The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, 113-105.
Don’t look now, but the Portland Trail Blazers might be back on track. Coming out on top in their dogfight with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the win is Portland’s second in a row. The final score: 113-105.
Rip City improves to 15-11, while Minnesota drops to 13-13 on the year.
The Blazers led most of the way throughout the second and third on the back of solid performances and good defense, but a Timberwolves run (along with an incredible Josh Okogie off-the-back-board play) in the second half made things interesting down the stretch.
But the Blazers didn’t whither. They stayed strong, stuck to their defense, and relied on their dynamic backcourt to put the game away in the clutch.
Here are five takeaways from Blazers vs. Timberwolves.
Longer second-unit with Layman in and Curry out
After a milestone night from Jake Layman against the Phoenix Suns in which he scored a career-high 24 points, Head Coach Terry Stotts elected to give him minutes that used to belong to Seth Curry.
Although Curry has been efficient from deep (44.2%), he has yet to make a real impact in a Blazers uniform. He did not see the floor tonight.
Layman did not score like he did previously – only six points on 2-10 shooting – but he provided Portland with something else: length. With him, Evan Turner, Nik Stauskas, Zach Collins, and Meyers Leonard, the whole team looked bigger and tougher on both ends.
It will be interesting to see if Stotts liked this look enough to keep giving Layman minutes at the cost of sitting Curry. Layman’s offensive performance did him no favors in retaining his spot in the rotation, but his height, cohesion, and aggressiveness may have.