Chris Finch said it best afterward: the Timberwolves got punked.
San Antonio beat Minnesota 133-95 in Game 2, evening the series at 1-1 and handing the Wolves the worst postseason loss in franchise history. One game after Minnesota escaped with a two-point win, the Spurs responded like a team that had spent 48 hours being personally offended.
Victor Wembanyama had 19 points and 15 rebounds, but this was not just another alien box score.
@opencourtVictor Wembanyama had 19 points, 15 boards and 2 blocks in only 26 minutes… AND SOME AMAZING HIGHLIGHTS 🔥🔥🔥♬ original sound – OpenCourt-Basketball
It was a full-team avalanche. Stephon Castle led San Antonio with 21 points, De’Aaron Fox bounced back with 16, and Julian Champagnie turned the third quarter into a personal shooting drill, hitting four threes in the period.
Minnesota, meanwhile, looked like it had been dropped into the wrong building. The Wolves scored just 35 points in the first half, their lowest first-half total of the season, and no Timberwolves player scored more than 12 points. Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels and Terrence Shannon Jr. all landed on that number, which is a very strange way for an offense to say it had no main character.
The Spurs did not merely win. They cleaned up the mess from Game 1, ran harder, defended sharper and made Minnesota look like the team still waiting for the series to start. Game 3 now moves to Minneapolis, and suddenly this matchup has a new temperature.
