New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry hoped to cobble together just enough of a lineup Friday to compete against the Timberwolves at Target Center.
Instead, he found eight players healthy and present enough to thump the Wolves for a second time this season, 122-106.
The first time these teams played this season, the Pelicans beat the Wolves 117-96 after star forward Anthony Davis scored 45 points in New Orleans in November.
Bringing a 20-33 record identical to the Wolves’ record to Target Center, the Pelicans played the game missing five players to either injury or absence after they had lost four of their last five games.
Starter Terrence Jones didn’t play because of a right thumb sprain. Key reserves Tyreke Evans (ankle sprain) and E’Twaun Moore (personal reasons) also did not play while big man Alexis Ajinca (personal reasons) and Quincy Pondexter (knee) didn’t play, either.
“We have some guys who are probable, but it doesn’t look real positive,” Gentry said before the game. “We’ll have enough to play and as long as we have enough to play, we’ll have to piece it together and put them out there and try to find a way to win the game.” Anthony Soufflé, Star Tribune Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns drove to the basket as New Orleans forward Donatas Motiejunas defended during the first half Friday night.
That they certainly did on a night when New Orleans trailed by as many as 15 points after the first quarter and led by as many as 21 in the fourth.
This time, Davis scored a mere 42 points and the Pelicans’ backcourt of veteran Jrue Holiday and rookie Buddy Hield combined to score 42 points.
It was Davis’ 25th game of 30 or more points this season.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 36 points and Andrew Wiggins added 29 for the Wolves.
Meanwhile, Wolves rookie point guard Kris Dunn returned to action for the first time since last week’s game at Cleveland. He missed four consecutive games because of a sore hand injured when he rose to block a shot against Orlando a week ago Monday and landed hard on it.
Dunn picked up three fast fouls in just five minutes played during Friday’s first half and was replaced by starter Ricky Rubio.
Even though he played just those first five minutes, fellow backup Tyus Jones went back to the bench and waited for his next chance until the fourth quarter, when he entered the game and played alongside Dunn while the Wolves trailed by double digits.
Jones made a clutch three-point shot late in Wednesday’s comeback 115-113 victory over Toronto.
The first time these teams played, Wiggins and Towns shot 6-for-30 from the field – Wiggins 2 for 19 all by himself – and combined for 22 points while Davis scored 45 points all by himself in the Pelicans’ 21-point victory in New Orleans the night before Thanksgiving.
This time, Towns made 7 of 9 shots from the field and scored 19 points in the first quarter alone while his team ran out to that early 14-point lead.
But this time, Davis matched Towns shot for shot and then some.
He made 10 of his first 11 shots by halftime and scored 36 of his 42 points through the third quarter.
By then, the Pelicans had turned that early deficit into a 100-89 lead by early in the fourth quarter, thanks mainly to Davis’ scoring and that Holiday/Hield backcourt.
The Wolves once again let a double-digit slip Friday, when a 40-28 lead after the first quarter and a 46-31 lead early in the second quarter up and vanished.
The Pelicans used an 18-3 run to turn that 15-point deficit into a score tie at 49 with when backup forward Donatas Motiejunas – selected with the 20th overall pick in 2011 that the Wolves traded away and signed by New Orleans last month as a free agent after the Wolves also pursued him – scored on a putback that tied the game with 5 ½ minutes left before halftime.
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