At 9:00 a.m. Beijing time on January 23, the NBA regular season matchup is in full swing, with the Minnesota Timberwolves sitting at home to face the Charlotte Hornets. Before this game, the Timberwolves ranked first in the West with a record of 30 wins and 12 losses, as one of the biggest dark horses in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves have the strength to compete for the championship this season, they have both inside and outside, the inside twin towers are in charge, and the outside Edwards is the new generation of champions, the Timberwolves' three-point shooting rate reached 38.6%, ranking third in the league, and their defensive efficiency is 108.5, ranking first in the league. In fact, the Timberwolves have been in first place in the West for a long time this season, and when talking about the pace of the game, Gobert said in his pregame interview:
'We have to try to get space for each other, get the rhythm early in the game, and when we do that, the opponent can't defend us, and when we don't, we make a lot of mistakes and become passive. "On the other side, the Hornets, before this game, with a record of 9 wins and 31 losses, ranked 13th in the East, basically have no playoff competitiveness, you can safely consider developing young players, last summer, they just signed a five-year, $260 million super contract with Ball, Ball is strong and has great potential, but there are too many injuries, as long as there are no injuries, everything is easy to say. Not long ago, Ball returned from injury, and in the four games after his return, Ball averaged 26.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 3.3 steals per game, with a true shooting rate of 63%.
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Timberwolves sent Edwards, Towns, Gobert, McDaniels and Walker, and the Hornets sent Ball, Rozier, Bridges, Miller and PJ Washington. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Gobert jumped to win, the Timberwolves took the lead in getting the ball, Towns hit a three-point shot in front of him, scoring the first goal of the game, Downs assaulted the basket and hit high again, Ball broke through and rebounded for the Hornets, Bridges strode at the top of the meteor arc to start the breakthrough and pick down two points, Bridges scored five points in a row inside and outside, McDaniels also hit a three-point shot from the big open position, Walker also had a three-point shot on the wing, and Miller made a two-point pull-up jumper from the middle distance.
Entering the middle of the first quarter of the game, Towns broke out super much, the three-point line was not missing, and the inside dream footsteps were also successful, with 22 points and 2 rebounds in a single quarter, despite this, the Hornets were also all soldiers, biting the score tightly, and at the end of the first quarter, the Timberwolves led the Hornets by 2 points 34-32. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Miller broke through the paint area and dropped two points to help the Hornets take the next city, McDaniels flanked a three-point shot to fight back, Gobert ate cakes in the restricted area and also won the two-handed hammer dunk, not long after the second quarter, Towns once again super exploded, full of firepower outside the three-point line, all 8 shots in the first half soared, and the single quarter was 22 points, but the Hornets score was still tight, and the halftime was over, and the Timberwolves led the Hornets 69-64 by 5 points.
In the first half, Edwards was really emotionally intelligent and couldn't score a point on 1 shot, while Towns shot 14 of 17, 8 of 9 three-pointers, and blasted 44 points and 5 rebounds, breaking the NBA all-time half-court scoring record set by Kobe. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Downs came up with an inside small throw, opening the third quarter of the game, Gobert in the restricted area to eat cake and slam dunk again, Walker bottom corner three-point fire hole through the basket, the Hornets also made targeted defense, not to let Downs score so easily, but the other players of the Timberwolves also gradually stood up and began to open the score gap, Downs was also difficult to show his skills, but he still blasted out 14 points and 2 rebounds in the third quarter, and scored two three-pointers, which is expected to continue to set a new record in the final quarter of the game, and after the third quarter of the game, the Timberwolves led the Hornets by 15 points 107-92。
In the final quarter, as long as the Hornets give a little bit and close the point gap, Downs can continue to score on the court. The Hornets also really seized the opportunity and kept narrowing the difference, but the funny thing is that the Timberwolves played with fire, and they were directly beaten by the Hornets in a wave to overtake the score, plus Towns had no feeling after the end of the game, and the mistakes were repeated, and in the end, the Timberwolves lost to the Hornets 125-128, which was too funny.
In terms of statistics, on the Hornets side, Myles Bridges had 28 points and 5 rebounds, Brandon Miller had 27 points and 3 rebounds, LaMelo Ball had 18 points, 6 rebounds, 13 assists and 3 steals, Terry Rozier had 11 points and 4 assists, and PJ Washington had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. On the Timberwolves side, Karl Anthony Towns scored 62 points, 8 rebounds and 7 turnovers, Nickeil Alexander Walker scored 18 points, Jaden McDaniels 9 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Rudy Gobert 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Anthony Edwards 9 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists.