Timberwolves 112, Bucks 100: Ball's 34 and a fourth-quarter run beat Milwaukee
LaMelo Ball scored 34 for Minnesota, who pulled away late in a game both teams shot poorly.
The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Milwaukee Bucks 112-100 at Target Center on Monday, Nov. 2, behind a season-high 34 points from LaMelo Ball.
Ball starts fast
Ball was listed as questionable with a right wrist contusion before the game and played anyway. According to the AP recap, he scored 13 of Minnesota's first 17 points, and his 24 first-half points matched his previous season high. He hit six three-pointers on the night, and his third made him the fastest player in NBA history to reach 1,000 career threes, doing so in his 311th game.
Ayo Dosunmu added 19 points and a season-high 12 rebounds, and Jaden McDaniels had 13. Six Timberwolves finished in double figures. Minnesota is without Anthony Edwards, who is out after knee surgery and may miss a couple more months, and Terrence Shannon Jr. sat with a left hip contusion.
A close game until the fourth
The Timberwolves led 29-18 after the first quarter, but Milwaukee scored 29 in the second, and by the linescore Minnesota led only 48-47 at the break and 80-76 after three. The game turned in the fourth. McDaniels scored six points to open an 11-3 Minnesota run that made it 91-79, the team's first double-digit lead since the end of the first quarter, per AP. A Ball three midway through the period pushed it to 96-81, and Minnesota outscored Milwaukee 32-24 in the quarter.
It was not a pretty night for either offense. Minnesota shot 42.7 percent, its worst mark of the season, and Milwaukee shot a season-worst 38.4 percent. The Bucks' Tyler Herro scored 21, Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 19, and AJ Green and Myles Turner each had 13. Rookie Brayden Burries, the 10th overall pick in this year's draft, made his first start and scored 9 on 4-of-15 shooting.
What it means
Minnesota moved to 5-3, according to ESPN, after winning its previous four games by more than 20 points each. Monday's margin was the narrowest of that run, and Edwards' absence is the obvious context for a team that had been dominant before it. Ball's scoring is what carried it.
For Milwaukee, the loss is its third in a row and leaves the Bucks 1-6, having lost six of their first seven. It was the first loss this season in which they held an opponent below 127 points, a sign that the defense held up better than the offense did.
Both teams play again Wednesday: the Bucks at Boston, the Timberwolves at Houston.