Timberwolves guard Jeff Teague steps up his game with Andrew Wiggins out again

It has been a rough season for Jeff Teague, to say the least. The former All-Star has had multiple injuries that have caused him to miss 23 games this season.

But he picked a good time to have perhaps his best game of the year on Thursday.

Teague turned in a vintage performance, and the Wolves needed every bit of it in their 121-111 victory over the Rockets.

Teague had 27 points on 11 of 16 shooting to go along with 12 assists. The 27 points tied Teague's highest scoring output of the season. He outplayed his counterpart Chris Paul, who went four of 13 for 16 points.

Teague said with Andrew Wiggins out because of an illness, he wanted to be more aggressive.

"That was really it," Teague said. "I've seen some things I liked on the floor and just tried to be aggressive."

Teague came up big for the Wolves late in the game just as Rockets guard James Harden was catching fire. He hit three-pointers on three consecutive possessions for Houston, but Teague answered Harden twice with a fadeaway and a three of his own.

"That's another threat, big time threat we have on our team that's available now," center Karl-Anthony Towns said. "When you have a person like Jeff Teague with the ball, any given moment he could break the play and he's able to go score three or two or make a highlight play. His ability to get in the paint opens up the floor for all of us."

Covington spoke after practice Tuesday for the first time in nearly a month and said his recovery has been going "really well" but didn't have a timetable for when he might be back. Covington has been participating in parts of practices, like some shooting drills.

"You can't get discouraged because the minute you start getting discouraged that's when you're not focused in on what you're doing," Covington said. "Just try and get back or your recovery time is a lot longer. So, mentally you just got to be locked in. It is frustrating not being out there for your guys competing. But you got to make sure you want to be out there fully healthy."

Covington said he sought counsel from others who have dealt with similar injuries on how to deal with handle the rehabilitation.

"People just tell me that it's something you really just got to lock in and do your recovery on," Covington said. "It's no real timetable because they're so unfortunate and so nagging. They're weird."