MINNEAPOLIS—Jimmy Butler is gone and so is Minnesota’s losing streak, after a victory over a Nets team devastated by a gruesome injury to leading scorer Caris LeVert.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 25 points and a season-high 21 rebounds, and the Timberwolves beat Brooklyn, 120-113, on Monday after finally trading Butler.
Jeff Teague returned from a six-game absence to score 24 points for Minnesota, which snapped a five-game losing streak.
“It’s good to get a win after the slide we’ve been having,” Towns said. “It doesn’t matter how it comes, pretty or ugly. As long as it ends up being a win, we’re good with that.”
The Nets lost LeVert to what appeared to be a severe right leg injury late in the first half that brought the entire crowd at Target Center to a silence.
LeVert spent several minutes on the court being attended by medical personnel. Nets players surrounded their injured teammate before he was wheeled off the court.
“I just think it’s a devastating blow for us, for him. That’s all I really want to say about this,” Brooklyn Coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Our thoughts should be with him and his recovery. And I really don’t want to talk about the game or anything else.”
The Timberwolves officially dealt Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, along with big man Justin Patton. The Wolves received Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Jerryd Bayless and a 2022 second-round pick in the trade.
Butler had asked for a trade earlier in the season but Coach and President of Basketball Operations Tom Thibodeau said on Monday that the team tried to remain patient in waiting for the right deal for the All-Star. Thibodeau refuted a report that Butler’s trade demand included sending him to only a handful of teams.
In the first game of the post-Butler era, Minnesota used a strong effort from the backcourt duo of Teague and Derrick Rose, who had 23 points in 39 minutes. Teague was aggressive on offense for Minnesota in his first game since October 29.
“We needed the downhill play and the attack,” Thibodeau said. “I thought he and Derrick put a lot of pressure on them.”
A former first-round pick in his third season, LeVert was averaging a team-high 19 points entering the game. He had 10 points, five rebounds and four assists before suffering the injury with just a few seconds remaining before halftime.
LeVert was taken to a hospital for further evaluation. Players from around the league tweeted out their support for LeVert shortly after the injury occurred.
“There were really just no words,” said Nets forward Joe Harris. “We didn’t talk even when we came in at halftime. There’s nothing really to be said. You could just feel it, the emotions from everybody. Guys were crying coming in, it was really that horrific just to see.”
D’Angelo Russell made a career-high nine three-pointers and scored 31 points for the Nets, who shot a season-worst 39.6 percent from the field.
Neither team led by more than five points until late in the third quarter, when Gorgui Dieng’s three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Teague extended Minnesota’s advantage to 10 points. Brooklyn cut it to, 97-96, early in the fourth before the Wolves pulled away.
Minnesota overcame a season-high 23 turnovers.
WARRIORS FALL IN O.T.
IN Los Angeles Lou Williams couldn’t hit a lick in regulation, so of course he had the ball in crunch time.
The Los Angeles Clippers wouldn’t have it any other way.
Williams scored the Clippers’ final 10 points in overtime after they blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, and they hung on Monday night to beat the Golden State Warriors at home for the first time in nearly four years, 121-116.
Williams recovered after shooting three of 16 in regulation, when the Clippers were scoreless over the final 5:15, while the Warriors ran off 11 straight points to force overtime tied at 106-all.
“There would be no point for me to be on the floor if I didn’t have confidence,” said Williams, who finished with 25 points.
Montrezl Harrell added 23 points off the bench and rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 18.
“It’s not about the run they go on,” Harrell said. “It’s about how we handle it. We stayed after it and kept going after them.”
The Clippers snapped a seven-game skid against the Warriors at Staples Center, where they last won on December 25, 2014.
“Unfortunately we lost, but we’ll see them again at least three more times and that’ll be different,” Klay Thompson said.
Kevin Durant had 33 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for the Warriors before fouling out with 3:46 left in the extra session. Thompson added 31 points, but was just five of 16 on three-pointers on a night without injured fellow Splash Brother Stephen Curry.
“Everything changes without Steph,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s one of the best offensive players in the history of the game so you take him out and they don’t have to worry about as much.”
Golden State lost for just the third time in 14 games.
The starless Clippers improved to 6-1 at home.
Thompson’s three-pointer tied it 116-all in overtime, interrupting Williams’s run of 10 straight points for the Clippers.
Image credits: AP