WINNIPEG – It was clear by the cheering from the sold out crowd at MTS Centre that Canadian Andrew Wiggins was the player most fans came out to see, but Wiggins didn’t exactly deliver finishing the pre-season game with just nine points in the Minnesota Timberwolves 114-105 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bulls.
Wiggins, 20, started the game and played the first 7 minutes. He re-entered the game at the start of the 2nd half and then returned to play much of the 4th quarter. In 24 minutes on the floor the 2014 first overall draft pick went just 2 for 8 from the field and made his one and only three point attempt.
“I just wanted to go out there and play hard.” Wiggins said. “Fourth quarter I felt like I got in a better rhythm.”
Minnesota fell behind early in the game and nearing the midway point of the first quarter the T-Wolves had more fouls with three, than points after making just the one basket. Tyus Jones led all players with 16 points in the first half and finished the game with 18 points.
The Bulls had double digit leads for most of the game but Minnesota closed the gap in 4th to get within 6 points, but the Bulls made a number of clutch three pointers down the stretch to lock up a 9 point victory.
“We still got a lot of work ahead.” Timberwolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell said. “But looking at the positives we did a lot of good things. We just kinda get our young guys, we got to come out to a better start defensively.”
Chicago was led by E’Twaun Moore who had a team high 18 points. The Bulls improve to 2-1 for the pre-season while the Timberwolves drop to 0-2.
15,294 people were in attendance for the second game of the four game NBA Canada Series.
WATCH: Post game interviews with Sam Mitchell and Andrew Wiggins
Comments