West Notes: Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kings, Grizzlies

Timberwolves

Big man Karl-Anthony Towns and the Timberwolves have been as good as ever as the season rolls along, with Towns scoring 23 of 28 points in the first half in Tuesday’s road win over the Magic.

“I just took what the defense gave me, taking the three when it was open and just shooting it,” Towns said. “The first shot of the game was me in the corner and (the defense) didn’t decide to come. (Anthony Edwards) made a great pass in the corner.”

• Minnesota led 33-16 after the first quarter. “I thought it was our best start of the season,” center Rudy Gobert said. “The ball pressure, the focus, the energy, the urgency from the first play of the game was at a high level.”
• In case you missed it, Towns delivered high praise to retiring guard Ricky Rubio. You can read that full post here.

Kings

Coach Mike Brown was clearly pleased with his team’s 131-110 road win over the lowly Pistons on Tuesday.

“I thought our defense was great after the first quarter — we gave up 47 points in the first and only 45 in the entire second half,” Brown told reporters. “Offensively, I think we were really good as well. We had 39 assists on 54 buckets. That’s big time.”

The Kings were coming off a blowout home loss themselves, to the Pelicans, on Sunday.

“I don’t think there’s anything we need to change,” forward Keegan Murray said. “We played five bad quarters, but once we got out of that mindset, we did a good job. We just need to play four quarters at that level to be a really good team.”

Grizzlies

Somehow, someway, the injury-riddled Grizzlies raced to a 120-103 road win over the Mavericks on Tuesday.

“It was awesome. I’m so proud of the group, obviously, with everything that has transpired in the last 24 hours,” coach Taylor Jenkins said. “This is one of the most impressive team wins of the season. Our guys came out and played to our standard and with a lot of joy. It was awesome just how they rallied together.”

• The Grizzlies (14-23) are 2-0 since it was revealed star guard Ja Morant would miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury. Morant is undergoing surgery on the shoulder.
• The road team has won each of the four games between the Grizzlies and Mavs this season.