Timberwolves followers became so convinced the franchise had entered another train-wreck period in the opening days of the season that they are having a difficult time leaving Target Center in a jovial mood, even after one of the more-impressive efforts seen around here since 2004.
The San Antonio Spurs came to town for the fourth game of a Midwest road trip, in which they had won at Indiana and Chicago and lost narrowly at Milwaukee. It was their third game in four days, and yet there was no reason to suspect the Wolves would be able to discourage Gregg Popovich's Spurs almost from the get-go.
This is season No. 30 for the Wolves, and they were 29-87 all-time vs. the Spurs, including three losses in four games dating to the start of 2017-18 — a season in which the Wolves returned to the playoffs for the first time since the aforementioned 2004.
The Wolves outscored San Antonio 29-9 in the second quarter for a 57-34 halftime lead, and made it climb to 48-points — 119-71 — with five minutes remaining. The largest lead at any point in Wolves' history had been 50 points, and the Spurs avoided topping that deficit by outscoring the Wolves 18-9 in those last five minutes.
Timberwolves 128, Spurs 89.
"Nobody knew we were going to beat Spurs like that,'' said Josh Okogie, who entered with 10:22 left and scored 12 points, going 3-for-4 on three-pointers.
And the productive appearance of the rookie was the reason the stragglers in the small crowd announced at 11,023 could not go home content, even with a 40-point victory over Pop's Spurs, even with a fourth straight victory that brought the previously discombobulated Wolves back to .500 at 11-11.
Twitter followers have been offering bitter complaints about Okogie's permanency on the bench, as coach Tom Thibodeau has stuck with a nine-player rotation of veterans in the push to get back to even after the 4-9, pretrade hole.