Minnesota Timberwolves were in trouble. After Butler got injured they fell off their comfortable 5th place to 8th, and now Nuggets are blowing on their necks. Two games to go and Wolves didn’t clinch their playoff spot. In addition the game before the Lakers, they lost to Nuggets and now they lost their advantage.
But no fear, Butler is here. Jimmy returned from his 17 game absence with knee surgery. He immediately took the Wolves under his wing, a led them to victory. But Lakers were a decent opponent. Especially in the first half.
Wolves finished the first quarter with the lead, but Lakers went on a 9-0 run in the second and 11-0 four minutes before the break. They took the lead and Lakers were in front entering the second half.
Now it was the time for the Wolves to bite back. They started the second half with 16-6 run and overtook the Lakers. They never looked back and maintained the lead by the end of the game. Lakers got to minus 13 five minutes before the end of the game, but that was it. Wolves scored six in a row, then managed to go up 21 and it was game over for Walton and his boys.
Butler was excellent in his first game back. He played only 23 minutes but managed to score 18 points on 7/10 shooting. Teague led the team in points, he scored 25 with 8 assists. For the Lakers Randle scored 20 points with 10 rebounds. Hart came off the bench and scored the same amount of points and added 11 rebounds.
Unfortunately for the Lakers Kuzma had an ankle sprain, but preliminary reports were good and the injury isn’t that bad.
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