Minnesota Rolls LA 127-101 Behind Four Players Hitting Double Figures

Minnesota dismantled the Clippers 127-101 on Halloween, and the margin wasn't even that close for most of the night. LaMelo Ball and Jaden McDaniels combined for 47 points and 14 assists, running a two-man operation that Los Angeles had no answer for.

The first quarter looked like a real game for about seven minutes. Both teams traded punches — Darius Garland hit a 27-footer to put the Clippers up 16-13, and the lead changed hands five times before the midpoint of the period. Then Minnesota flipped a switch. LaMelo Ball, who had already buried two threes from 25 feet or beyond, started finding Jaden McDaniels in rhythm, and McDaniels — who finished with 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists — simply would not stop making shots. By the time Bones Hyland drained a 26-footer with 1:21 left in the first, Minnesota had stretched it to 32-23 and the Clippers were chasing. The biggest win-probability swing of the night, ironically, came on a Clippers make: Rui Hachimura's 24-foot three at the 7:15 mark briefly nudged Minnesota's home win probability from 79% down to 75%. That four-point swing was as close as Los Angeles got to rattling the hosts.

The second quarter buried the Clippers for good. Minnesota opened it with back-to-back Rudy Gobert dunks — both fed by teammates cutting through a defense that had no answers in the paint — to push the lead to 38-28. Los Angeles mounted a brief response, trimming it to 43-37 on a Brook Lopez driving layup and a Kobe Sanders bucket, both assisted by Garland. But Bones Hyland had other ideas. He hit a 27-foot step-back three, then set up LaMelo for a floater, then knocked down an 11-footer of his own. By the time the sequence ended, it was 50-37 Minnesota and the game was effectively over. Hyland finished with 19 points and 8 assists. Ayo Dosunmu added 15 points and 7 rebounds. This was a depth performance — four Timberwolves in double figures, all of them doing damage in different ways.

For the Clippers, Garland's 24 points and 5 assists were the lone bright spot worth noting. Brook Lopez chipped in 13 points and 6 rebounds, but Los Angeles as a unit never found a second gear. Jalen Pickett was listed as a DNP — coach's decision. The story of the night, in this writer's opinion, was Minnesota's ball movement: McDaniels and Hyland combined for 15 assists, and the Timberwolves looked like a team that has figured out how to play together. Whether that holds over a full season is a different question, but on this Halloween night in Minnesota, they were the scariest team on the floor by a wide margin.