Beating Golden State has Wolves dreaming big

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – You can look at the Timberwolves' startling 124-117 overtime victory at Golden State late Tuesday night one of two ways.

Either it came inexplicably for a team that has little reason left to play in a disappearing season that now has just four games left.

Or as young Wolves stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins see it, it came purposely early for a team now aimed at a season still six months away.

"It means a lot to us," Wiggins said. "It's a process. It's not just one game for us. This game is leading into the future. This leads into all the games next year. It's a big win for us."

Of course, you probably could call Wiggins delusional. TNT play-by-play guy Marv Albert did when Wiggins did a postgame interview with the network after Tuesday's victory delivered the Warriors their second home loss in five days after they had gone 54 regular-season games over two seasons without one. It also denied Golden State its 70th victory of the season.

In that interview, Wiggins said, "If we want to make the playoffs, this is a team we're going to have to beat in the playoffs, to win the playoffs" and he made other comments that made it clear he and his teammates are aimed toward a big future.

Apparently looking through a much shorter lens, Albert responded on air by saying, "We vote that the delusional interview of the season."

When asked if Tuesday's comeback from a 17-point, third-quarter deficit shows the promise for next season, Towns said after the game, "I think so, most definitively. For us to be the playoff team that we want to be and for us to be the championship team we see ourselves being in the future, we have to beat teams like this. And today we took a major step forward."

Wiggins scored 27 of his 32 points after halftime and carried the Wolves to overtime after their reserves — particularly point guard Tyus Jones and forward Shabazz Muhammad and his career-high 35 points — got them back into the game.

Wiggins' spinning layup with 19.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter forced overtime after the Wolves had trailed by six points with fewer than four minutes yet.

It rendered moot an officials' video review with 1:09 left that overturned Towns' layup and potentially tying three-point play and ruled Golden State superstar Stephen Curry had drawn a charging call because Curry's feet were outside the restricted area under the basket.

The league's second-day review of the game's final two minutes and overtime ruled the video review was the correct call.

Two missed free throws — one by Wiggins, the other by Towns — in the final minute couldn't keep the Wolves from a victory that Towns called his team's best execution of a game plan and "probably the best win we've had all year" even if he didn't deem it their best performance of the season.

"We're playing hard, we're finding ourselves," said Wiggins, whose team continues the season's final road trip Thursday at Sacramento. "We're figuring out what works and what doesn't work. This win will help us."

Tuesday's victory also left Wiggins optimistic about next season that apparently already has started and wishful about the one still about to end.

"I wish we were clicking like this at the beginning of the year," Wiggins said.