The Wolves and Lakers go at again tonight, for the second time in six days.
Last Friday in L.A., the Wolves lost that 108-100 lead with fewer than 2 1/2 minutes and lost the game in overtime, 130-119.
"It's definitely something I'm thinking about," said Wolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns, whose 25 points and 13 rebounds in that game weren't enough. "We let one slide. We've got to come back tonight and execute the way we need to do. That's the way the NBA works. You always have games back-to-back a lot. We're very fortunate we get to work on our mistakes and get to play the same team again. We're going to go out there and try our best to get a win."
The Lakers had lost 14 of 15 games before last Friday's victory, but they surfed on some of the emotion after Shaquille O'Neal's statue was unveiled outside Staples Center late that afternoon.
O'Neal made quite an entrance when he and his entourage came through an concourse 25 rows up and made their way down to seats courtside during a first-half timeout.
"I felt it," Wolves rookie Kris Dunn said. "I just turned around and saw the big guy walking down the bleachers. He came literally from the top of the bleachers. I'm like what, `What?' Nobody's supposed to do that, but whatever. Everybody rose up and clapped for him. That's special, you know, for somebody who played in the NBA for fans to react like that. It definitely brought the energy to another level and brought their play to another level."
If two games is six days isn't enough...these two teams complete the season series a week from Sunday in L.A. That's three games in 16 days, if you're keeping count at home.
"There's always a little extra motivation when you're playing a team this close to each other in games," Lakers coach Luke Walton said after his team's morning shoot at Target Center this morning. "And the team that lost obviously will have a little something extra. It's a fun matchup for a lot of players here being that these are two young teams and most of them know each other and played against each other."
