NBA: Chicago Bulls beat Minnesota Timberwolves in pre-season game in Canada
The sold-out crowd at the MTS Center in Winnipeg, Canada who came out on the 11th of October to see son of the soil Andrew Wiggins remind everyone why he was last season’s #1 overall pick must have been quite disappointed.
Last year’s Rookie of the Year made just nine points in twenty-four minutes as the Timberwolves went down 105-114 to the Bulls, reports Global News . The 20-year-old walked out to loud cheers from his native Canadian crowd and played the first seven minutes of the game, before heading to the bench. Wiggins returned briefly for the beginning of the second half and spent much of the last quarter on the floor.
In his time on the hardwood, he made 2 out of 8 shots and made his only three-point attempt. Said Wiggins after the game, “I just wanted to go out there and play hard. Fourth quarter I felt like I got in a better rhythm.” Timberwolves’ Point Guard Tyus Jones led the overall scoring with sixteen points at the end of the first half and finished with eighteen points and nine assists. Karl-Anthony Towns kept eyes glued to him with thirteen points and ten rebounds.
The Bulls were leading by double digits for most of the game, but Minnesota managed to cut the lead to 10 at half-time and closed the gap to 6 points with four minutes left in the game. But a slew of three pointers from the red jerseys would see them break away for the win.
Chicago Bulls’ Guard E’Twaun Moore led the scoring for his team with eighteen points and Kirk Hinrich contributed with thirteen. The Bulls made sixteen out of thiry-six three pointers and had thirty assists on forty-two shots scored.
But the highlight of the game was Doug McDermott, who seems like he will live up to the unrealised hype that surrounded him last season. The 2014 11th Overall Pick came off the bench to score sixteen points and shot four out of seven three-pointers. This takes his tally of threes in three pre-season games to eleven out of twenty-two. McDermott is the only member of the Bulls to score in doube digits in the pre-season games and averages eighteen points.
With this victory, the Bulls improve their pre-season win/loss record to 2-1 while Minnesota have lost both their games.