BBNBA: Timberwolves, Thunder slay some giants

Fantastic night of NBA hoops yesterday evening. A lot of former ‘Cats picked up huge victories too. Let’s get into it.

KAT and Timberwolves dethrone Milwaukee

For the first time in the history of the Fiserv Forum, Bucks fans witnessed an entire game without their team leading for a single time. That’s right, Karl-Anthony Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves made history. Positive history! They led wire-to-wire in a 113-108 win over Milwaukee.

They tried their best to give the game away late, though, as a 14-point lead late in the fourth was cut to six in a matter of moments thanks to a flurry of buckets by Khris Middleton. But when Middleton found himself open in the corner with a chance to cut the lead back to three, KAT got a finger on it to force the miss.

Also, thanks to some late-game heroics by Anthony Edwards — who had no trouble breezing by Giannis and Middleton on possessions late in the game — Minnesota held on for the five-point win. A statement victory for the franchise that’s now off to a 3-1 start.

Their version of a Big Three ain’t too bad, either. Russell led with 29 points last night as Edwards and Towns both added 25. To go along with the offensive firepower, Minnesota is playing stout defense to start the season, ranking 8th in defensive rating so far. Give Jarred Vanderbilt a little bit of credit in that department. Last night he recorded a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double.

Thunder erase 26-point deficit to shock Lakers

I can’t say why — perhaps I’m just a madman — but I’ve watched more Thunder than any team in the NBA. And it finally paid off in the form of a 123-115 win against the LeBron-less Lakers. Although it shouldn’t matter that The King was absent, LA led by 26 at one point for goodness sake. How do you lose a 26-point lead to the Thunder of all teams??

Well, if you’re the Thunder, you get a barrage of stepback threes from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s added the Harden-inspired shot to his arsenal in 2021. He cashed in five threes last night and only made seven shots in total, but still accumulated 27 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Then the Lakers also decided to pee down their leg for most of the second half as Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook carried an otherwise miserable supporting cast.

Let’s not let Russ off the hook yet. Because he, Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony all had chances to tie this basketball game with a late three. Monk and Melo — fairly solid shooters — air-balled their attempts in tremendous fashion while Westbrook — a decidedly bad shooter — clanked his longball off the back of the iron.

The Lakers need LeBron back desperately. AD hung 30 and still couldn’t pull these guys past the worst team in the NBA.

A game-winner sends Kings over Suns

It’s not an NBA weeknight unless you’re up at 12:30 a.m. watching a bizarre ending to a Kings game. And bizarre it was.

The Kings leading scorer so far — NOT De’Aaron Fox — but Harrison Barnes (7th in the entire NBA at 26.8 points per game) heaved it from several feet behind the three-point line while blanketed by Devin Booker to beat the buzzer and give Sac the 110-107 win.

De’Aaron Fox picked up his ninth assist of the evening on the inbounds pass and tallied 18 points on the evening. No big deal yet, especially with the magnificent 11th-year leap from Harrison Barnes, but Fox is checking in well below his averages from a season ago thru four games.

The disappointing defender on the final shot, Devin Booker, was still the best player on the floor dispute having his team dropped to 1-3 on the young NBA season. D-Book poured in 31 points, taking more than double the number of shots than any other Sun. Rough night for Chris Paul as well, who went just 1-10 from the floor.

Other NBA Headlines

Bam Adebayo Leads Heat over Nets: In Brooklyn, Bam led the way for Miami with 24 points and nine rebounds as Tyler Herro led the bench unit with 14 points. Both former ‘Cats are on track for career-high scoring averages and combining for 40 per night between the two of them.

Nick Richards getting his chance: I’m sure you all saw Richards’ destruction of Jabari Parker on Monday. Well, he followed that up with eight more minutes of play Wednesday that included four points and three rebounds. Seems to me that he’s winning the highly-coveted Hornets backup center spot.

Mychal Mulder spotted on Magic bench: Mychal Mulder signed with the Orlando Magic the other day, where it’s reasonable to assume he’ll get a fair share of playing time. He hasn’t appeared in a game yet but we can confirm he’s in Orlando preparing for a much-anticipated debut.