 | Minnesota | 110 | Final Box Score | 124 | Toronto |  |
 B | D. Carroll33 MIN, 10 PTS, 5 REB, 2 AST, -4 FG, 3-6 3FG 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 19 +/- Carroll made Wiggins work for a reasonable number of his points, but Wiggins just hit some ridiculous shots over him. +19 is nice, and he hit his shots when he was open, including a stretch in the late first half where he hit back-to-back-to-back triples to give the Raptors the lead. | |
 B- | P. Siakam11 MIN, 6 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0 FG, 0-0 3FG 4-4 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -2 +/- Didn’t really feel like we got much out of him, but it’s hard to fault him too much. KAT is a tough matchup for the rookie, and Towns abused Siakam, causing Patterson to eat into a lot of his minutes. | |
 A- | J. Valanciunas29 MIN, 20 PTS, 10 REB, 1 AST, -6 FG, 0-0 3FG 2-2 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 5 +/- This was a weird 20/10 game for JV. I gave him the A- on the strength of the line, and he was great offensively, but his defense continues to be an issue. He doesn’t look healthy out there, and this Wolves team is too talented not to take advantage of his weak play on that end. Still, a nice double double and he scored with ease. | |
 A- | D. DeRozan37 MIN, 27 PTS, 8 REB, 5 AST, -13 FG, 1-1 3FG 12-13 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 5 +/- DeRozan started the night 0-6, before finding his footing offensively in the second half when he scored at will, and he had an incredible put-back dunk over Ricky Rubio late in the fourth quarter. Still, a lot of Zach LaVine’s 29 points where with DeRozan guarding him, and I had to dock DeMar’s grade a little bit because of that. His defense simply wasn’t good tonight, and he can be better on that end. | |
 A+ | K. Lowry38 MIN, 25 PTS, 2 REB, 11 AST, -6 FG, 5-7 3FG 4-6 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 27 +/- Great performance all around from Kyle. At some point in the fourth quarter, it just felt like he’d had enough of this game and took it over, hitting a 31 foot 3-pointer late in the shot clock and then a 4-point play. Lowry was incredible tonight, and he continued his strong shooting of late. | |
 A | P. Patterson30 MIN, 7 PTS, 5 REB, 2 AST, -8 FG, 2-8 3FG 1-4 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 13 +/- Patterson couldn’t shoot tonight, and these nights will happen with him. As usual though, he did a lot of other things very, very well and those things typically don’t show up on the score sheet. | |
 A | L. Nogueira19 MIN, 8 PTS, 9 REB, 1 AST, -1 FG, 0-0 3FG 0-0 FT, 3 BLK, 1 TO, 9 +/- Bebe had a quiet night, which is usually a good thing for him. Had a near double-double and 3 blocks, but my notes don’t say a lot about him aside from the odd nice play. It’s nice to just expect him to be solid in the minutes he’s out there this year. | |
 B+ | C. Joseph19 MIN, 12 PTS, 1 REB, 2 AST, -2 FG, 0-0 3FG 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -10 +/- Continues to shoot the lights out, but Joseph was a team low -10 and it didn’t really feel like the two point guard lineups were usable most of the night, because he struggled against the bigger Wolves guards defensively. | |
 B | T. Ross16 MIN, 9 PTS, 0 REB, 1 AST, -4 FG, 1-5 3FG 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 0 +/- Carroll had foul trouble early in the first quarter, which messed up the first half rotations. Caused Ross to come in a few minutes in, which meant he also didn’t get his normal minutes with the Lowry and the bench lineup in the second. Didn’t shoot well in his first quarter minutes and didn’t seem comfortable. Came back in in the second half in his normal minutes, and was effective with 6 fourth quarter points. | |
 B | N. Powell7 MIN, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0 FG, 0-0 3FG 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 4 +/- Norm got Terry’s normal second quarter minutes, and the lineup seemed to miss the defensive attention Ross gets, where Norm doesn’t seem to get the same respect in terms of off-ball attention. Not much to say, he only played 7 minutes and didn’t attempt a shot. | |
Five Things We Saw
- The first half rotations didn’t feel right, mostly because of those two early fouls for Carroll. It took away those important Lowry and the bench minutes and seemed to throw off the team.
- The Timberwolves made a point of, when the starting lineup was on the floor, attacking DeRozan, Siakam and Valanciunas, and it worked. Valanciunas appears to be hurt and has no quickness, Siakam doesn’t have the experience to guards Towns, and DeRozan isn’t a strong defender, and Minnesota took advantage of all 3.
- In the late fourth quarter, the Raptors just showed that they’re a team who knows how to win and the Timberwolves aren’t there yet. It’s nice to be on the winning side of these type of games at this point.
- With a back-to-back tomorrow night, it’s safe to assume Carroll will likely get the night off again, and expect Norm to get the start. Carroll has looked better of late though, and at some point soon we might see him playing both halves of back-to-backs.
