Wolves 109, Hawks 106: Gobert’s 25 Points, 19 Rebounds Secure Crucial Win

Rudy Gobert dominated with 25 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks to help defeat Atlanta in his fellow big man Karl-Anthony Towns’ return to the floor from a torn left meniscus.

The Minnesota Timberwolves returned home to Minneapolis on Friday night to play out a similar game script: Karl-Anthony Towns returning from a long-term absence at Target Center against the Atlanta Hawks.

Last season, Towns made his return from a Grade 3 left calf strain; tonight, the four-time All-Star took the floor after missing the Wolves’ previous 18 games with a torn left meniscus. His teammates — led by consistently impressive showings from Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid, Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson — held down the fort by going 12-6 and keeping Minnesota in the thick of the race for the top spot in the Western Conference Playoffs.

Wolves Head Coach Chris Finch said pregame that Towns would start and not carry any kind of minutes restriction — a great sign for how he is feeling physically.

Limited partners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez also made their return to Target Center for the first time since Glen Taylor voided the sale of the Timberwolves and Lynx back on March 28.

Friday night’s game did not have any consequence for the Hawks, who entering the game were already locked into the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference. They sat two full games behind the Chicago Bulls, who own the tiebreaker over Atlanta. However, two players listed as questionable entering the game, Clint Capela and AJ Griffin, suited up.

Edwards, meanwhile, did play after he was downgraded to questionable on Friday afternoon with an illness.

---

Towns was involved from the tip, but not in the best way. He was late closing out to DeAndre Hunter in the corner, committing a foul on a 3-point shot, and then followed that with a missed triple on the Wolves’ second possession of the game. But Towns quickly changed that with a tip follow on an Edwards miss, drew a foul the next time down, and then found Gobert in the middle of the floor for an assist, before doing it again two trips later on a slick over the head pass.

KAT recorded two points, three rebounds and two assists in his first stint, before being the first sub out for Naz Reid. New dad Nickeil Alexander-Walker entered for Mike Conley, not Monte Morris.

But Atlanta grabbed control of the game early with some nice isolation scoring from star back-court duo Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, who scored nine of the team’s first 18 points. Murray was particularly lethal getting into the mid-range, where he used his extremely high release point to his advantage and rose above his matchups for easy jumpers.

Minnesota on the other end battled some stagnation and committed a couple of sloppy turnovers, but settled in attacking the rim against an Atlanta defense that allows the seventh-most points in the paint (53.4 per game). The Wolves scored 10 points in the paint in the first seven minutes and shot eight well-earned free throws in the first quarter as a result of their play down hill.

In some rotation news, Morris was the third sub of the game, while Anderson was the ninth man. Additionally, Edwards — who normally plays the entire first and third quarters — checked out at the 5:53 mark. I thought it might be because the Wolves shortened his stints as a result of Ant being questionable to play entering this one with an illness, but Edwards re-entered at the 2:16 mark for NAW, who normally plays the closing minutes of the first quarter and into the second quarter.

The bad part of that move was Edwards picking up his second and third fouls of the game in the final minute of the opening frame, and the Wolves trailed 27-25 after one.

Perhaps puzzlingly, Towns did not start the second quarter. That lineup of Jordan McLaughlin, Conley, Alexander-Walker, Anderson and Gobert has really struggled with spacing (and scoring as a result) in recent games. Reid entered for Anderson at the 8:37 mark and the Wolves immediately went on a 7-0 run fueled by some classic McLaughlin pace. KAT instead entered at the 7:08 mark, and immediately hit Reid inside for his third assist of the game, all to other bigs, prompting a Quin Snyder timeout.

Atlanta clawed back into it as a result of the Wolves’ interior defense over-helping on guard drives into the paint or along the baseline, opening up dump-off passes to bigs and forcing rotating defenders to foul. The Hawks got back within five after a Capela dunk in the first scenario, but Reid and Jaden McDaniels responded with five quick points to get the lead back up to nine.

It was part of an excellent quarter for Reid, who scored a team-high 12 points, including 4/4 from the free throw line. He certainly benefitted from playing alongside Towns. KAT drew two defenders in the post, allowing Reid to attack late close-outs from rotating defenders. Karl also used his size to his advantage as an entry passer, hitting Reid in the post.

A Towns dunk and a much-needed Reid 3-pointer gave the Wolves breathing room entering the third with a 56-47 lead.

Reid led all scorers in the first half with 15 points — including 7/8 on free throws, while Gobert had a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. NAW added eight off the bench, while Towns equalled that, along with five rebounds, three assists and a block. Edwards scored just two points on 1/4 shooting, but did register three assists.

Edwards started the second half despite his four fouls.

Towns picked up where he left off in the playmaking department, quickly racking up four assists in the first 3:19 of the quarter to bring him to seven on the night — already his third-most in a game this season.

The first two set up McDaniels 3-pointers, bringing Jaden to 3/4 on the night. That is a crucial development for a player who was two for his last 13 (15%) over the last five games. McDaniels then capped off the 8-2 run with a beautiful dump-off in transition to Conley, who buried a triple to force a Hawks timeout with the Wolves’ lead reaching a game-high 15.

Everyone in the building thought at Atlanta squad with nothing to play for roll over and quit, but the opposite happened. After Towns checked out at the 6:16 mark, the Wolves went scoreless for the next five minutes (including two more minutes after Towns checked back in), allowing the Hawks to slowly but surely climb back into it. Murray added three mid-range scores (and got fouled on another), Capela scored on a pair of hooks in the paint, and Young joined the fun with a pair of 3-pointers that cut the lead down to just two with 1:28 to play in the third.

KAT continued to struggle scoring the ball with misses from beyond the arc, but did make a trio of sweet passes late in the frame to create two scores and a wide open look that didn’t fall.

Minnesota committed a pair of cheap, dumb fouls in the final 31 seconds that gifted Atlanta three points to tie the game at 80 entering the fourth. The Hawks closed the final 6:35 of the quarter on a 21-4 run.

The Wolves’ offensive difficulties in the half-court forged on to open the fourth, failing to score in the half-court on their first three possessions. But Conley created a pair of transition looks that resulted in a bucket for himself and one for a streaking McLaughlin to help stick with a Hawks team that scored on two of its first four trips.

Minnesota then returned to a fourth quarter staple — pick-and-roll with Gobert — to get them back on track. Gobert scored three times, with a NAW mid-range jumper off a Gobert screen mixed in between his personal 6-3 run. On the other end, the Wolves did a great job of corralling several tough, contested rebounds to close out stops.

Gobert then added a huge dunk after a McLaughlin steal in the back-court to send the crowd into a thunderous roar of appreciation for yet another “Rudy showing up in a low-energy spot to bail everyone out” game.

But ex-Wolf Vit Krejci, who entered the game for the first time with 7:47 to play, made a monster impact from the moment he stepped on the the floor. He registered five points and an assist, and set up a couple more open shots that his teammates couldn’t knock down. Krejci led the Hawks out of a five-point hole, 96-91, to retake a 100-98 lead.

Then, the stars showed up.

Towns made his first triple of the night in the left corner to take a 101-100 lead, before Edwards banked in a pretty right block fade to get it back to a three-point lead. The Wolves on the other end took their defensive intensity up to 10, forcing up a wild shot from Bruno Fernando over Gobert.

Then, the Oakland City, Atlanta native had one more cold-blooded fadeaway in store for his hometown team.

Right after that bucket, news of the San Antonio Spurs beating the Denver Nuggets was shown on the video board, which sent the home crowd into a frenzy as intense as we’ve seen all season.

After a tremendous defensive play from Anderson (playing offense/defense for Towns) to force a turnover, Edwards unfortunately gave it right back, setting up an easy Hawks dunk to make it a one-point game. Ant made up for it by knocking down a pair of free throws.

Gobert led the way with game-highs of 25 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks. His 10/10 shooting night broke a franchise record for the most makes without a miss in a single game.

Reid, meanwhile, added a crucial 19 points off the bench. Towns in his return scored 11 points, dropped eight dimes, and grabbed five rebounds. Conley recorded a double-double of 13 points and 10 assists, while Edwards scored 14 points — including six of the Timberwolves’ final eight points.

Young scored a team-high 19 for Atlanta, while Bogdan Bogdanovic and Hunter combined for 32 points, and Capela added 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Now that the Nuggets, Wolves and Oklahoma City Thunder all are tied atop the Western Conference standings at 56-25, the Thunder control their own destiny. OKC closes the regular season on Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks, who are locked into the No. 5 seed if the Los Angeles Clippers are able to beat the tanking Utah Jazz on Friday night.

The tiebreaker in a tie involving three or more teams is win percentage against other teams involved in the tie; OKC is 5-3 vs. Minnesota and Denver, while Minnesota is 4-4 against Denver and OKC, an Denver is 3-5 against Minnesota and OKC.

So if each team wins in their finale on Sunday, the Wolves would be the No. 2 seed, setting up a potential matchup with the Nuggets in the second round, for which Minnesota would have home-court advantage.

Minnesota owns the tiebreaker over Oklahoma City (conference record, the third tiebreaker) and Denver (division record, the second tiebreaker). So, if the Wolves are tied with either the Thunder or the Nuggets after Sunday’s games, they will be the No. 1 seed; but if it is a three-team tie, the nod goes to OKC. Just another day in the NBA.

This story will be updated throughout the night after player and coach media availability.

---

Key Takeaways

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Karl-Anthony Towns’ Return

The four-time All-Star made his long-awaited return to the floor on Friday night, well ahead of when he was originally expected to.

“There was very much doubt around all of us that I would not be ready until second round, third round. So, I heard the doubt and got competitive, got very competitive with [my recovery]. Attacked rehab as tough and as hard as I can. Something that seemed to be a lot more time, I made it way less time,” Towns said postgame.

Towns revealed he went the “aggressive” route in terms of the surgery he chose to undergo and attacked his rehab with everything he had so he could be back in the lineup ahead of the playoffs.

As a result of that work, when KAT stepped in between the four white lines against the Hawks, he did so 20 pounds lighter than when he left the lineup last month.

“I did whatever it took to get back out here as quick as possible, lose some weight, take some pressure off the knees. Don’t eat crabs. Be absolutely, really really disciplined in being clean in my eating,” Towns said, before revealing he spent more than eight hours per day getting treatment and rehabbing. “That’s the time in the gym and the facility in LA, so when I’m not there, I’m home cold tubbing.”

KAT was effusive in his praise of Naz Reid after the game. Reid took a major leap to fill Towns’s massive shoes:

• Pre-injury (62 games): 12.3 PTS on 48.2/41.0/75.0 splits, 4.8 REB, 1.1 AST, 1.2 TOV, 1.5 stocks
• Post-injury (17 games): 17.6 PTS on 46.3/42.6/67.5 splits, 6.8 REB, 2.1 AST, 1.7 TOV, 2.6 stocks

“Naz has done such an amazing job. The Sixth Man of the Year has given me a lot to recognize on the court and he’s done an amazing job at the trail spot of moving the ball to this other side,” Towns said.

“So I just wanted to continue to utilize that game of ours, but also maybe use my driving as well to make the defense have to collapse and find people like Jaden McDaniels twice on the wing for a kick-out 3 or make a fake pass where the defender thinks he is and Jaden is in the corner. Just trying to do my best to be aggressive and play make.”

It was clear that the former No. 1 overall pick wanted to focus on making quick decisions, especially when it comes to passing the ball to his teammates. When he caught the ball, he rarely held it to size up a defender; instead, Towns quickly scanned the floor, rifled passes to open teammates, and racked up eight assists (up from his 3.0 average). He did turn the ball over three times, but two of those came in the early part of the first quarter as he was still finding his footing. Towns recorded six assists and one turnover over the final three quarters.

After spending the first possession of the game in the right corner, KAT primarily played out of the slots and in the dunker spot. That makes sense considering those areas are where Towns is most comfortable. Minnesota could’ve posted him up more, but Towns played more as a driver, ball mover and entry passer when he played the 5 with Gobert on the bench. Regardless, the Wolves are going to need Towns to play in the corner more, where Edwards hit him for a massive go-ahead 3 with 2:29 to play.

“(I) missed five (3-pointers) in a row, something I feel is a staple of mine. I just stayed very confident in my shot and I knew if I got another chance like last year, I’m going to make the shots,” Towns said in the locker room before sharing an observation we’ve all seen over the last 18 games.

“Got a chance from Ant, amazing pass, drive, kick to the corner, something I’ve been watching him do so much more since I got hurt. Just wanted to be able to be another person who can do that for him.”

Reid spent the majority of his time on the floor with the starting five in the corners and slots, rarely posting up opposite Gobert. We saw him stick to what he does best: shoot 3s and explode past slow bigs to finish at the rim, but most importantly — do everything quickly.

Fans should keep in mind that while Towns can do that, he’s also a much more effective passer and playmaking hub than Reid is, especially when it comes to high-low passing. KAT threw darts from all over the floor, but six of his eight assists were on paint scores, and five of those six were to either Gobert or Reid. Both Naz and Rudy have played enough with Towns to know how to space around him and enter into his vision as cutters/floaters, which has unquestionably helped unlock more of KAT’s big-to-big passing in the two-big lineups this season, too.

“I think at times for sure, we’ve been really good in our two-big structures, and sometimes with Naz you can play him like a guard,” Finch said. “But we had to get back to more two-man structure around the bigs with KAT back. It has been good for us all year and today was definitely an exaggerated example of that.”

Towns also knows that in order for teams to present him the space to fire 3s over the top of the defense, he needs to drive to keep them honest. What he would concede, however, is that they need to be smart drives — ones that do not enter crowds and do not result with him on the floor as often.

But keep in mind that KAT’s rehab was very different this time around, and enables him to do more now than he could last season upon his return. Last year, KAT was off his feet for extended stretches in the wake of the injury and couldn’t do any lower body work; this season, he was riding an exercise bike the day after his surgery, and has completed extensive strength training to strengthen his lower body before returning to play. The result? Hopefully, more explosion on the drive.

“I thought he played within the flow of the game for the most part, which was really good. Obviously he’s super rusty, I thought it was a good first effort for him,” Head Coach Chris Finch said postgame. “Made a big shot in the corner, that’s what we’re going to need him to do, stay patient, wait for ball to come to him and be ready to knock it down, so all in all it was a good first outing.”

Veteran point guard Mike Conley agreed with Finchy’s assessment.

“Honestly, I think he’s done a great job of casually working his way in. We don’t want to force anything. We don’t want to see, ‘Give it to KAT’ and make him do everything by himself,” Conley said. “Try to make this process easy for him, don’t make him have to work too hard. Take shots when he gets them and move the ball, play defense.”

Next up for Towns will be seeing more 3-point shots fall through the bottom of the net, hopefully on Sunday, before a week of practice to get more acclimated with the corners ahead of the Wolves’ first-round playoff series.

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Rudy Gobert’s Leadership on Full Display

Finch put it perfectly to open up his postgame press conference.

“There’s a difference between being the reason you win and being the reason you don’t lose. And Rudy Is the reason we don’t lose. He doesn’t let us lose these games. He’s been this way all season,” he said. “He’s an incredible floor raiser and he just brings it and he knows when the team needs him to do this the most. That’s why he one of the many reasons he’s so valuable for us.”

Gobert credited his performance to maintaining a mindset of consistency.

“Keep doing the little things regardless of who you play, the circumstances. Just being in the moment. I really try to be that every night. Sometimes things don’t go my way, sometimes things don’t go our way as a team. But I can control what I can control and I keep my poise and keep doing what I’m great at,” Gobert said.

“I really think that’s leadership. I think it impacts my teammates, I think it impacts everyone around me. I also think it builds that trust when coaches, teammates, everyone knows that they can rely on me, and it’s contagious.”

He explained the origin of that frame of mind, saying that it all stems from never liking to lose as a kid.

“So I think a lot of it starts there. But I think a lot of it is experience too, realizing how every game matters, how every possession matters. I hate to lose the game by two points and then have regrets, so I try to give everything every minute so I have no regrets.”

The soon-to-be four-time Defensive Player of the Year then used the team’s current placement in a three-way tie atop the Western Conference as an example of why he leaves everything out there on the floor.

But when you combine Gobert’s mindset with his actual production on the floor over the 75 games he’s played in so far this season (his most in a campaign since starting 81 contests in 2018-19), the result is a special leader who is instilling a winning culture in a place that hasn’t had one in 20 years.

“I think it’s just leading by example, leading by the work you put in, leading your own way. Some guys are more vocal, some guys are more joyful. Everyone has a different way to lead. My will and my determination and my resiliency, that’s the things I really want to carry on in my teammates and I try to bring every day. Whether we win or lose, things don’t go our way, I just try to stay consistent and I think it’s contagious.”

Whenever the Timberwolves have an off-night, it always seems to be Gobert who comes to the rescue, his way — by doing all the little things that add up over the course of a game. Setting great screens. Relocating around the basket when a guard drives to create open passing lanes. Crashing the offensive glass. Collapsing the defense with hard rolls to the basket. Defending the rim without fouling. Talking on defense. Drawing non-shooting fouls that help get the team in the bonus.

The best part? Imagine how those will add up over the course of a playoff series with a fully loaded Wolves team ready to go battle with him.

Gobert’s “do the little things” mentality doesn’t stop when the buzzer sounds, though.

“I really think that when you have love and respect for one another outside the floor as human beings, I think then when you’re on the floor, things flow naturally. I think a lot of times we get caught up in the NBA is a business and there’s competition and all this stuff,” Gobert explained in an earnest tone.

“For me, at this point, I don’t really care about all that. I care about being the best leader I can be, the best teammate I can be, being there for my teammates as a human being first and trying to understand what each individual needs, how each individual can get challenged in a positive way. I’ve really got better at that. I think it carries over on the floor.”

Complete Tiebreaker Scenarios

These are courtesy of Matt Moore on Twitter.

If Wolves win and Thunder win and Nuggets win,

1. OKC

2. MIN

3. DEN

If Wolves win and Thunder win and Nuggets lose

1. MIN

2. OKC

3. DEN

If Wolves win and Thunder lose and Nuggets lose

1. Wolves

2. Thunder

3. Nuggets

If Wolves win and Thunder lose and Nuggets win

1. Wolves

2. Nuggets

3. Thunder

If Wolves lose and Thunder win and Nuggets win

1. OKC

2. DEN

3. MIN

If Wolves lose and Thunder lose and Nuggets win

1. DEN

2. MIN

3. OKC

If Wolves lose and Thunder lose and Nuggets lose

1. OKC

2. MIN

3. DEN

---

Up Next

The Timberwolves will host the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. If the New Orleans Pelicans, who currently hold the No. 6 seed, win their matchup with the Golden State Warriors on Friday, the Suns will not be able to climb out of the Play-In Tournament. If New Orleans wins and Phoenix defeats the Sacramento Kings on Friday night, they will be locked into the No. 7 spot and have nothing to play for in the regular season finale.

Fans can watch the game on Bally Sports North at 2:30 PM CT.

---

Highlights