There were 29.5 seconds left in a tie game with Toronto on Wednesday when Lance Stephenson inbounded the ball to Timberwolves guard Tyus Jones.
Jones dribbled toward the top of the key, then passed to Andrew Wiggins, who was guarded by DeMarre Carroll. Toronto center Jonas Valanciunas came to help as Wiggins dribbled toward the corner. Then DeMar DeRozan came from the baseline to help as Wiggins turned the corner. Wiggins, in traffic, rose up and ….
Didn't shoot.
Instead he passed back to the top of the key to a wide-open Jones, whose three-pointer put the Timberwolves ahead for good in the 112-109 victory.
"Wigs trusted me, making the pass,'' Jones said.
Or, perhaps, Wiggins is, more and more, trusting himself to make the right play.
Wiggins is, and likely will continue to be, the Wolves go-to guy at crunch time. Coach Tom Thibodeau likes the ball in Wiggins' hands in those situations. And he had success there. He hit the game-winning jumper as time expired in Minnesota's victory in Phoenix on Jan. 24. Six days later his late jumper tied the score and forced overtime in the Wolves' victory over Orlando.
But Wiggins also missed two jumpers late in a loss to Miami on Monday, including a contested jumper at the buzzer that would have tied the score. It was interesting, then, that just two days later, in a similar situation, surrounded by defenders — by the time Wiggins jumped, four of five Raptors defenders were on his side of the court — he passed the ball.
