SAN ANTONIO – At age 32, Timberwolves veteran forward Taj Gibson is 70 games into a season in which he is — by nearly five — averaging more minutes played per game than in any of his previous 10 NBA seasons.
With the playoffs fast approaching and the Wolves in the midst of qualifying for them for the first time since Gibson was in high-school, he said he feels no effects from playing 33.6 minutes a game.
"I'm good, I'm good," Gibson said. "I take care of my body. I'm athletic still. I lift every day. I'm not worried about the minutes."
Until this season, Gibson had never averaged more than the 28.7 minutes he played for coach Tom Thibodeau and the Chicago Bulls in a 2013-14 season when he played all 82 games and came off the bench in 74 of those.
"In Chicago, we were so deep, he didn't have to play as many," Thibodeau said of Gibson's minutes. "He finished games. He really was a starter in Chicago. So to me, if you're asking a starter to play 32, 33 minutes, that shouldn't be too much, no matter the age."
The Wolves' second-leading rebounder at 7.2 a game, Gibson went through a recent stretch where he had four rebounds three times and five the other and might have showed some fatigue in those four games when the Wolves went 1-3.
Then he produced an 11-point, 13-rebound double-double in a crucial home victory over Golden State and a 10/8 game in Tuesday's victory at Washington. He had eight points and four rebounds in 33 minutes Saturday night. Going into Saturday night, he was shooting 64.9 percent (61-for-94) from the field in his past 10 games.
When asked about Gibson's age and minutes played, Thibodeau said, "If he needs rest, we'll give him rest. But he's in great shape, and he has always been in great shape. When you watch the way he plays, it tells you a lot about who he is."
