The Washington Wizards play host to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday at Capital One Arena. The Wizards played at Boston on Sunday, while the Timberwolves hosted Golden State. Minnesota was on a five-game winning streak before dropping Friday's game to Charlotte. Washington dropped consecutive games at Miami but was 6-4 in its past ten before squaring off with the Celtics. Tip-off from America's capital city is at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Minnesota squandered a ten-point halftime lead at Charlotte, shooting just 22 percent from three-point range in the loss. A lack of focus heavily contributed to the Hornets' rally, the type of effort Minny fans were not accustomed to seeing from the team recently.
“We just came out with not much energy or focus and not a lot of purpose,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said about the team's second-half meltdown. “We haven’t done that for a long time. It was kind of our habit at the beginning of the season. Tonight, we just didn’t have it in the third quarter for whatever reason.”
It was the kind of loss that can set a team back, as the Hornets played without LaMelo Ball, Gordon Hayward, and Dennis Smith Jr., but the T-Wolves were still overmatched, as Kelly Oubre contributed 28 points and three steals, and Terry Rozier added 22 points and eight dimes. Karl-Anth ony Towns was 1-for-11 from long range, while D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards shot a combined 7-for-20 from deep.
This season, Minnesota is 6th in field goal percentage (48.3%), and 14th in points scored (114.0 per game). They're led by Edwards' 22.1 PPG. The defense is allowing 113.5 points per contest but is holding their opponents to 44.4 percent from the floor, the second-lowest opponent shooting percentage in the NBA. Minnesota is averaging 44.4 rebounds per game, but the opposition is grabbing 44.8 boards each game.
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