Timberwolves feel nothing but positive vibes in rout of Lakers

After the last few weeks in Timberwolves land, the team needed a night like Monday’s 109-80 victory over the Lakers.

No team meetings, no bad body language, no concerning postgame quotes from the franchise leader Anthony Edwards. When Rudy Gobert faked a dribble handoff and went in for a dunk during the fourth quarter, the bench erupted in smiles and laughter. It was Gobert’s fourth of five dunks of the night on his way to 17 points and 12 rebounds. Edwards was the first off the bench to greet him as the Lakers called timeout, and Edwards could just soak in the fourth quarter on a night he scored just eight points on 3-for-13.

“It’s fun when you win,” coach Chris Finch said. “Hope this is the start of a good run again for us, but it’s up to us to keep doing it. Guys are in a good place mentally. A lot of things have been said in the locker room with great purpose and meaning, and guys have taken it to heart and still maintained a good camaraderie, a good spirit and positivity around all that.”

The schedule helped the Wolves out; they played on two days rest while the Lakers had played in Utah on Sunday. But the Wolves held their opponent to under 100 points for the second consecutive game while their bench spearheaded a crisp night on the offensive end.

“We have great competitors in this locker room, so when you lose, obviously you get frustrated,” Gobert said. “But it’s true that you always gotta have perspective and never lose that perspective that it’s basketball. We dedicate our lives to it, but it’s still basketball. We have to have fun when we get on the court.”

Julius Randle led the team in scoring with 18 but it was the bench that shined through and buried the Lakers when they were on the floor. Naz Reid had 15 points, as did Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Donte DiVincenzo had one of his best games since coming to Minnesota with 11 points and nine assists. He made a concerted effort to help the Wolves get out in transition, and he hit multiple teammates down the floor for easy buckets.

The Wolves led in fast-break points 20-7. Their defense looked more like the unit that took the floor a season ago than the one from the first two months of the season. LeBron James struggled to 10 points on 4-for-16 shooting, and Anthony Davis had 12 points on 4-for-14. Former Wolves guard D’Angelo Russell led the Lakers with 20 points and declined to speak to the media after the game.

“We’re building that trust factor,” DiVincenzo said. “I mean, Rudy’s been … amazing. He has been. Knowing that when he’s going, we got his back, and then we we’re rotating out of it, and we’re really good when we’re flying around. You guard the first action, and now we’re guarding the second, the third, the fourth action.”

The Wolves had been in a number of close games recently as well, games that came down to clutch-time execution on both ends of the floor. Their offense had been slumping in that department, but that wasn’t needed Monday.

Overall, their offense played one of its most “intelligent” nights of the season, Finch said.

“We did a good job of handling their switches,” Finch said. “Different groups had different puzzles to solve, but I thought we did a good job of working through it. But we’ve got to keep stacking them on top of each other.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 109, Lakers 80

The Wolves now head to the West Coast for three games, one against the Clippers and two against the Warriors. Through 20 games, they’re back at .500, 10-0. About a quarter of their season is in the rearview. So are, they hope, some of the bad vibes that accompanied them along the way.

“I said this at practice other day, we’re not worried about what other people are saying,” DiVincenzo said. “We leave everything up to all you guys to decide about what works, what doesn’t work. We’re focused on ourselves and staying together. Stack a few wins, and everybody’s energy changes. So we just got to stay with it. When rough patches hit, and we hit a big rough patch early, and we’re just staying together.”