Wolves get Mitchell's point, defeat Brooklyn

If it was purpose that interim coach Sam Mitchell demanded Friday night, then his Timberwolves obliged him with Saturday's record-setting 132-118 victory over shorthanded and road-weary Brooklyn at Target Center.

One night after Mitchell benched some of his starters for most of Friday's second half, the Wolves played with such a purpose Saturday.

By doing so, they also set a franchise record for field-goal percentage by shooting 68.4 percent, set a season high for points scored and tied one for assists with 36, including 14 in the first quarter alone.

Consider this about a team that struggles so with shooting: No NBA team has shot so efficiently in a regular-season game since March 1998, when the Los Angeles Clippers made 69.3 of their shots.

"Man, it felt like every time we looked up and one of our guys let the ball go, it was going in," Mitchell said.

Wolves rookie Karl-Anthony Towns was 2 years old the last time an NBA team shot so well. "That was a long time ago," Towns said.

Saturday's performance was seemingly so far away from Friday's non-performance just 24 hours earlier, when Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Ricky Rubio, to name three of five starters, all were benched for most of the second half in a loss at Milwaukee.

This time, they met a Nets team that rested starters Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young at the end of a long seven-game road trip that began Feb. 23 at Portland. Brooklyn went 3-4 on the trip and rested the two starters a night after winning at Denver on a Lopez tip-in in overtime.

The Wolves led by as many as 23 points in the third quarter before they repelled the Nets for good after Brooklyn pulled within eight with 7 minutes, 44 seconds remaining.

"I think it fueled us," Towns said about Friday's game. "It was something we had to look ourselves in the mirror about."

The Wolves started Saturday's game by moving the ball better — at least statistically — than any Wolves team since April 2003. Their 14 first-quarter assists were the team's most in a quarter since they 15 in the third quarter against Chicago nearly 13 years ago. Their 36 assists tied the season high they previously set in February against the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Towns' 28 points (on 8-for-12 shooting) and seven assists were testament to both the Wolves' shooting efficiency and the way they moved ball. Wiggins added 26 points and LaVine 21, and Rubio approached a triple-double with a 16 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.

Mitchell has pushed his team to play at a faster pace these past two months, knowing they'd probably give up something on the defensive end. He said the Wolves defense "has slipped too much" and before Saturday's game added, "I like our team better when we were struggling to score, but we dug in and we were tough because we played better defense."

Yet, he seemed all right Saturday with a team that shot 68 percent, scored 37 points by first quarter's end, 68 by halftime and that season-high 132 by game's end, even if Brooklyn scored 118 in turn.

"If we're going to score 132 points, I'll take it every night," Mitchell said. "I think we'll be OK if we do that."