more in the decisive frame.
They had augmented their lead to 116-94 late in the frame and Wolves who were clearly handicapped in the absence of their lead scorers could only reduce the margin of their defeat to 116-100 by the end of game.
Kevin Love concurred that after the game.
"We're going to need a full roster if we're going to win against teams like this. (Pekovic) is huge for us. He's the guy we can throw it into and know we can get easy buckets and keep the other team off the glass. It was tough for us."
Tags: