Zion Williamson, Pelicans outmuscle Timberwolves

Williamson scored 27 and New Orleans outrebounded Minnesota 41-28 Wednesday.

During Monday’s loss to the New York Knicks, the Timberwolves were outrebounded, had a rough second quarter and struggled to contain Knicks star Julius Randle.

It was a similar recipe in a 117-106 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans at Target Center on Wednesday, the first time Minnesota has lost consecutive games all season.

Zion Williamson had the Pelicans going early on his way to 27 points, six assists and four rebounds on the night. New Orleans outscored Minnesota 32-22 in the second quarter. And the Timberwolves were outrebounded 22-11 in the first half and 41-28 for the game Wednesday.

"Really only (Edwards) and (Anderson) when matched up on (Williamson) did a good enough job of closing the space down," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters postgame. "We talked about being more physical, taking away his runway, meeting him at the rim with multiple bodies and we were super reluctant to do that." 

The one big difference between Monday’s loss to the Knicks and Wednesday’s loss to the Pelicans was that the Wolves (24-9) never mounted a comeback. Minnesota faced a 12-point halftime deficit against the Knicks on Monday that rose as high as 22 points in the third quarter. They lost by just six after a furious second-half rally sparked by an excellent showing off the bench from Jordan McLaughlin.

Finch said after Monday’s game that McLaughlin might just be taking a spot in the rotation with the way he had played in short minutes, and he made good on those comments, subbing in McLaughlin in late in the first quarter. McLaughlin played 17 minutes in all and had three points, four assists and three rebounds.

On Wednesday, Minnesota trailed the Pelicans (21-14) by 13 points at the half, only this time the Wolves weren’t ever able to make a run. They couldn’t seem to buy a basket for stretches of the game, shooting just 45.1% from the field and 32.3% from 3-point range on the night.

The Pelicans, meanwhile, hit at clips of 55.6% from the field and 46.2% from 3. They had four players finish in double figures, with CJ McCollum scoring 24, Brandon Ingram having 19 and Herbert Jones adding 16 to supplement Williamson's 27. 

The Wolves, on the other hand, found little offense outside of Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 35 and 22 points, respectively. 

"We got to get our desperation back, that's first of all. We gotta play better, we haven't played with a lot of pop and purpose since we went to Sacramento (on Dec. 23)," Finch said. "We've kinda been, maybe in second gear since then. So this performance had been coming for a while in the sense that we just hadn't been very sharp. 

"And yeah, I mean, there's going to be lots of waves of adversity, there's adversity in the game, there's adversity in the season and this is just another one, but we got to fix it. We gotta get our physicality back, gotta get our defense back, gotta get our identity back, which is like being more physical, being bigger." 

Final key stats

• Anthony Edwards: 35 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block (6 turnovers)
• Karl-Anthony Towns: 22 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
• Jaden McDaniels: 11 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block
• Zion Williamson: 27 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block 
• CJ McCollum: 24 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 block
• Brandon Ingram: 19 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block
• Herbert Jones: 16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block